Sponsorship and Independence Policy =================================== Tillyard. Version 1.2. In effect from October 21, 2026. Fingerprint of this text (SHA-256): a1f77e1001e52cd94fdf49fccd6229370c777d63a98847e3ce73df5cead60620 This version: https://tillyard.org/policies/sponsorship-and-independence-policy/v/1.2 Tillyard needs money to run. One way it may raise some is by letting an organization pay to be named as a sponsor. This policy says what that payment gets a sponsor, which is very little, and what it can never get: a say in decisions, access to members, or information about them. - There are no sponsors today. This policy sets the rules before the first one. - A sponsor pays Tillyard and, in return, is named in text only as a sponsor. It may also have a sponsor account that shows what it supports (section 7.7). That is all a sponsor gets. - A sponsor never gets a say over editorial decisions, readings, scores, titles, records, moderation, appeals or anyone's standing. - A sponsor never gets access to members or to information about them: no lists, no contact details, no entries, no messages and no way to recruit through us. - Anything sponsored is labelled "Sponsored by" in words, on the thing itself, before anyone takes part in it. If there is no label, nobody paid. - Every sponsor is named on a public list in this policy. No organization can pay us quietly. - Some sponsors we do not accept, among them services that write students' work for them, outlets that charge authors to publish, lenders, gambling, tobacco, political campaigns and anyone who wants member data. - We may refuse any sponsor and return any payment. An attempt to influence a decision can end the sponsorship at once. - The person who runs Tillyard day to day also makes its editorial and moderation decisions. Section 15 says so and sets out what we do about it. - Tips of any size from individuals follow the same principle: money does not change anyone's standing here. If this summary and the full text below ever differ, the full text governs. 1. Where things stand today, and what this policy is for ======================================================== 1.1 Today --------- As this version is written: - there are no sponsors; - no round, table, paper, page or tool on the site is sponsored; - the site has no feature for attaching a sponsor's name to a round or a table; - there is no advertising of any kind. Tillyard pays what the site costs to run. The site brings in no money today: it cannot yet accept tips, gifts or sponsorship payments, because the nonprofit does not yet have a bank account. 1.2 Why write the rules now --------------------------- Because the time to decide what money can and cannot do is before anyone offers any. If we waited for the first offer, the rules would be written with a particular sponsor and a particular sum in mind. 1.3 Who this policy is for -------------------------- - Members, so that you know what a "Sponsored by" line means and what it cannot mean. - Anyone thinking of sponsoring, so that you know before you write to us what you would and would not get. - Anyone who reads a paper or a record from Tillyard, so that you can judge whether money stood behind it. It did not. 1.4 Who we are -------------- Tillyard is an Ohio nonprofit corporation. We, us and our mean Tillyard. One person, the owner, runs the site day to day. We are not a school or a public body, and we are not connected with any college. 2. Words we use =============== Words that have one meaning in every one of our documents, such as member, visitor, staff, the editor, record item, hold, case and tip, are defined in Definitions. The words below are added for this document's own subject, or repeated from Definitions for convenience. If a repeated meaning ever differs, Definitions governs the meaning of the word. - A sponsor is a person or organization that pays us, under a signed agreement, and is named in text only as a sponsor in return. - A sponsorship is that arrangement. - An acknowledgement is the line of text that names a sponsor. Section 7 says exactly what it may contain. - A sponsored thing is the round, table or other item the acknowledgement is attached to. - A tip is a voluntary, one-time payment through one of our payment links, for a free service already used. It is not a sponsorship. - A larger tip is a voluntary payment from an individual, arranged in writing, with no acknowledgement. It is not a sponsorship either. - A decision means any judgment Tillyard makes about a member or their work: whether a paper is read, approved, corrected or removed; a score, a tally or a selection; a title or a perk; an item on The Record; a hold, a suspension or a removal; the outcome of a report, an appeal, a removal request, a copyright notice or a dispute; and who may join. - Your standing is your place here in every sense: your account, your titles and perks, your papers and readings, your records, and how any matter that involves you is handled. - Member data means any information about a member or about members as a group that is not already shown to everyone on a public page. One word needs care. On the site, a student organization can hold a standing table or put on an event under its own name. That is the organization's own activity, not sponsorship in the sense of this policy. No money comes to us, the organization is made up of members, and nothing in this policy applies to it except section 6, which says we do not take sponsorship money from those organizations. 3. The principle: money does not decide anything ================================================ Nothing a person or an organization pays us changes a decision, and nothing they decline to pay changes one either. That is true of a five-dollar tip, a larger tip and a sponsorship alike. Money does not: - get a paper read, approved, published, corrected, kept up or taken down; - change a reading, a score, a tally or a selection; - grant, protect or withdraw a title, a perk or an item on The Record; - start, stop, speed up or soften a moderation step; - decide a report, an appeal, a removal request, a copyright notice or a dispute; - let anyone join who could not otherwise, or keep anyone out; - open a way to reach members, or to learn anything about them; - change what we publish about the person or organization that paid. The rest of this policy is how we try to make that principle hold in practice, given that the company is small and that the same person takes the payments and makes the decisions. 4. Who may sponsor ================== 4.1 Nobody has a right to ------------------------- Sponsorship is by agreement. We consider each offer on its merits and may refuse any of them (section 17). 