Last Updated: September 24, 2026

1. About These Terms
   Welcome to www.higherachievement.org (the “Site”). The Site is operated by Higher Achievement Program, Inc. (“Higher Achievement,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC.
   These Terms of Use (“Terms”) explain the rules for using the Site. By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.
   Please also review our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and protect information. The Privacy Policy is part of these Terms.
2. Changes to These Terms
   We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated Terms on this page and revise the “Last Updated” date above. Changes take effect when the updated Terms are posted. If you continue to use the Site after that, you are agreeing to the updated Terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
3. What the Site Is For
   The Site provides information about Higher Achievement, our programs, and ways to get involved, including as a scholar, a mentor or volunteer, an event attendee, or a donor. It also lets you sign up for our communications and make gifts to support our work.
   Please keep the following in mind:
   • We work to keep the Site accurate and current, but program details, eligibility criteria, schedules, event information, and other content may change, and portions of the Site may become out of date. We are not obligated to update or remove outdated content, although we try to.
   • Nothing on the Site is an offer or commitment to enroll a student, place a mentor, hire an applicant, or provide any particular service. Enrollment, mentoring placement, volunteering, and employment are all subject to our separate application, eligibility, screening, and approval processes.
4. Your Use of the Site
   You may use the Site for lawful purposes and for your own personal, noncommercial, educational, or charitable purposes. We want people to learn about and share our work, so you are welcome to view, download, and print Site content for those purposes, and to link to the Site.
   When using the Site, please do not:
   • Use the Site in any way that violates applicable law or these Terms.
   • Submit false, misleading, or impersonating information through any form on the Site, or submit information about another person without that person’s permission (a parent or guardian may, of course, submit information about their own child).
   • Upload or transmit viruses, malware, or other harmful code, or attempt to interfere with, disrupt, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the Site, our systems, or the systems of our service providers.
   • Use automated tools such as bots, scrapers, or crawlers to access or collect content from the Site, except that standard search engine indexing is permitted.
   • Attempt to access any non-public portion of the Site, or any account, database, or system that you are not authorized to access.
   • Post, submit, or transmit content that is unlawful, harassing, threatening, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate, particularly given that our community includes middle school students and their families.
   We may suspend or restrict your access to the Site, or remove content, if we believe you have violated these Terms or if we need to protect the Site, our organization, our program participants, or others. We may do so without notice.
5. Our Content
   The content on the Site — including text, graphics, photographs, video, logos, and the arrangement of the Site itself — is owned by Higher Achievement or used with permission, and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws.
   Subject to these Terms, you may:
   • View, download, and print Site content for personal, noncommercial, educational, or charitable purposes, including to learn about, support, or spread the word about our work.
   • Share links to the Site and to individual pages, and share our content on social media using the sharing tools we provide.
   • Quote or excerpt reasonable portions of Site content, provided you credit Higher Achievement and do not alter the meaning.
   Please do not, without our prior written permission:
   • Use our name, logo, or other marks in a way that suggests we endorse, sponsor, or are affiliated with you, your organization, or your products or services.
   • Use Site content for commercial purposes, including resale or paid distribution.
   • Modify Site content in a way that misrepresents Higher Achievement, our programs, or our participants, or remove any copyright or other proprietary notices.
   • Frame the Site or present it in a way that obscures its source, or link to the Site from a site that is unlawful or that would reasonably reflect poorly on our participants, families, or mission.
   Photographs of scholars, mentors, families, and staff may appear throughout the Site. Please do not reproduce or redistribute images of individuals outside of the personal and noncommercial uses described above. In particular, please do not upload any images from the Site into artificial intelligence or similar tools, for example, to generate new images or create other AI-produced content. We reserve all rights not expressly granted in these Terms.
6. Information You Submit
   Several pages on the Site invite you to submit information — for example, to request information about enrolling a student, to apply or inquire about becoming a mentor or volunteer, to register for an event, to sign up for our newsletter, or to contact us.
   When you submit information through the Site:
   • Please provide information that is accurate and complete, and keep it up to date if it changes.
   • Submitting a form does not guarantee enrollment, placement, admission to an event, or any other outcome. We will follow up with you as appropriate.
   • We handle the information you submit in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Many of our forms are hosted by third-party providers, as described in the Privacy Policy and in “Third-Party Services and Links” below.
