Beyond Spots & Dots Women Owned Small Business Grant

Official Rules

THIS GRANT PROGRAM IS INTENDED FOR USE IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY AND WILL BE GOVERNED BY U.S. LAW. DO NOT ENTER UNLESS YOU ARE ELIGIBLE AND RESIDE IN ONE OF THE FIFTY (50) UNITED STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AT THE TIME OF PARTICIPATION.

WOMEN-TO-WOMEN GRANT PROGRAM OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER. PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF RECEIVING A GRANT.

1. ELIGIBILITY:

The Grant Program is open to females who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia and eighteen (18) years of age or older (“Entrant”). Void where prohibited. The Entrant must be a business owner who is the leading executive (i.e. Founder and/or President, CEO, CFO, COO, or any such other similar title) of a company that meets the following criteria:

  • Must be recognized within the United States as a legal business entity (Incorporated, Sole Proprietorship, General Partnership, Limited Partnership (LP), Limited Liability Company (LLC), C-corporation, and S-corporation; or other legal entity type as approved by Beyond Spots & Dots, in Beyond Spots & Dots's sole discretion). 
  • Must have sales of products or services from January 1st through March 31st, with no more than $5 million in annualized sales. 
  • Must be majority female owned.
  • Must not be part of an accelerator program at the time of entry.
  • Must be a company with a business address in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio or Maryland. 

The grant program is subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Beyond Spots & Dots reserves the right, at any time, to verify eligibility requirements in any manner it deems appropriate. By participating, Entrants agree to these Official Rules, which are final and binding in all respects. Entrant is providing an Entry on behalf of their company. Grant funding shall be paid to the business entity. No individual Entrant will receive a grant. Company shall be defined as the “Company name” submitted within the Entry.

NOTE: A Company employee may complete and submit the Entry on behalf of the Entrant and Company as long as the submission is in accordance with these Official Rules. If a Company has two (2) or more founders, the Company is required to designate one (1) person as the Entrant on behalf of the Company to enter the Grant Program, who must agree to these Official Rules. Beyond Spots & Dots is not liable for any disputes between co-founders arising under or related to received grant.

The following persons are NOT eligible to participate: Employees, contractors and officers of Beyond Spots & Dots or vendors and the immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, and/or “step”) of each and those living in their same households (those persons whether related or not who live in the same residence for at least three [3] months during the twelve [12]-month period preceding the grant program start date).

2. GRANT PROGRAM APPLICATION PERIOD:

The Grant Program begins June 1, 2020 at 12:00:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time (“ET”) and ends July 15, 2020 at 9:00:00 a.m. ET (the "Grant Application Period"). The time clock of the computer administering this grant program is the official clock for this grant program.

3. HOW TO ENTER:

During the grant program application period, visit www.beyondspotsanddots.com/small-business-grants (“Web Site”) and follow the online instructions to complete the online application. The application shall consist of a series of questions about the Entrant and her Company, including how the Company would use the grant funds if selected as a Finalist and/or the Winner.

Entry Considerations: 

  1. Once an Entry has been submitted, it cannot be modified in any way and Beyond Spots & Dots will not be responsible for any incomplete Entries or Entries not received, not recognized or not accepted for any reason or delayed.
  2. No fees shall be payable to any Entrant in relation to their participation in the Grant Program. All related costs will be at the sole and absolute responsibility of the Entrant.
  3. Entrant represents and warrants that: (i) she has the right to submit the Entry, (ii) all Entry information is true and not misleading, and (iii) she has read, understands and agrees to these Official Rules.
  4. Entrant will retain all rights in and to their products or services, including, without limitation, all intellectual property rights; however, Entrant must not and agrees not to disclose any information confidential to or a trade secret of the Entrant or any third party.
  5. Entrant must declare any conflict of interest (whether actual or potential).
  6. Entrant acknowledges and agrees that: Beyond Spots & Dots has wide access to ideas, designs, protocols, methodologies and ideas for products, and that new ideas for products are constantly being submitted to it or being developed by its own employees; (ii) many of those products may be competitive with, similar to, or identical to Company’s product; (iii) Beyond Spots & Dots will not refrain from developing or authorizing another to develop any products, concepts, systems or techniques that may be similar Company’s product; and (iv) Entrant will not be entitled to any compensation as a result of the introduction of any similar product that has or may come from other sources or is developed by Beyond Spots & Dots itself.
  7. Entrant acknowledges and agrees that Beyond Spots & Dots now or shall have in the future any duty or liability, (whether direct or indirect) with respect to the infringement or protection of Entrant’s patent (if any) or other intellectual property rights related to the Company’s product.