4.2 Who we consider ------------------- - a business with a lawful trade; - a professional or trade association; - a foundation or a charity, paying as a sponsor on the same terms as anyone else (section 5.4); - a publisher, a library, a bookshop, or a maker of tools for writing, research or study; - an individual, in their own name, who wants to be named as a sponsor. 4.3 What every sponsor must do ------------------------------ - Say who it is. Its legal name, its address, what it does, and the name and role of a real person with authority to sign for it. - Pay with its own money. From a bank account in its own name. We do not accept payment by a third party, and we do not accept sponsorship from someone who will not say where the money comes from. - Sign our agreement. Sponsorships are made on our short written agreement, not on a sponsor's purchase order or standard terms. - Accept this policy. The agreement refers to it, and nothing in an agreement can give a sponsor more than this policy allows. - Pay by invoice. Section 16. - Be named in public. Its name, what it sponsors and the dates go on the list in section 19, and we may publish the amount or the range it falls in. A sponsor that wants to stay private is not a sponsor we can accept. - Tell us about connections. If a sponsor knows that one of its owners, officers or staff is a member with a matter waiting for a decision here, or that it has any dispute with us, it tells us before signing. 4.4 Protected characteristics ----------------------------- We do not refuse a sponsor because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or age of the people behind it. 5. Sponsors we consider only with extra conditions ================================================== 5.1 Colleges and universities ----------------------------- This includes a college's offices and departments, and any body spending a college's money, such as a student government. We are not part of any college and we say so on every page where a college's name appears. A college's name beside ours as a sponsor could be read as a sign that the college has adopted us or vouches for us. So a college may sponsor only where: - a person with authority to commit the college confirms in writing that they have it; - the acknowledgement carries the sentence "Tillyard is not part of or affiliated with" the college, in the same place and the same size; - no logo, seal, mascot, colours or other mark of the college is used; - the college receives nothing about its students, as section 8 says for every sponsor: no lists, no counts by college beyond what is already public, no reports; - members from that college are treated exactly as members from every other college; - nothing in the arrangement makes us the college's agent, or asks us to hold or handle student records on the college's behalf. 5.2 Employers and recruiters ---------------------------- An employer may sponsor. It gets its name shown and nothing else. In particular it gets no candidates, no lists, no introductions, no listing among the opportunity links in The Almanac, and no way to reach members through us. It may not describe members as its candidates or as people we have screened. Section 8.4 applies in full. We sell employers and recruiters nothing today: no listings, no access to members and no information about them. If that were ever to change, this policy would be changed first, in public, as section 18.4 describes. A business whose product is access to students or to information about them is in section 6. 5.3 Government bodies --------------------- A public body may sponsor only where its own rules allow the payment, where the person signing confirms that, and where it accepts that it gets no say and no information. We do not accept sponsorship that is tied to a political message (section 6). 5.4 Charities and foundations ----------------------------- A charity or foundation may pay to be named as a sponsor on the same terms as a business. We do not accept grants or restricted money: nothing that comes with a required purpose, with reporting duties, or with any oversight of what we do. A payment to us is a sponsorship and not a grant, whoever makes it. The person signing confirms that the charity's or foundation's own rules, and the law that governs it, allow it to pay an outside organization to be named. We do not accept a sponsorship routed through a donor-advised fund, a matching-gift program or a platform that collects money for charities. 5.5 Businesses that sell to students in the areas the site covers ----------------------------------------------------------------- Résumé-writing services, career coaching, test preparation, tutoring and paid courses fall here. A member could easily read such a sponsor's name as our recommendation. If we ever accept one, its acknowledgement does not appear on or beside The Workbench, The Almanac or any guide that covers the same ground, and section 20.3 applies with particular force: we recommend nothing a sponsor sells. 5.6 Anyone connected with a matter waiting for a decision --------------------------------------------------------- If the would-be sponsor, or someone closely connected with it, has a paper, a title request, a report, an appeal, a removal request or a dispute waiting for a decision here, we may postpone the sponsorship until the matter is decided and any appeal is over. The same applies where a paper waiting for a decision is about the would-be sponsor. 5.7 Anyone connected with the owner ----------------------------------- A sponsor that is owned by, employs or is otherwise closely connected with the owner of Tillyard, or with a member of the owner's family, is shown as connected on the list in section 19. 5.8 Individuals --------------- An individual may sponsor in their own name and is then named like any other sponsor. An individual who has used the site and wants to pay without being named leaves a larger tip instead (section 13). 6. Who may not sponsor ====================== We do not accept sponsorship from: 1. Services that write, complete or sell academic work, or that sell ways around a college's rules: essay-writing services, services that do coursework for a fee, and tools sold to disguise where a text came from. 2. Outlets that charge authors to be published or listed, and bodies that sell memberships, honours or listings for a fee. 3. Businesses that charge students a fee for a placement, or for the chance of one. 4. Sellers of made-up credentials, references, reviews or followers. 5. Lenders and credit sellers: payday and other high-cost lenders, private student loans and refinancing, debt-relief and credit-repair services, and credit offers aimed at students. 6. Gambling: casinos, sports betting, lotteries, paid fantasy contests and betting on events. 7. Tobacco, nicotine, vaping, alcohol, cannabis and other age-restricted or controlled products. 8. Weapons. 