Asociația Binele Există

Terms and conditions

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

This page sets out the terms and conditions for using www.bineleexista.ro (the Website), as well as the rules for making donations and the relationship between the Binele Există Association and the people we help.

The Website is operated by the Binele Există Association, a non-profit legal entity with the following details:

Tax identification number (CUI): 47487167
Registered office: Brașov County, Str. Carpaților 22, building 2, entrance A, apartment 33
Contact email: binele.exista@gmail.com

www.bineleexista.ro operates as a platform for raising funds (donations) for social, humanitarian, educational and medical purposes.

By accessing and using the Website, making a donation or requesting support from the Association, you confirm that you have read and agree to these Terms and Conditions.

This document is governed by the Romanian legislation in force.

2. ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS

2.1. Using the Website and/or making a donation constitutes your express agreement to comply with these Terms and Conditions.

2.2. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions:

please do not use the Website to make donations; and
you cannot be considered a potential beneficiary of support provided by the Association.

2.3. The Binele Există Association reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time by updating this page on the Website. Continuing to use the Website after changes are published means that you accept them.

2.4. The Association may, at its discretion, modify, suspend or discontinue the services/platform, in whole or in part, without prior notice.

2.5. Any donation made through any method offered by the Association (online by card, bank transfer, etc.) for any of the cases presented constitutes acceptance of these terms.

3. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions:

Beneficiary – any person receiving assistance (financial, material, services, etc.) from the Binele Există Association.
Potential beneficiary – any person/family who has requested help and is undergoing verification to establish eligibility and genuine need.
Parent/parents – the legal representative of a beneficiary who is a minor.
Legal representative – the person legally acting on behalf of the beneficiary.
Social/charitable case – a person or family in difficult social, personal or economic circumstances who needs support.
Humanitarian case – a situation requiring help with medical issues (treatment, surgery, medication, etc.).
Social/charitable/humanitarian activity – an activity organised by the Association to meet specific needs of one or more beneficiaries (material or financial assistance, medical support, educational support, etc.).
Revolving fund – an internal Association fund made up of donations, used for:
- urgent payments (treatments, medical procedures, medication, etc.);
- covering expenses in advance for urgent cases;
- supporting other Association projects or activities as needed.
General donation – a donation made using the Donate now button on the Website, without being directed to an individual case.
Directed donation – a donation made for a specific case (e.g. through the Donate button on that case’s page), where the donation is explicitly identified as being for that person/situation.
Binele Există Association/the Association – the organisation that administers the Website, runs humanitarian campaigns and manages donated funds.
Donor – any individual or legal entity contributing money or goods, including online card donations, bank transfers, SMS donations, etc.
Website/platform – www.bineleexista.ro and all its fundraising-related functions.
Collaborator – an individual or legal entity supporting the Association, voluntarily or under a service agreement, including by verifying cases and promoting campaigns.
Employee – a person employed by the Association.
Volunteer – a person involved in the Association’s activities occasionally or under a volunteering agreement.
Economic activity – any commercial activity lawfully carried out by the Association, such as selling products/services, to generate income subsequently used for the Association’s humanitarian purposes.
Charity shop – an online shop or other sale of products/services whose profits are used for social/humanitarian purposes.
Affiliated person – as defined in the Tax Code, persons/entities with relevant legal or economic links to the Association.
Affiliated websites – other websites or web projects operated by the Association or affiliated entities, used to raise funds or generate profits that subsequently support the Association’s mission.
Fundraising – the process of raising funds.
Fundraiser/case manager – the person appointed by the Association to manage a particular case: verifying the situation, publicly communicating approved information, collecting dedicated funds, arranging related payments and providing transparency to donors.
Facebook fundraising campaign – a campaign created and managed by the Association, including through eligible individuals’ social media accounts where the platform permits such campaigns.
Service provider – an entity with which the Association has a service agreement (e.g. accounting, promotion, IT, communications or logistics).

4. MAIN GROUPS OF PEOPLE WE SUPPORT

Within the limits of available resources, the Binele Există Association aims to support the following groups of vulnerable people:

children and adults with serious illnesses (e.g. cancer, leukaemia and other severe conditions);
people with disabilities;
street children;
older people without a home;
families in financial hardship, particularly those with many children;
older people living alone without support;
orphaned children;
widowed mothers;
single mothers unable to cover their children’s basic needs;
grandparents raising grandchildren alone without sufficient financial resources;
families with urgent special needs (food, utilities and basic safety);
care homes for older people;
shelters;
children and young people with good school results or special talents who need support to take part in competitions, academic olympiads or educational programmes;
highly vulnerable people/families in disadvantaged areas who can demonstrate that targeted support would enable them to develop a lawful activity (a small business/source of income) and escape poverty;
any other person in genuine, substantiated difficulty.

Cases are selected by the Association following an internal assessment.

