Terms of use

Current Shopify-priced funding

Named-reader requests use a private address and consented Shopify calculation before funding. New future-reader community copies instead disclose the Shopify selling price, a weight-based shipping allowance and an 8.25% tax allowance on book plus shipping. No recipient address is needed until a funded copy is claimed. These allowances cover contiguous-US delivery and are estimates, not final tax. The selling price includes Kuumba’s retail margin; no separate 8% surcharge is added.

Before ordering a claimed community copy, Shopify calculates the actual delivered total using the reader’s consented private address. A cost shortfall or changed edition pauses ordering for review without extra charges. Once an order is confirmed, unused allowance is queued for proportional refunds to supporters’ original payment methods. The Funding & Refund Policy explains the complete calculation and refund process.

Multiple-copy funding and automatic rollover remain paused. Supporters may contribute to one copy or fund its remaining balance. If it cannot accept the full contribution before capture, the authorization is canceled without charging. Existing captured contributions are not silently repriced or moved. Full funding alone does not mean an order has been placed; the reader receives a separate order or shipment update.

Earlier campaign and payment records retain their recorded terms. Historical descriptions below do not reopen paused features.

Pilot availability

Kuumba operates a limited United States pilot. Funding is available only on campaign pages that show an active contribution button. Preview and test features may change, pause, or remain unavailable while Kuumba verifies payments and fulfillment.

Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 13 to create an account. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, a parent or guardian is responsible for your participation. You must provide truthful information, protect your password, use only your own account, and promptly tell support if you believe the account was accessed without permission.

Creating an account does not verify identity, financial need, or eligibility for a book. Kuumba may later request reasonable verification before approving a campaign or delivery.

Book requests and campaigns

Submitting a request does not guarantee approval, publication, funding, availability, or delivery. Kuumba may ask the reader to revise public information, correct the ISBN, edition, format, availability, or price metadata, or decline a request that cannot be verified or safely fulfilled. Kuumba will not materially rewrite a reader’s personal story without approval.

Kuumba may also open a community-first campaign for a verified physical book without a named recipient, reader request, or public request story. After full funding, the first eligible signed-in reader whose claim Kuumba successfully records becomes the intended recipient, subject to account, safety, availability, and United States delivery review. Until that claim, no person has a right to receive the book.

Campaign goals are approved estimates for one physical book and its delivery. Funds are not paid to the reader. Kuumba may pause or close a campaign under the Funding & Refund Policy.

Contributions

The campaign’s recorded Funding & Refund Policy governs its payment. Under policy 2026-09-26-per-payment-v1, the total a supporter chooses includes processing; the campaign credits the net amount after Stripe confirms the actual transaction fee. There is no campaign-wide processing reserve. Kuumba captures the agreed total in full or cancels it, never adds an automatic charge, and does not roll payments into another book. Earlier campaigns retain their recorded terms. The multiple-copy and rollover descriptions below apply only to earlier policies that explicitly offered those options.

A contribution is authorized through Stripe and charged only after Kuumba safely assigns the entire authorized amount. An eligible community-first checkout may include support intended for several community copies. Kuumba applies that amount to the campaign shown first, then to community copies in the disclosed order: the same ISBN, the same title by the same author, then the same genre. Concurrent payments and verified price differences can change how many copies finish and may begin funding another copy. If Kuumba cannot safely assign the full amount, it cancels the entire authorization without charging the supporter. A contribution is not a revocable pledge, a purchase of the book for the supporter, an investment, a loan, or an ownership interest in Kuumba or the book. Contributing does not identify, reserve, or give the supporter priority to receive a community-funded book. A supporter who later wants the book must complete the same separate claim process as any other eligible reader, if it is still available. Except where the Funding & Refund Policy promises a return or law requires one, confirmed contributions are final.

The same rollover order applies to an ordinary community-first checkout when the selected copy fills or becomes unavailable before capture. A reader-request contribution supports the named reader first. If that request fills before capture, the full amount may support an open community copy in the same order, but it is never redirected to another named reader. Kuumba never captures more than the amount shown. If no eligible allocation plan can accept the full authorization, Kuumba cancels it without charging the supporter.

Contributions are not represented as tax-deductible charitable donations. The campaign and checkout identify the applicable goal and policy. Contact support promptly about a duplicate or unauthorized charge.

Community conduct and safety

Follow the Community Guidelines. Do not harass, threaten, deceive, spam, impersonate, manipulate funding, expose private information, infringe intellectual property, or post unlawful content. Never post sexual content involving minors. Kuumba may hide content, limit posting or requesting, preserve evidence, or report apparent exploitation, credible threats, fraud, or other unlawful conduct when required or reasonably necessary for safety.

When signed in, blocking removes readers from each other’s Kuumba interactions and personalized views. It does not erase public material from the open web and does not replace reporting.

Your content

You keep ownership of original content you submit. You grant Kuumba a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, display, distribute, and moderate that content only as reasonably needed to operate, secure, promote, and improve the service. This license ends when eligible content is deleted, except for cached, shared, safety, legal, or backup copies retained for a limited period.

Do not upload pirated books, full chapters, extensive copyrighted passages, or material you do not have permission to share. Rights holders may contact support@kuumba.app with the work, location, contact information, and a good-faith explanation.

Third-party information and services

Book metadata may come from Google Books or another catalog. Payments are processed by Stripe, and fulfillment may involve a bookseller and carrier. Their information, availability, terms, and service may change. Kuumba works to verify the selected edition but cannot guarantee that every third-party record is error-free.

Moderation, suspension, and appeals

Kuumba may review reports, hide or restore content, and temporarily restrict posting or requesting based on context, severity, history, and safety risk. Serious or repeated misuse may lead to account suspension or closure when that capability is enabled and appropriately reviewed.

To appeal a moderation decision, email support@kuumba.app with the affected account or content, approximate decision date, and a short explanation. An appeal does not automatically restore content. Where practical, a different staff member will review it.

Service limits

Kuumba does not guarantee that a campaign will fund, that a title will remain available, that a carrier will meet an estimate, or that the service will be uninterrupted. Kuumba will use reasonable care and the published refund and delivery policies when a campaign or order cannot be completed.

Nothing in these terms excludes rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Changes and contact

Kuumba may revise these terms as the pilot develops. Material changes will be posted with a new effective date and, when appropriate, an account notice. Questions can be sent to support@kuumba.app.