9. Adult content and services. 10. Multi-level marketing, "business opportunity" and get-rich schemes, including trading courses and signal sellers. 11. Investment promotions: token sales, unregistered offerings, and anyone promoting an investment to members. 12. Products sold with health or earnings claims we cannot check. 13. Political candidates, parties, committees and ballot campaigns, and any sponsorship tied to a political message. 14. Businesses whose product is access to students or their data: data brokers, lead generators, people-search services, marketplaces that sell access to candidates, and anyone who wants members' writing to train an AI system. 15. Anyone whose purpose in sponsoring is to reach members or learn about them. 16. Anyone on a United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties, anyone owned or controlled by such a person, and anyone in a country or territory under a United States embargo. 17. Anyone who will not say who they are or where the money comes from, and anyone paying through a third party. 18. Anyone in a legal dispute with us, or who has threatened one. 19. Anyone who has tried to influence a decision here, or who has broken an earlier agreement with us. 20. Student organizations that use the site. Holding a standing table costs nothing, and we do not take money from the organizations that use Tillyard. The Organizations Terms say that no money moves through an organization's entry. The list is not complete. We may also refuse anyone whose name beside ours would, in our judgment, mislead members about what this place is, or put them at risk. A sponsor that comes to fall within this list after signing can be ended under section 17. 7. What a sponsor may receive ============================= 7.1 An acknowledgement in text only ----------------------------------- A sponsor is named, in words, as a sponsor. The acknowledgement is one line in this form: "Sponsored by [the sponsor's name]." It may be followed, if we agree, by: - a short neutral description of what the sponsor is, of no more than twelve words, such as "a public library in Columbus, Ohio"; - the sponsor's web address, shown as text, with nothing added to it that tracks who followed it. We write or approve every word. The acknowledgement contains no logo, image, slogan, price, offer, comparison, claim about quality, or invitation to buy, visit, apply or sign up. 7.2 Where it appears -------------------- On the sponsored thing's own page, in listings where that thing appears, on anything printable the site produces for it, and on the list in section 19. Nowhere else, unless the agreement names the place and this policy allows it. Where the sponsorship is of Tillyard in general, there is no page of the thing itself. The acknowledgement then appears on the list in section 19 and, if the agreement says so, on the About page under "How it is paid for". It does not appear in the site's header or footer, on the landing page or a member's home page, in the shop, on the tips page or beside a tip button. 7.3 A place on the public list ------------------------------ Section 19 names every sponsor, what it sponsors and the dates. 7.4 One true sentence of its own -------------------------------- During the term, a sponsor may say, in text only and in these words or words we approve: "[Sponsor] is a paying sponsor of [the sponsored thing] at Tillyard." Section 20 and the Trademark and Brand Use Policy say what it may not add. 7.5 Ordinary paperwork ---------------------- An invoice, a receipt for payment, a signed copy of the agreement, and on request the company's taxpayer identification form. 7.6 What anyone can do ---------------------- A sponsor can read our public pages, use the dispute and correction form and send us a legal notice, on the same footing as any member of the public. Sponsoring adds nothing to those routes and takes nothing away. 7.7 A sponsor account --------------------- A sponsor may have a sponsor account. It opens one page that shows what the sponsor supports: what the public pages of its linked projects and grant rounds show, team names, counts and published findings. It never shows a student's private work or contact details, or a student's name unless that student chose to show it. Gifts started from that page or through our payments API are paid on Stripe's own page, and stay closed until Tillyard can accept donations. That is the whole list. 8. What a sponsor never receives ================================ 8.1 A say in any decision ------------------------- A sponsor has no say over, and no right to be consulted about, any decision as section 2 defines the word. That includes what is published and what is declined; what is corrected, retracted or removed; the prompts, rules, scoring and results of a round; who hosts a table and what is discussed at it; who holds a title; what appears on The Record; who is warned, suspended or removed; and the outcome of each report, appeal and dispute. A sponsor has no right to review, approve, delay or veto anything on the site, including the sponsored thing itself, apart from the wording of its own acknowledgement. 8.2 Anything before it is public -------------------------------- A sponsor does not see unpublished papers, drafts, entries, scores, readers' identities, case files or decisions, and is not told the outcome of anything before the public page shows it. 8.3 Member data --------------- A sponsor receives no member data. That means no names, email addresses or contact details; no lists of entrants, attendees, authors or members; no counts or breakdowns by college, year, field or anything else beyond what a public page already shows everyone; no attendance records, chat logs, notes, messages or scores; and no reports on who saw or followed its acknowledgement. The site has no advertising or tracking tools, so there are no audience figures to give. 8.4 Access to members --------------------- A sponsor gets no way to reach members through us. We do not: - send messages, notices or email on a sponsor's behalf, or mention a sponsor in email; - introduce a sponsor to a member, or a member to a sponsor; - give a sponsor a member account, a seat at a table or a place in a thread because it is a sponsor; - let a sponsor survey members, or place a form, a code or a link that collects information from them; - carry a sponsor's offers, discounts, sign-up links or recruiting messages; - let a sponsor recruit through the sponsored thing. People who work for a sponsor and are members in their own right take part as themselves, under the same rules as everyone, and the sponsor learns nothing from us about what they do here. What members choose to make public, such as a published paper, a record page they have shared or an entry in the opt-in directory, can be read by a sponsor as it can by anyone. The Acceptable Use Policy forbids collecting those pages in bulk and using them to contact people who did not ask, and it applies to a sponsor as it does to everyone else. Sponsoring earns no exception. 