5. SITUATIONS IN WHICH WE CANNOT PROVIDE SUPPORT

The Association does not run fundraising campaigns or allocate resources for the following situations:

people who are able to work but refuse to do so without a valid reason;
people who have been offered a job and turned it down without justification;
people who left their jobs without an objective reason and subsequently request urgent financial help;
people with sufficient income to cover essential expenses;
young people who are fit to work but make no effort to find a job;
people with addictions (alcohol or drugs) who are not in recovery and do not accept specialist support;
young people who left school without a valid reason and refuse to resume their education;
people who repeatedly manage their financial resources irresponsibly.

The aim is to ensure donations reach genuine, urgent and substantiated cases.

6. NEEDS WE DO NOT COVER

The Association does not use donated funds for:

bank loan repayments;
divorce-related expenses;
travel abroad to find employment;
notarial fees for personal matters;
gifts/informal payments to medical staff;
fines;
debts to loan sharks;
personal loans of any kind;
lawyers’ fees for personal disputes.

7. WAYS TO DONATE

Donations can be made in several ways, including online by card.

Card donation
Card payments are quick and secure. Online payments are handled by an authorised payment processor, such as Netopia Payments. All you need to donate is internet access and a valid bank card.

The Association reserves the right to display other donation methods (bank transfer, SMS, etc.) where available.

8. DONATIONS MADE DIRECTLY TO THE ASSOCIATION’S ACCOUNTS

We understand that some donors choose to send money directly to the beneficiary, while others prefer an organisation to manage the funds transparently.

We encourage you to use the Association’s official donation channels for the following reasons:

amounts are recorded in the accounts;
the use of funds is strictly monitored against the declared purpose;
we take responsibility for how the money is used;
we provide transparency about the donation’s journey and final destination.

All these aspects are detailed in these Terms and Conditions.

9. THE ASSOCIATION’S INDEPENDENCE

The Binele Există Association:

is not affiliated with any political party;
does not belong to any religious denomination and does not act in the interests of a church or religious group;
does not discriminate on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, etc.

Assistance is provided solely on the basis of genuine need and available resources.

10. BANK FEES AND COSTS

Online payment processors and banks charge fees for transactions.

a) For online card donations, payment processors deduct a transaction fee.
b) The Association retains 5% of the amounts collected through the platform to cover:

bank fees charged by partner banks;
the costs of transferring money to beneficiaries or hospitals/clinics, particularly for payments in Romanian lei within the EU;
any currency conversion losses when a donation is made in a currency other than the Romanian leu.

These costs are not profit. They are strictly operational expenses needed to ensure assistance actually reaches the beneficiary.

11. HOW A DONATION WORKS

When a beneficiary requests financial help, the Association assesses the case and determines the amount needed for that purpose, such as surgery, treatment, emergency rent or firewood for winter.

Raising and delivering this amount inevitably involves costs for promotion, administration, bank fees and so on. These costs are added to the amount requested by the beneficiary.

The final result is the total campaign amount displayed publicly on the Website for that case.

As a guide, this total amount includes:

≈70% – the net amount that actually reaches the beneficiary, agreed with the case manager and reflecting the beneficiary’s genuine need;
≈3% – administrative expenses (monthly running costs such as servers, accounting and salaries for staff managing cases);
≈2% – contributions to the Association’s revolving fund, used for:
- urgent payments for treatments/procedures;
- medical or social situations requiring immediate funds before donations have actually arrived;
- advance payment of certain costs for cases already published, including when SMS donations or funds from other channels have not yet arrived;
≈5% – banking and online payment processing fees (charges paid to payment processors and banks, including currency conversion and transfers to beneficiaries or hospitals).

The percentages above are indicative and may vary depending on each case, the type of expenses, the bank used, the donation currency or the medical/social urgency.

The beneficiary pays nothing to the Association. From the beneficiary’s perspective, they receive the amount agreed as necessary. The logistical costs of raising that money are also covered by donations.

12. SUPPORTING OTHERS (OTHER NGOs)

The Binele Există Association may also support other non-profit organisations or social initiatives through donations of money or goods, within its available budget.

The Association chooses these NGOs or initiatives at its discretion.

13. PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA (GDPR)

The Association complies with personal data protection legislation, including Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), Law No. 190/2018 and applicable national legislation on data privacy and electronic communications.

In brief:

The Association has appointed a person responsible for personal data protection.
Beneficiaries’ personal data (names, medical/social circumstances, etc.) is published on the Website only after we receive their written consent or, where applicable, that of their parent/legal representative.
Donors may donate anonymously where the platform technically permits it, although certain financial information must be kept internally to comply with accounting and legal obligations.

14. ANONYMISATION AND DELETION OF DATA

To comply with legal privacy obligations:

Beneficiaries’ personal data and the financial history of their associated campaigns may be anonymised in the Association’s database after a case is closed or after a certain period, so that the person can no longer be publicly identified.
Donors may request the deletion/anonymisation of their personal data from the Association’s records to the extent permitted by law. In some situations, financial data must be retained under tax and accounting legislation; in those cases, mandatory minimum retention requirements take precedence over a deletion request.