BridgeCircle

BridgeCircle Terms of Service

Last updated: October 13, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding contract between you and BridgeCircle Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business at 3545 Wilshire Boulevard, Apt 905, Los Angeles, CA 90010 (“BridgeCircle,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of the BridgeCircle websites (including bridgecircle.org), mobile applications, and related services (together, the “Service”).

PLEASE READ SECTION 16 (DISPUTE RESOLUTION; ARBITRATION; CLASS-ACTION WAIVER) CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES MOST DISPUTES TO BE RESOLVED BY BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, WAIVES YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS ACTIONS, AND IS SUBJECT TO YOUR RIGHT TO OPT OUT.

By creating an account, clicking to accept, or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and share personal information. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. What BridgeCircle Is

BridgeCircle is a verified community platform that connects members of participating schools, alumni networks, and other trusted organizations (each, a “Community”). Depending on your role and your Community’s settings, the Service lets you create a profile, browse a member directory, request help (“Asks”), offer help, connect with other members, exchange messages, and take part in Community events and communications. “Verified” means that access to each Community is limited to people the Community has invited or approved, or whose affiliation has been confirmed against Community-provided records or a Community email domain. It does not mean that BridgeCircle has confirmed any member’s identity or background, or the accuracy of what members post (see Section 15.2).

The Service is sold to schools and organizations (each, a “Customer” or “Community Administrator”) that make it available to their members. Your Community, not BridgeCircle, decides who is invited, who may join, and how certain Community features (such as events, News, and moderation) are configured. Your use may therefore also be subject to your Community’s own rules; where those conflict with these Terms as to BridgeCircle’s own obligations, these Terms control between you and BridgeCircle.

2. The Roles of BridgeCircle, Your Community, and You

BridgeCircle provides the software platform. Your Community controls its membership roster and certain administrative functions. These Terms govern the relationship between you (as an individual member or administrator using the Service) and BridgeCircle. The commercial relationship between BridgeCircle and a Customer is governed by a separate written agreement (an order form, subscription agreement, and/or data processing addendum), not by these Terms.

3. Eligibility and Age Requirements

3.1 Minimum age. The Service is not available to anyone under 16 years of age, and we do not knowingly permit anyone under 16 to create an account or use the Service. If you are under 16, do not use the Service.

3.2 Minors 16–17. The Service permits certain members who are 16 or 17 years old (“Teen Members”) to use a limited version of the Service, and only where their Community has enabled Teen access and any required consent has been obtained. For current students, eligibility is further limited to those enrolled in Grades 11–12 (or the Community’s equivalent). Teen Members’ access is restricted as described in Section 8.

3.3 Consent for Teen Members. A Teen Member may create an account only after (a) the Teen Member’s parent or legal guardian has reviewed and accepted these Terms, for themselves and on the Teen Member’s behalf, through the consent process we provide, or (b) the Community has obtained and documented that parent or guardian’s acceptance and consent as required by its agreement with BridgeCircle. A parent or guardian who accepts these Terms agrees to them both personally and on the Teen Member’s behalf, and is responsible for the Teen Member’s use of the Service. The Community remains responsible for obtaining any other consents required for a Teen Member’s participation and for the processing of the Teen Member’s personal information. See also the Privacy Policy.

3.4 Authority. If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.

4. Accounts and Security

4.1 Registration. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep it up to date. Some accounts are created from an invitation provided by your Community; your subsequent registration confirms your own agreement to these Terms.

4.2 Credentials. You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials and for all activity under your account. You agree to notify us promptly at security@bridgecircle.org of any unauthorized use. We are not liable for losses arising from your failure to protect your credentials.

4.3 One account. You may not maintain more than one account, share your account, or create an account for anyone else except as expressly permitted for Community Administrators.

5. License to Use the Service

Subject to these Terms, BridgeCircle grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial community-participation purposes (or, for Community Administrators, to administer your Community). All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

6. Your Content

6.1 Your Content. “Your Content” means anything you submit to or through the Service, including profile information, photos, biographies, resumes, Asks, connection requests, messages, event responses, and other materials.

6.2 License to BridgeCircle. You grant BridgeCircle a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, modify (for formatting and display), create derivative works from (for example, generating previews, summaries, or search indexes), publish, and display Your Content solely as needed to operate, provide, secure, and improve the Service (which does not include using Your Content to train or fine-tune generalized artificial-intelligence models) and as described in the Privacy Policy. This license ends when Your Content is deleted, except (a) for content shared with others who have not deleted it, (b) for residual copies in routine backups for a limited period, and (c) as required for legal, safety, audit, or moderation records.

6.3 Responsibility and rights. You represent that you own or have the necessary rights to Your Content and that it does not infringe or violate any third party’s rights or any law. You are solely responsible for Your Content.

6.4 Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feedback, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use it without restriction or obligation.