8.5 Rights in members' work --------------------------- Members own what they make. A sponsor gets no licence to any paper, entry, piece, project or message, no first look at it, and no right to quote it or use it in its own marketing. Anything a sponsor wants from a member's work it asks that member for, away from the site, like anyone else. 8.6 Work done for it -------------------- A sponsored thing is never a way for a business to get work done. A sponsor does not set, suggest or approve a prompt, a brief, a topic or a project. We do not write a prompt about a sponsor, its products, its competitors or a problem it would like solved, and nothing members make in a sponsored round or at a sponsored table is delivered to the sponsor. 8.7 Advertising --------------- A sponsor gets an acknowledgement. It gets no banner, logo, image or video; no sponsored article, guide, template, deadline or opportunity listing; no placement in The Almanac, the Morning Edition, the shop or anyone's home page beyond what section 7.2 allows; and no tracked links. Section 21 says more. 8.8 Our endorsement ------------------- Naming a sponsor is not our recommendation of the sponsor or of anything it sells. A sponsor may not call itself our partner, our official anything, or say that it is recommended by, approved by or in association with us. 8.9 Exclusivity --------------- A sponsorship is not exclusive unless the signed agreement says so in terms, and if it does, the list in section 19 says so too. We do not agree to exclusivity that limits what members may write, use, discuss or criticise, or that keeps a competitor's name out of members' own text. 8.10 Its name on house things ----------------------------- We do not name an area of the site, a room, a title, a perk, an item on The Record, Readers' Selection, the rubric or a tool after a sponsor. 8.11 Prizes and perks for members --------------------------------- A sponsor may not give members prizes, payments, goods, discounts or anything else of value through us, or in connection with a thing it sponsors here. 8.12 Secrecy ------------ A sponsorship agreement is not confidential. We may publish it or describe its terms. 8.13 Protection from criticism ------------------------------ Members may write about a sponsor, including critically, in a paper or anywhere else the site allows, under the same rules as any other subject. A sponsor who objects to something on the site uses the same routes as everyone else. Sponsoring gives it no faster or kinder hearing, and objecting does not entitle it to a refund. 8.14 A role ----------- A sponsor is not staff. Its sponsor account opens only its own page and none of the console's work, and gets no advisory or governing role because it has paid. 9. What can be sponsored, and what cannot ========================================= 9.1 Nothing is sponsored today ------------------------------ Section 1.1. 9.2 What could be sponsored --------------------------- If we decide to accept a sponsor, and only where the site can show the label that section 10 requires, a sponsorship could attach to: - Tillyard in general, for a stated period ("a sponsor of Tillyard"); - a round in Pursuits, under the extra rules in section 11; - a table or a series of tables that Tillyard itself convenes, under the extra rules in section 12. 9.3 What is never sponsored --------------------------- - Papers and editorial decisions in Tillyard Research. We do not publish a paper in return for payment and we do not publish sponsored content in Tillyard Research. If a sponsor ever supports something around Tillyard Research, such as an open call on a theme, the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research governs, and it says what that sponsor does not get. - The Record. No item, title, perk, verification page or profile is sponsored, and no sponsor's name appears on one. - Anything a member takes away. Résumé exports, record pages, publication cards and anything else a member shows to someone outside carry no sponsor's name. - A member's own table. A table hosted by a member is that member's own. We do not sell a sponsor's name onto it, and a host may not accept sponsorship for a table or say that a table is sponsored. The Hosting Terms and Disclosure Policy and the Trademark and Brand Use Policy say what a host should do if a business offers their table something directly. - A team's booth or project, and a student organization's page or table. They belong to the members who run them. - Safety and moderation. Reporting, holds, cases, appeals, removal requests and disputes. - Joining. Sign-up, the age check, the list of colleges. - Notes, threads and table chat. - Policy pages and emails. - The tips page and the tip button. A sponsor's name never appears beside a request for a tip. - The tools in The Workbench and the guides, templates, deadlines and opportunity links in The Almanac. 9.4 Money only, and suppliers are not sponsors ---------------------------------------------- A sponsorship is paid in money, on an invoice. We do not take goods, services, software, credits, equipment, prizes, rooms or anything else in return for an acknowledgement. A business we buy from, or whose free plan we use on the terms it offers every customer, is a supplier and not a sponsor. Being our supplier earns no acknowledgement and no say. The Privacy Notice names the suppliers that handle personal information because you are entitled to know who they are. That is not thanks, and nobody paid to be on that list. If a supplier ever offered us special terms in return for being named, that would be a sponsorship, and every rule in this policy would apply to it before we accepted. 10. How sponsored things are labelled ===================================== 10.1 A sponsored thing says so, in words ---------------------------------------- If someone paid us to be named on something, that thing says so, in words, where you cannot miss it, before you take part in it. 10.2 The words -------------- The label is "Sponsored by [name]." We do not use softer words for the same thing, such as "presented by", "supported by", "in partnership with", "brought to you by" or "powered by". 10.3 What the label means ------------------------- Directly beneath the label, a fixed sentence says what it means: "[Name] paid Tillyard to be named here. It did not choose, write, read, score or decide anything, and it receives no information about the people who take part." The sentence links to this policy. 