Terms of Use

RightStart LLC, a California limited liability company (“we,” “us” or “our”), operates PeerSet, the nonprofit compensation benchmarking tool at peerset.org (“the tool”), which analyzes publicly filed IRS Form 990 data. The tool helps users build comparability sets and generate compensation reports for informational and research purposes. By accessing or using the service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference.

Each time you download a report or a data file, you accept these Terms by ticking the box next to the download button.

Using the tool is not a consulting engagement. It does not create an attorney-client, advisory, fiduciary or other professional relationship between you and us or Josh Green.

THE TOOL, AND EVERY REPORT, PDF, CSV, CHART, PACKAGE AND NUMBER IT PRODUCES, IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY. IT IS NOT LEGAL, TAX, ACCOUNTING, FINANCIAL OR COMPENSATION ADVICE, AN APPRAISAL OR VALUATION, OR AN OPINION THAT ANY PAY IS REASONABLE. WE MAKE NO GUARANTEE OF ANY KIND.

In particular:

• The data come from IRS Form 990 filings that organizations prepared and reported themselves. We do not audit or verify them. They contain errors, omissions, outdated figures and inconsistent job titles. Our filters, role matching, sector codes and statistics (including percentiles) can add further errors.
• We do not guarantee that anything the tool shows is accurate, complete, current, comparable, or suitable for your purpose.
• We do not guarantee any outcome. We do not promise that a board's decision is reasonable; that the IRS, a court or a state agency will accept it; that any presumption, safe harbor or defense (including the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness under IRC section 4958 and Treas. Reg. section 53.4958-6) will apply; or that you will avoid taxes, penalties or loss of tax-exempt status.
• Board reports saved with earlier versions of the tool, including the Board Approval Package, only organize information that you and your authorized body entered, together with data from the tool. It is not a determination, certification or statement by us that any requirement of the law has been met.
• You, your organization and its governing body are solely responsible for your decisions, for checking the data against the original filings, and for obtaining advice from qualified legal, tax and compensation professionals. Do not rely on the tool alone.

You must be at least 18. If you use the tool for an organization, you confirm you may act for it. Give accurate account information, keep your login secure, and do not share your account. Tell us at help@peerset.org if you think someone else has used it.

You are responsible for everything you enter, including that it is accurate and that you are allowed to enter it. That includes information about other people, such as executives and committee members. Do not enter Social Security numbers, financial-account numbers or health information. We store saved reports as described in the Privacy Policy. You are responsible for the reports you generate and for what you do with them.

You may use the tool and the exports it offers (PDF, CSV) for your own organization's or your clients' compensation research, benchmarking and governance. You may not:

• use bots, scrapers, crawlers or other automated means to access the tool or extract data, or exceed any usage limit we set;
• copy, republish, sell or distribute the tool's database or any substantial part of its data, or use it to build a competing product or dataset;
• use the tool or its data to train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models;
• reverse engineer, probe, overload or interfere with the tool or its security;
• present the output as professional advice, or as approved, certified or endorsed by us, the IRS or any government agency;
• use data about individuals to decide their eligibility for employment, credit, insurance or housing, or to harass anyone; or
• use the tool in violation of any law.

The tool contains information from IRS Form 990 e-file data and the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (public records published by the IRS), and sector (NTEE) codes from the IRS Business Master File and the NCCS BMF archive. Those sources' own terms continue to apply to their data. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the IRS, the Urban Institute or any other source. If you share a report or export, keep its disclaimers and source notices intact.

We own the tool, including its design, code, methodology and branding. We do not own the public-record data in Form 990 filings. You keep ownership of what you enter, and you let us store and process it to run the tool. We give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the reports and exports you generate for your internal purposes and to share them with your board, auditors, advisors and clients, provided you keep their disclaimers and source notices intact.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without obligation to you. Do not send confidential information in feedback.

The tool is a work in progress and parts of it are in beta. We may change, suspend or end any part of it at any time. Data coverage is incomplete and uptime is not guaranteed. We rely on outside providers (such as sign-in, hosting and database services) and are not responsible for their failures.

THE TOOL AND ALL DATA, REPORTS AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE TOOL WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE, OUR OWNER JOSH GREEN, AND ANYONE ACTING FOR US WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA OR GOODWILL, OR FOR ANY TAXES (INCLUDING EXCISE TAXES UNDER IRC SECTION 4958), PENALTIES, INTEREST, LOSS OF TAX-EXEMPT STATUS OR COSTS OF CORRECTING A TRANSACTION, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF, OR RELIANCE ON, THE TOOL OR ITS OUTPUT, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE TOOL WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF $100 AND THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for fraud or willful misconduct.

You will reimburse us for losses and reasonable legal fees from third-party claims that arise from information you enter or share through the tool, or from your breach of these Terms or of the law.

We may suspend or end your access at any time, including if we think you have broken these Terms. You may stop using the tool and close your account at any time by emailing help@peerset.org. When an account is closed, we delete its saved reports as described in the Privacy Policy. Sections 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16 survive termination.

We will post any change here with a new effective date. Your next download after a change asks you to tick the box again for the updated Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the tool and close your account.

California law governs these Terms, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute will be brought only in the state or federal courts located in the City and County of San Francisco, California, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Before filing a claim, email help@peerset.org and give us 30 days to try to resolve it.

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the tool. If a part is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms; we may transfer ours.

help@peerset.org