7. Acceptable Use / Community Rules

You agree not to, and not to allow anyone else to:

  • use the Service to harass, bully, threaten, defame, or harm any person, or to make unwanted contact after being asked to stop;
  • solicit, exploit, endanger, or sexualize a minor, or attempt to contact a minor for any improper purpose;
  • post or share content that is unlawful, obscene, hateful, discriminatory, fraudulent, or that infringes intellectual property or privacy rights;
  • misrepresent your identity, affiliation, or eligibility, or access a Community you are not authorized to join;
  • scrape, harvest, crawl, cache, or collect other members’ information, including the member directory, by automated or manual means, except through features we expressly provide;
  • use another member’s data other than for the community purpose for which it was shared;
  • send spam or unsolicited commercial or promotional messages;
  • probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of, or breach or circumvent, any security or authentication measure;
  • reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
  • introduce malware or interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service;
  • use the Service to build a competing product or to train a machine-learning model on other members’ data; or
  • use the Service in violation of these Terms, your Community’s rules, or applicable law.

We may investigate and take action for suspected violations, including removing content, limiting features, suspending or terminating accounts, and cooperating with law enforcement.

8. Teen Members: Restricted Access and Safety

8.1 Restricted features. Where a Community enables Teen access, Teen Members (16–17) may, by default, browse the member directory and submit Asks (requests for help). Teen Members may not offer help, receive push or marketing notifications, or access alumni-directed events, or news, except as a Community and applicable law may later permit.

8.2 Help and messaging flow. An Ask begins as a structured request. Direct messaging between a Teen Member and another member becomes available only after a helper accepts the Ask, and either participant may disable the conversation at any time.

8.3 Reporting. Anyone may report unsafe conduct or content to safety@bridgecircle.org. You can also report a member, message, or Ask, and block another member, using the in-app reporting and blocking tools. We may preserve and disclose information as needed to protect members and comply with law.

8.4 Interactions with Teen Members. Adult members may communicate with Teen Members only through the Ask flow described in Section 8.2 and only to provide the help requested. Adult members may not ask a Teen Member for personal contact information or social-media accounts, move the conversation off the Service, or arrange to meet a Teen Member in person except at a Community-sanctioned event. We may review reported conversations involving Teen Members and may suspend or remove any member who violates this Section.

9. Community-Provided Rosters and Invitations

Your Community may provide BridgeCircle with limited invitation information (such as email addresses and, where available, names, graduation years, and dates of birth) to invite prospective members. The Community is responsible for having the authority and lawful basis to share that information. Your later registration is governed by these Terms and does not retroactively authorize any earlier disclosure by your Community.

10. Third-Party Services and Sign-In

The Service integrates third-party services (for example, Google or LinkedIn sign-in and, where offered, profile import). Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies. What we receive depends on the permissions you grant. We are not responsible for third-party services, and their availability may change.

11. Fees

Access is generally purchased by your Community under a separate agreement. Unless a separate written agreement with you says otherwise, BridgeCircle does not charge individual members for the current Service. If we introduce member-paid features, we will present the applicable terms and pricing before you incur any charge.

12. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and trademarks (but excluding Your Content and third-party materials), is owned by BridgeCircle or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. Except for the license in Section 5, these Terms grant you no rights in our intellectual property. “BridgeCircle” and our logos may not be used without our prior written permission.

13. Copyright / DMCA

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice with the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to our designated agent, registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, at dmca@bridgecircle.org, or by mail to Copyright Agent, BridgeCircle Inc., 3545 Wilshire Boulevard, Apt 905, Los Angeles, CA 90010. We will respond expeditiously to valid notices by removing or disabling access to the material identified, and we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of members who are repeat infringers. If your content was removed and you believe that was the result of a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification containing the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) to the same agent.

14. Suspension and Termination

14.1 By you. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time, as described in the Privacy Policy.

14.2 By us. We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or the law, if required to protect members or the Service, if directed by your Community, or if your Community’s relationship with BridgeCircle ends.

14.3 Effect. On termination, your license ends and we may delete or retain Your Content as described in the Privacy Policy and applicable law. Sections that by their nature should survive (including Sections 6.2–6.4, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 22) survive termination.

15. Disclaimers

15.1 “As is.” THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

15.2 Members and content. Although access to each Community is limited as described in Section 1, BridgeCircle does not verify members’ identities, conduct background checks, or verify the accuracy of member content, and does not control how members behave. You interact with other members at your own risk. We are not a party to, and are not responsible for, interactions, help arrangements, or communications between members.

15.3 Availability. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

16. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration; Class-Action Waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY.

16.1 Informal resolution. Before starting a formal proceeding, you and BridgeCircle agree to try to resolve any dispute informally. The party raising the dispute must send the other a written notice describing the dispute and the relief requested (if you are sending it, to legal@bridgecircle.org, including your name and the email address associated with your account; if we are sending it, to the email address associated with your account), and the parties will then have 30 days to resolve it. All statutes of limitations and filing-fee deadlines are tolled during that 30-day period.