10.4 Where the label goes ------------------------- - at the top of the sponsored thing's own page, before its content; - in every list, timetable or card where that thing appears, so that you see it before you open the page; - on anything printable the site produces for that thing; - on the list in section 19. 10.5 When the label goes on --------------------------- From the moment the sponsored thing is first announced. We do not add a sponsor to a round after it has opened for entries, or to a table after seats have opened, so that nobody finds themselves in something sponsored that was not sponsored when they chose it. 10.6 How the label is shown --------------------------- In text, not by colour, placement or an icon alone, at least as large as the text around it, and readable by a screen reader in the same order a sighted reader meets it. 10.7 After a sponsorship ends ----------------------------- The page of a past round or table keeps the fact in the past tense: "Was sponsored by [name] from [date] to [date]." Who paid for something stays on the record. 10.8 Not on The Record ---------------------- An item on The Record that a member earned in a sponsored round or at a sponsored table reads exactly as it would have without a sponsor, and does not carry the sponsor's name. The page of the round or table carries the label. A record states what a member did and who confirmed it; a sponsor did neither. 10.9 No label means no sponsor ------------------------------ If something on the site carries no "Sponsored by" label, nobody paid us to be named on it. Only Tillyard applies the label. A member may not describe a table, a round, a booth, a paper or a record as sponsored, and may not accept sponsorship in our name. If you see something that looks like paid promotion without a label, please report it. 10.10 Members who are paid by someone else ------------------------------------------ A member who has been paid or given anything by a business to mention it here must say so when they mention it. That is the member's own duty of honesty under the Community Guidelines and the Hosting Terms and Disclosure Policy, and it is separate from this policy: such a business is not our sponsor and we received nothing. 11. Sponsored rounds ==================== No round is sponsored today, and a round has no place to show a sponsor. If a round is ever sponsored, these rules apply to it on top of everything above. 11.1 You know before you enter ------------------------------ The round's published rules say that it is sponsored and by whom, and they say it before entries open. Entering is your choice, as it always is. 11.2 Tillyard writes the prompt ------------------------------ The sponsor does not choose, suggest, see in advance or approve the prompt, the rules, the timetable or the scoring. We do not write a prompt about the sponsor, its products, its field of business chosen to suit it, its competitors or a problem it wants solved. 11.3 Scoring does not change ---------------------------- Entries are scored as the round's published rules say, by the people those rules name. The sponsor does not score, judge, rank, comment on or select anything, and neither does anyone acting for it. 11.4 The sponsor sees what the public sees ------------------------------------------ The sponsor is not told who entered, how many entered from which college, who scored well, or anything else that is not on the round's public page for everyone. It receives no entries. 11.5 Your entry stays yours --------------------------- Entering a sponsored round gives the sponsor no rights in what you wrote. The licence you give us is the same as for any round and does not extend to the sponsor. 11.6 No prizes -------------- There are no prizes, and a sponsor may not offer entrants anything, through us or in connection with the round. 11.7 Results and records ------------------------ Results are worked out and shown as for any round. What appears on your Record is the same as for any round (section 10.8). 11.8 People who work for the sponsor ------------------------------------ A member who works for the sponsor may enter like anyone else and is treated like anyone else. 11.9 You lose nothing by staying out ------------------------------------ We do not make any title, perk or record depend on taking part in something sponsored. If you would rather not enter a sponsored round, nothing is held against you and nothing is lost. 12. Sponsored tables ==================== Today every scheduled table is put on the board by a member, and Tillyard convenes none of its own. So no table can be sponsored today. If Tillyard ever convenes tables itself and one of them is sponsored, these rules apply to it on top of everything above. 12.1 You know before you sit down --------------------------------- The table's page and every listing of it carry the label before seats open. 12.2 The table is run as any other ---------------------------------- Tillyard chooses the topic, the time and who leads it. The sponsor does not choose them, does not supply a speaker or a script, and does not attend, speak or observe as a sponsor. Tables are for members. 12.3 Nothing is collected for the sponsor ----------------------------------------- There is no sign-in sheet, form, code or link for the sponsor. The sponsor is not told who came, how many came or from where, and does not see the table's chat. Table chat is logged and screened as the Messaging and Monitoring Notice describes, for safety and for no sponsor's benefit. 12.4 Nothing is pitched ----------------------- Nobody at the table promotes the sponsor, and the acknowledgement is not read out or repeated in chat. 12.5 A member's own table is never sponsored by us -------------------------------------------------- Section 9.3. 13. Larger tips from individuals ================================ 13.1 What they are ------------------ An individual who wants to pay more than the tip links allow, or wants the payment in writing, can leave a larger tip, if they have used the site themselves. The Tips and Larger Payments Terms say how one is arranged and what it is. It gives no ownership, no return, no goods or services, no acknowledgement, and no say over anything. 13.2 How they differ from sponsorship ------------------------------------- How they differ from sponsorship. Columns: point, larger tip, sponsorship. Point | Larger tip | Sponsorship -------------------------------- Who | An individual, with their own money | Usually an organization What they get | Nothing | A text-only acknowledgement Named in public | No | Always Written document | A one-page letter | A sponsorship agreement Say over decisions | None | None Access to members or member data | None | None 13.3 Why individuals are not named ---------------------------------- Naming people who pay would be something given in return for the payment, and it would tell members who has paid. An individual's payment buys no recognition, so there is nothing to disclose on a page, and the payer's privacy is respected. The price of that privacy is that members cannot see who has paid. So the rules against influence have to carry the weight alone, and they apply to a payer exactly as to a sponsor: sections 3, 8.1 to 8.6, 15 and 17 all apply. We may publish how many larger tips the company has accepted in a year and their total, without names. If we do, it is a single figure for a past year, set out in this policy. It is never a running total, a target or a meter, and it never appears on the tips page or beside a tip button. 