1 Organization Identity & Scope

Aaghaz Foundation is a non-profit educational charitable trust established in 2004 under the Indian Trusts Act, holding statutory registrations under Section 12A and Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The Foundation is dedicated to preventing school dropouts among financially disadvantaged children through verified educational fee sponsorships.

These terms apply to all digital services, subdomains, portals (including the Aaghaz Fund Management System at afms.aaghazfoundation.com), and physical application workflows administered by Aaghaz Foundation.

2 Permitted Use & User Conduct

By accessing our digital platforms, you agree to utilize our resources solely for legitimate, lawful charitable and educational purposes. You explicitly agree that you shall not:

• Impersonate or Misrepresent: Provide false identity, inaccurate PAN details, fraudulent family income certificates, or counterfeit fee slips during donation or scholarship application cycles.
• Disrupt Operations: Introduce malicious code, Trojan horses, automated scraping bots, or engage in denial-of-service (DoS) attempts against the Foundation's servers or payment gateways.
• Exploit Minor Beneficiaries: Harvest, scrape, or republish photographs, names, or educational records of minor student beneficiaries for commercial exploitation, fundraising campaigns unauthorized by the Trust, or unauthorized third-party media publicity.

3 Donations & Fund Allocations

All monetary contributions received by Aaghaz Foundation are voluntary charitable gifts. Our operational philosophy is built on zero-overhead, direct-to-institution assistance:

While the Foundation makes every diligent effort to allocate donor-earmarked contributions to specific requested student cases, the Board of Trustees retains final discretion to redirect surplus or unutilized funds to other similarly deserving educational cases if an assigned student moves, graduates, or leaves an institution.

4 Section 80G Tax Exemption Certificates

Donations made to Aaghaz Foundation by Indian citizens and domestic entities are eligible for tax deductions under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

• Mandatory PAN Submission: Pursuant to Rule 18AB of the Income Tax Rules, donors wishing to claim 80G deductions must provide their valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) and current residential address at the time of transaction.
• Form 10BD/10BE Filing: Aaghaz Foundation uploads verified donation records annually to the Income Tax Department's portal. Donors can download their official Certificate of Donation (Form 10BE) upon the completion of statutory financial year filings.
• Anonymous Contributions: Donations made without valid identification or PAN cannot be issued an 80G tax exemption certificate and are processed in compliance with prevailing Indian tax guidelines.

5 Refund & Cancellation Policy

As a registered educational trust disbursing time-sensitive school tuition fees to protect children from discontinuation of studies, donations once processed and acknowledged are strictly non-refundable.

Exceptions for Technical Errors & Duplicate Transactions:

If a technical glitch or network interruption causes your bank account or payment card to be charged multiple times for a single intended donation, or if an erroneous transaction amount was debited due to gateway latency, you may request a refund under the following terms:

• The refund request must be lodged via email to aaghaz.foundation@gmail.com within 7 (seven) business days of the transaction date.
• The written claim must contain the complete transaction reference ID, payment gateway receipt, bank debit statement, and exact donation amount.
• Upon verification of redundant receipt of funds, the duplicate sum will be refunded via the original payment mode within 10 to 14 working days, subject to standard banking reconciliation windows.

6 Scholarships & Beneficiary Eligibility

Submission of an aid application or educational support request through the Aaghaz Foundation portal does not constitute a guaranteed award of scholarship or financial assistance.

• Mandatory Verification Surveys: All applications undergo stringent multi-tier physical home surveys, academic mark sheet authentications, and school visits conducted by our designated volunteers.
• Discretionary Approval: The Foundation's Screening Committee reserves the unilateral right to approve, adjust, or decline applications based on verifiable economic distress, academic sincerity, and institutional fund availability.
• Revocation of Aid: In the event of academic negligence, prolonged unexcused school absences, submission of counterfeit documents, or disciplinary expulsion from an academic institution, the Foundation reserves the absolute right to cancel future fee payments immediately.

7 Intellectual Property Rights

All materials displayed on this website, including but not limited to the Aaghaz Foundation name, insignia, official logo, graphic design elements, bespoke text content, impact reports, photographs, and video recordings, are the intellectual property of Aaghaz Foundation protected under Indian and international copyright and trademark laws.

You may not download, copy, republish, alter, distribute, or license any content from our web properties for commercial purposes without prior express written authorization from the Board of Trustees.

8 Payment Gateway Terms & External Links

Our website integrates reputable, RBI-authorized third-party payment gateways (including Razorpay, CCAvenue, UPI, and internet banking channels) to process donations securely.

While we partner exclusively with PCI-DSS compliant payment gateways that utilize end-to-end encryption, Aaghaz Foundation is not liable for technical delays, network outages, banking connection dropouts, or gateway-level processing failures beyond our immediate technical control.

Our web pages may contain hyperlinks pointing to external websites (such as partner schools, universities, or news publications). Aaghaz Foundation does not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for the operational content, security protocols, or privacy practices of any third-party websites.

9 Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The website and its digital systems are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. While we employ rigorous security precautions, we do not warrant that our website will be uninterrupted, error-free, or entirely free of server latencies.

Under no circumstances shall Aaghaz Foundation, its trustees, managing officers, volunteers, or partners be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages resulting from your use of, or inability to use, this website or its services.

10 Governing Law, Jurisdiction & Contact

These Terms and Conditions shall be construed and governed in accordance with the substantive laws of the Republic of India. In the event of any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these terms or our services, the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent civil courts situated in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.