16.2 Binding arbitration. Except as provided below, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules & Procedures (or, for claims over $250,000, its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules & Procedures), applying its Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards where applicable, and seated in Los Angeles, California. You may choose to participate by video or telephone, or to have any in-person hearing held in the county where you live. BridgeCircle will pay all JAMS filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees above the filing fee you would pay to bring the claim in court, and will pay those fees when due, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. The arbitrator will decide all issues, except that a court will decide issues relating to the scope, validity, or enforceability of Sections 16.3 and 16.6. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section.

16.3 Class-action and jury waiver. You and BridgeCircle agree that each may bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative proceeding, and each waives any right to a jury trial. If you seek public injunctive relief (relief whose primary purpose and effect is to prohibit unlawful acts that threaten future injury to the general public), that request will be decided by a court in the venue specified in Section 17, and only after the arbitrator has decided your individual claims and remedies; the court action will be stayed until then. If a court finally decides that any part of this Section 16.3 is unenforceable as to a particular claim or form of relief, that claim or relief (and only that claim or relief) will be severed and decided in court after arbitration of all other claims, and in no event will it be arbitrated on a class, collective, or representative basis.

16.4 Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court for infringement, misappropriation, or misuse of intellectual property (including claims arising from unauthorized access to, or scraping of, the Service). Nothing in this Section 16 waives any right that cannot be waived under applicable law.

16.5 Opt-out. You may opt out of this Section 16 by sending written notice to legal@bridgecircle.org within 30 days of first accepting these Terms; opting out will not affect any other part of these Terms.

16.6 Mass arbitration. If 25 or more substantially similar demands for arbitration are filed against or by BridgeCircle by or with the assistance of the same or coordinated counsel or organizations, the demands will be administered under the JAMS Mass Arbitration Procedures and Guidelines then in effect. All statutes of limitations are tolled for demands while they are held in abeyance under those procedures.

16.7 Changes to this Section. If we change this Section 16 after you accept it, the change will not apply to any claim that was filed, or of which either party had notice, before the change took effect. You may reject the change by sending written notice to legal@bridgecircle.org within 30 days after the change takes effect, in which case the most recent version of this Section 16 that you accepted will continue to apply.

17. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 16, the exclusive venue for any permitted court action is the state and federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California, and you consent to their personal jurisdiction.

18. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (a) BRIDGECIRCLE AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES; AND (b) BRIDGECIRCLE’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (ii) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud, willful injury, gross negligence, or violation of law to the extent California Civil Code § 1668 or other applicable law prohibits it, or any right that cannot be waived under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

19. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will indemnify and hold harmless BridgeCircle and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to Your Content, your misuse of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right. This Section does not apply to conduct by an individual consumer to the extent such indemnity is unenforceable under applicable law.

20. Changes to the Service or Terms

We may modify the Service or these Terms. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will provide reasonable notice (for example, by in-app or email notice) and will post the updated Terms with a new “Last updated” date. Material changes will take effect no sooner than 30 days after we provide notice, except that changes needed to address new features or legal requirements may take effect immediately. Changes do not apply retroactively, and Section 16.7 governs changes to Section 16. Your continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service.

21. General

21.1 Entire agreement. These Terms and the documents referenced in them are the entire agreement between you and BridgeCircle regarding the Service and supersede prior agreements on that subject.

21.2 Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, it will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest remains in effect.

21.3 No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.

21.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

21.5 Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

21.6 Notices. We may provide notices to you through the Service or by email. You may contact us at legal@bridgecircle.org.

21.7 Relationship. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment is created by these Terms.

22. Mobile App Store Terms

22.1 Apple. If you download our app from the Apple App Store, the following also applies: (a) these Terms are between you and BridgeCircle only, not Apple Inc. (“Apple”), and BridgeCircle, not Apple, is solely responsible for the app and its content; (b) your license to use the app is limited to use on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions; (c) Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for the app; (d) if the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) for the app; to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the app, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty are BridgeCircle’s responsibility, to the extent not disclaimed in these Terms; (e) BridgeCircle, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third party relating to the app or your possession and use of it, including product-liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer-protection, privacy, or similar laws; (f) if a third party claims that the app or your possession and use of it infringes that third party’s intellectual-property rights, BridgeCircle, not Apple, is solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of that claim; (g) you represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties; (h) you must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the app; and (i) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary. Questions, complaints, or claims about the app should be directed to BridgeCircle using the contact information in Section 23.

22.2 Other app stores. If you download our app from Google Play or another app store, your use of the app is also subject to that store’s terms, which do not change these Terms as between you and BridgeCircle.

23. Contact

BridgeCircle Inc. 3545 Wilshire Boulevard, Apt 905, Los Angeles, CA 90010 legal@bridgecircle.org