13.4 An organization's money is never a larger tip -------------------------------------------------- If the money is an organization's, or an individual is paying on an organization's behalf, it is a sponsorship or it is not accepted. No organization can pay us without being named. 13.5 Payers with a matter waiting --------------------------------- We may decline or postpone a larger tip from anyone who has a paper, a title request, a report, an appeal, a removal request or a dispute waiting for a decision, or who is closely connected with someone who has. The payer is asked to tell us in the letter. 14. Tips ======== A tip is a voluntary payment for a free service already used. The Tips and Larger Payments Terms govern it. For this policy the points that matter are these: - tipping does not change anyone's standing, and not tipping does not either; - the site stores nothing about a tip and does not link tips to member accounts; - the tip button is kept out of the places where it could read as pressure or as payment for an outcome: the steps for joining, report and removal forms, the screens where a paper is submitted, read or decided, appeal screens, and emails about an account or a decision; - we keep no list of tippers; - an organization should not use the tip links, and we may refund it if it does. 15. Conflicts of interest ========================= 15.1 The conflict we cannot remove ---------------------------------- One person runs Tillyard day to day, signs its sponsorship agreements, sees who has paid, and also approves papers, grants titles and decides reports and appeals. That is a conflict of interest built into an organization that one person runs. We cannot remove it. This section is what we do to contain it. 15.2 What we do about conflicts of interest ------------------------------------------- - Writing first. No sponsorship or larger tip is accepted until its terms are signed, and those terms say there is no influence. - Named in public. Every sponsor is listed (section 19) and every sponsored thing is labelled (section 10), so that members can judge for themselves. - No talk about decisions. We do not discuss a member's paper, title, record, report or account with a sponsor or a payer. If one raises it, we say no, and the attempt can end the arrangement (section 17). - Reasons on the record. Staff decisions about members are written to a log with a reason, and that log cannot be edited afterwards, including by the owner. - No payment at the moment of decision. We may postpone a sponsorship or payment from anyone with a matter waiting (sections 5.6 and 13.5). - Nothing personal. The owner and anyone on staff do not accept anything of value for themselves from a sponsor, a would-be sponsor or a payer in connection with Tillyard: no payments, travel, paid roles, ownership interests or hospitality of more than token value. What a sponsor pays, it pays to the company under the agreement. - Not too much from one source. We may decline money that would make the company depend on a single sponsor or payer to a degree that could weigh on a decision. 15.3 Papers about a sponsor or a payer -------------------------------------- The Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research lets the editor decline to handle a paper whose subject is a sponsor or a person who has left a larger tip, because the editor could not decide it without an interest. That rule exists for the editor's conflict. It is not a service to sponsors: a sponsor cannot ask for it to be used, and it does not stop a member from publishing the same work anywhere else or from writing about the sponsor elsewhere on the site. An author whose paper concerns a sponsor declares that when submitting, as the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research requires. 15.4 Members connected with a sponsor ------------------------------------- A member who works for a sponsor, owns part of one or is closely related to someone who does is treated as any other member. Where a decision about such a member comes up and we know of the connection, we aim to note the connection in the record of that decision. 15.5 Reports and disputes that touch a sponsor ---------------------------------------------- A report about a member who is connected with a sponsor, a dispute raised by a sponsor, and a complaint by a member about a sponsor are each handled under the same rules, in the same queue, as any other. A sponsor's status is not a reason to act and not a reason to hold back. 15.6 The president's other business ----------------------------------- The president also runs a business of their own under another name that has nothing to do with Tillyard. That business is not a sponsor. We do not promote it here. If that ever changed, anything about it on this site would be labelled as the owner's own business. 15.7 When a conflict cannot be managed -------------------------------------- If we conclude that keeping a sponsor's or a payer's money is not compatible with deciding something fairly, we may end the arrangement and return the money (section 17). 15.8 Lenders and the board -------------------------- Lending to Tillyard is not sponsorship. A nonprofit corporation has no owners and no shares, and its board of trustees decides how it is run. As this version is written, Tillyard has no loan from an outside lender. No sponsor, payer or tipper gets a seat on the board, a say in how Tillyard is run or a loan agreement by paying (the Tips and Larger Payments Terms say the same of tips and payments). If Tillyard ever borrows money, we aim to say so here. And whoever sits on the board, this policy stays in force until it is changed in public, with the change listed in section 24 and section 18.4 applied. 15.9 Payments the other way --------------------------- We do not pay a sponsor, a would-be sponsor or anyone acting for one a commission, a finder's fee or a share of anything, and nobody is paid for bringing us a sponsor. 