   • Please do not submit sensitive information through the Site unless we specifically ask for it, and please do not submit anyone else’s information without their permission.
   If you send us feedback, ideas, or suggestions about our programs, our Site, or our work, you agree that we may use them without restriction, obligation, or compensation to you. We do not treat unsolicited feedback as confidential.
7. Donations
   Higher Achievement is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Our EIN is 52-1383374. Donations initiated through the Site are processed by third-party giving platforms and may be subject to additional terms and conditions. Your payment card information is entered on and handled by those platforms, not collected by us directly, and their terms and privacy policies apply to the payment transaction.
8. Third-Party Services and Links
   Parts of the Site are provided by third parties. For example, our donation pages, several of our forms, our email signup, and our careers page rely on third-party platforms, some of which are embedded in or linked from our pages. When you use those features, you may be interacting with the third-party provider as well as with us, and that provider’s terms and privacy policy will apply to its services.
   The Site also contains links to websites and resources operated by others, including partners, and social media platforms. We provide those links for convenience and information. We do not control those sites, we do not review or endorse their content, and we are not responsible for their content, products, services, or privacy practices. Please review the terms and policies of any third-party site you visit.
   Our Privacy Policy describes the categories of third-party providers we use and how information flows to them.
9. Privacy
   We care about the privacy of the people who visit our Site and participate in our programs. Our Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, how we protect it, how long we keep it, and the choices available to you. Please review it at [link].
10. Children and Program Participants
    The Site is designed for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information online directly from children under 13, and children should not submit information through the Site.
    Because our programs serve students, a parent or guardian may submit information about their child through our forms, and we may collect information about program participants through separate program materials. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle that information, and participation in our programs is governed by the separate agreements, consents, and forms we provide to families.
11. Accessibility
    We want the Site to be usable by everyone in our community, and we work to improve its accessibility over time. If you have difficulty accessing any part of the Site, or if you would like information in an alternative format, please contact us using the information below and we will do our best to help.
12. Disclaimers
    We provide the Site and its content on an “as is” and “as available” basis. While we make reasonable efforts to keep the Site accurate, current, and available, we do not promise that:
    • The Site or its content will always be accurate, complete, or up to date.
    • The Site will be available without interruption, or that defects will be corrected.
    • The Site or the servers that make it available will be free of viruses or other harmful components.
    To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties of any kind relating to the Site, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
13. Limitation of Liability
    To the fullest extent permitted by law, Higher Achievement and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Site, including damages arising from any interruption of the Site, any errors or omissions in Site content, or any third-party service or website linked to or embedded in the Site.
    Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, personal injury caused by our negligence, or any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the limitations in this section may not apply to you.
14. Indemnification
    If your use of the Site violates these Terms or applicable law and that use causes a third-party claim against us, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Higher Achievement and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, and agents from that claim, including reasonable attorneys’ fees. We will notify you of any such claim and may participate in its defense at our own expense. You may not settle any claim in a way that imposes an obligation on us without our written consent.
15. Copyright Concerns
    We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe that content on the Site infringes your copyright, please contact us at the address below with the following: a description of the copyrighted work, the location of the material on the Site, your contact information, a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized, a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf, and your signature. We will review and respond, and we may remove content we believe in good faith to be infringing.
16. Governing Law and Where Disputes Are Resolved
    These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to the Site are governed by the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.
    You and Higher Achievement agree that any lawsuit arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in the District of Columbia, and each of us consents to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Before filing a claim, we ask that you contact us so that we can try to resolve the matter informally.
17. Other Important Terms
    • Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, that provision will be modified or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest of these Terms will remain in effect.
    • No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision of these Terms, that does not waive our right to enforce it later.
    • Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Higher Achievement regarding your use of the Site, and replace any prior terms. Separate agreements may govern our programs, events, employment, and other relationships.
    • Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, reorganization, or transfer of our operations.
    • No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms do not create rights for anyone other than you and Higher Achievement, except that the individuals and entities identified in the disclaimer, limitation of liability, and indemnification sections may rely on those sections.
    • Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect the meaning of these Terms.
    • Survival. Sections that by their nature should survive — including those covering our content and trademarks, information you submit, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law — will continue to apply after you stop using the Site.
    • Language. These Terms are provided in English.
18. Contact Us
    If you have questions about these Terms or the Site, please contact us at info@higherachievement.org.