16. How a sponsorship is arranged ================================= 1. An inquiry. The tips page has a short form that needs no account. It asks for a name, an email address, an organization and a short message. Please put no bank or card details in it. 2. A reply by email. A genuine reply comes from one of the addresses in section 25. We may ask who the sponsor is, who owns it, what it does, why it wants to sponsor, where the money comes from, and whether it is connected with any member or any matter here. 3. A written agreement. If we both want to go ahead, we send our short sponsorship agreement, filled in with the sponsored thing, the wording of the acknowledgement, the term and the fee. Both sides sign. 4. An invoice. We send an invoice through our payment processor, payable by bank transfer. The invoice shows transfer details that belong to the processor's banking partner, so the company's own account number is never disclosed. 5. Payment, then acknowledgement. The acknowledgement first appears only after payment has arrived in full and the sponsor has been added to the list in section 19. Three warnings: - We never publish or email our bank details. If someone claiming to act for Tillyard sends bank details you were not expecting, says our details have changed, or asks for payment by wire to a named account, by gift card, by payment app or in cryptocurrency, treat it as an attempt at fraud and check with us at support@tillyard.org before paying anything. - Nobody else can sell sponsorship here. Only the company can agree one. No member, host, officer of a student organization or outside agent can offer, promise or accept sponsorship in our name. - Nothing is agreed until both sides have signed. An inquiry, a conversation or an email is not an agreement, and we may stop at any step. 17. Refusing, ending and returning money ======================================== 17.1 We may refuse ------------------ We may refuse any sponsorship or payment, at any stage before signing, and we do not have to give a reason. 17.2 Money that arrives without an agreement -------------------------------------------- Money sent to us without a signed agreement creates no sponsorship and no obligation. If it came through a tip link, the Tips and Larger Payments Terms apply to it and we may refund it. If it came any other way, we may return it. 17.3 Conditions we did not agree to ----------------------------------- A condition, request or expectation that is not in the signed agreement does not bind us, however it was communicated and whether or not we replied to it. 17.4 Ending a sponsorship early ------------------------------- The agreement sets out how either side may end it. In every agreement we keep the right to end a sponsorship at once where: - the sponsor, or anyone acting for it, tries to influence a decision, or keeps asking for something section 8 says a sponsor never receives after we have said no; - the sponsor comes within section 6; - what the sponsor told us about itself or its money turns out to be untrue; - the sponsor's name or ownership changes and we would not have accepted it as it then is (section 17.8); - a payment the sponsor made is reversed (section 17.9); - the sponsor uses our name, or members' names or work, in a way this policy or the Trademark and Brand Use Policy does not allow; - keeping the sponsorship would, in our judgment, put members at risk or mislead them; - the law requires it. 17.5 Returning money -------------------- When we end a sponsorship, we return the part of the fee that covers the time not yet run. We do this even where the sponsor is at fault, so that Tillyard never gains by keeping a compromised sponsor's money and never has a reason to hesitate. When a sponsor walks away early for reasons of its own, the fee is not returned. This is deliberate. If a sponsor could take its money back by leaving, the threat of leaving would be a way to press us about a decision. We may return a larger tip at any time, in full. Money we return goes only to the account it came from, in the name of the person or organization that paid it, unless the law requires us to do something else with it. 17.6 What happens to the label ------------------------------ When a sponsorship ends, the acknowledgement changes to the past tense as section 10.7 describes, and the entry in section 19 shows the end date. We say that it ended. We do not publish why. 17.7 No effect on members ------------------------- Refusing, ending or returning a sponsorship changes nothing for members. A round or table that has begun is finished under its published rules, and nothing on anyone's Record changes. 17.8 If a sponsor changes its name or changes hands --------------------------------------------------- A sponsorship belongs to the organization that signed it. It does not pass to a buyer, a successor or a parent company without our written agreement, and an acknowledgement is not reworded to a new name without a new signature. A sponsor tells us if its name or its ownership changes. We then look at the new name and the new owner against sections 4 to 6 as if they were a new sponsor, and we may end the sponsorship under 17.4 if they would not have been accepted. 17.9 If a sponsor cannot or does not pay ---------------------------------------- Nothing is shown until the fee has arrived in full, so there is nothing to take down and nothing to collect. If a payment that has arrived is later reversed by the sponsor's bank, the acknowledgement comes down and the list in section 19 is corrected. 18. What members are told ========================= 18.1 On the thing itself ------------------------ The label and the sentence beneath it (section 10), from the first announcement. 18.2 On the list ---------------- Section 19 names every current and past sponsor. For each one we show: - its name; - what it sponsors or sponsored; - the dates; - whether the agreement gives it exclusivity of any kind; - whether it is connected with the owner (section 5.7). We may also show the amount paid or the range it falls in. A sponsor is added to the list before its acknowledgement first appears anywhere. We aim to keep a past sponsor on the list for as long as the thing it sponsored remains on the site. 18.3 About tips, of any size ---------------------------- We do not name individuals who pay or tip (section 13.3). We may publish counts and totals without names. 18.4 About changes to this policy --------------------------------- If we change this policy in a way that would let a sponsor receive more than it could before, the change is listed in section 24, and we aim to give members notice of it before it takes effect. No existing sponsor gains anything from a change without a new signed agreement. 18.5 If you ask --------------- If you want to know whether something on the site is sponsored, the answer is on the page: if there is no label, it is not. If you are still unsure, ask us at support@tillyard.org. 19. Sponsors, now and before ============================ Current sponsors: none. Past sponsors: none. Sponsors, now and before. Columns: sponsor, what it sponsors, from, to, exclusive, connected with the owner. Sponsor | What it sponsors | From | To | Exclusive | Connected with the owner ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- None | | | | | This list was last checked on October 21, 2026. 20. What a sponsor may say about us, and what we say about a sponsor ==================================================================== 20.1 What a sponsor may say --------------------------- During the term, the one sentence in section 7.4. The Trademark and Brand Use Policy governs any other use of our name, and the signed agreement governs over that policy for the sponsor's own use. 20.2 What a sponsor may not say ------------------------------- A sponsor may not say or suggest: - that we endorse, recommend or have approved it or anything it sells; - that it is our partner, or that we are part of the same venture; - that members are its recruits, candidates, customers or users; - that it chose, judged, read, scored or approved any member's work; - that it has any connection, through us, with any college; - that its payment is a donation, a gift, a grant or a charitable contribution, or that we are a school or an educational institution, or that we have any tax status the IRS has not given us; - that its payment pays for any particular thing here, or keeps the site free; - anything about a member by name, or using a member's work, without that member's own agreement given away from the site. A sponsor's own posts about the sponsorship say that it is a paying sponsor. After the term it may state, truthfully and in the past tense, that it was one. 20.3 What we say about a sponsor -------------------------------- The acknowledgement, the list, and nothing more. We do not recommend a sponsor's products, give it a testimonial, or describe it in words of praise. If the owner or anyone on staff ever posts about a sponsor elsewhere, the post says that the sponsor pays Tillyard. We do not say that a sponsor's money pays for any particular thing, that it keeps the site free, or that it helps students. It is revenue of the company, like any other. 21. No advertising ================== Tillyard carries no advertising. For this policy that means: - no banners, pop-ups, video or audio spots, promoted listings or paid search results; - no content written by or for a business and shown as if it were ours or a member's; - no affiliate links, referral fees or commissions on anything we link to; - no paid placement among the opportunity links, deadlines, guides or templates in The Almanac; - no selling or sharing of member data for anyone's marketing; - no tracking of members across other sites, and no advertising or analytics scripts on our pages. An acknowledgement under section 7 is the one way a paying organization's name can appear, and the limits in that section are there to keep it from becoming an advertisement. If we ever decided to carry advertising, this policy would be changed first, and section 18.4 would apply. 22. If you think money affected a decision ========================================== Tell us. You can: - use the dispute and correction form on the site, which needs no account and gives you a ticket number; - if the decision was about your own paper, record or account, use the appeal that decision came with (the Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy and the Disputes and Corrections Policy describe both routes); - write to legal@tillyard.org. Say what the decision was and why you think a payment played a part. Raising a concern in good faith never costs you your standing here. We aim to look into what you send. We do not promise a particular outcome or a time. Where we find that a sponsor or a payer tried to influence something, section 17 applies. You can also complain to a government agency. Nothing in this policy stops you. 23. How this policy fits with our other documents ================================================= Where two of our documents could cover the same point, the more specific one governs. Section 37.5 of the Terms of Use sets the order among all our documents, including the sections of those terms that prevail over every other document. - Tips, refunds and larger tips from individuals: the Tips and Larger Payments Terms govern. - Tillyard Research: the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research governs for anything about papers, readings and editorial decisions, including a sponsor-supported call. - Use of our name and of other people's names and marks: the Trademark and Brand Use Policy governs, and for a sponsor's own use the signed agreement governs over that. - Personal information: the Privacy Notice governs. It names the processor and says what we keep about people who inquire about sponsoring. - Members' conduct, including undisclosed promotion: the Community Guidelines and the Hosting Terms and Disclosure Policy govern. - Hosts and student organizations: the Hosting Terms and Disclosure Policy and the Organizations Terms govern what a host or an organization may accept or say. - Raising a concern: the Disputes and Corrections Policy and the Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy govern how a dispute or an appeal is handled. - Everything else: the Terms of Use. - A particular sponsorship: the signed agreement governs between us and that sponsor, except that no agreement can give a sponsor anything section 8 says a sponsor never receives. This policy is the ceiling. This policy is a statement of how we run Tillyard. It is made to members and the public. It does not give a sponsor or a would-be sponsor any right to be accepted, and it does not make members parties to any sponsorship agreement. 24. Changes to this document ============================ When this policy changes, including when a sponsor is added to or leaves the list in section 19, the new version is listed here with its date and a short description of what changed. - Version 1.2, 21 October 2026: sponsor accounts (section 7.7). A sponsor may see what it supports on a page of its own. This lets a sponsor receive more than before (section 18.4); no sponsor holds one under an earlier agreement, and no member could be told before, because nobody had joined. 25. Contact =========== Tillyard is an Ohio nonprofit corporation. - Sponsorship and larger tips: the inquiry form on the tips page, or sponsors@tillyard.org - A concern about independence, or a legal notice: legal@tillyard.org, and by mail to Tillyard, Attention: Legal, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062 - Mail: Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062 - Website: tillyard.org To dispute or correct something, use the dispute and correction form on the site. You do not need an account.