Limit one (1) Entry per Company. Entries will be judged. By submitting an Entry, Entrant agrees that her Entry conforms to the “Entry Guidelines.” Entries that are not in accordance with the “Entry Guidelines” as stated or are not received during the Grant Program Application Period will be ineligible.

BY SUBMITTING AN ENTRY, ENTRANT ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HER ENTRY MAY BE POSTED ON BEYOND SPOTS & DOTS WEB SITE OR ITS SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS, AT BEYOND SPOTS & DOTS' DISCRETION. Beyond Spots & Dots has no obligation to use or post any Entry you submit. Beyond Spots & Dots shall have full right and power to copy, publish, broadcast, display, distribute, use, edit, translate, alter, combine with other material, reuse and adapt any or all portions of the Entries in any way and for any purpose whatsoever (in accordance with these Official Rules), at any time, now or in the future, in any media now known or hereafter devised throughout the world in any manner whatsoever and for any purpose.

4. ENTRY GUIDELINES:

Entries must comply with these Official Rules. By submitting an Entry, you agree that your submission is gratuitous and made without restriction, and will not place Beyond Spots & Dots under any obligation, and that Beyond Spots & Dots is free to disclose the ideas contained in the Entry on a non-confidential basis to anyone or otherwise use the ideas without any additional compensation to you. You acknowledge that, by acceptance of your submission, Beyond Spots & Dots does not waive any rights to use similar or related ideas previously known to Beyond Spots & Dots, or developed by its employees, or obtained from sources other than you. Beyond Spots & Dots reserves the right to, and may or may not, monitor/screen Entry submissions. 

As determined by Beyond Spots & Dots, in its sole discretion, Entries must meet the following guidelines: (i) Must comply with these Official Rules and any Terms of Service on the Web Site; (ii) Cannot be sexually explicit or suggestive, unnecessarily violent or derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, political, professional or age group, profane or pornographic, or contain nudity; (iii) Cannot promote alcohol, gambling, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing), any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous, or any particular political agenda or message; (iv) Cannot be obscene or offensive, endorse any form of hate or hate group; (v) Cannot promote terrorist acts such as providing instructions on how to assemble bombs, grenades and other such weapons or provide instructional information about illegal activities.

5. FINALIST JUDGING:

Entries will be judged by Beyond Spots & Dots based on the following equally-weighted criteria (“Finalist Judging Criteria”):

  1. Thoroughness of application and thoughtful response to questions such as, how the Entrant has faced a recent challenge and how the Entrant responded
  2. Impact this grant will have on the Entrant's company
  3. Strategic fit with Beyond Spots & Dots and its Corporate social impact efforts

The fifteen (15) Entrants/Companies, five (5) per state of Pennsylvnaia, Ohio and Maryland that receive the highest cumulative scores as awarded by the Panel will be deemed the “Finalists” (subject to verification and compliance with these Official Rules). In the event of a tie, the tie will be broken based on the highest score in the first judging criterion continuing thereafter to each judging criterion in order, as needed to break the tie. Limit one (1) Finalist per Company. Finalists will be notified on or about July 31st, 2020.

Decisions of the Panel are final and may be made in its absolute and sole discretion.

Additionally, Beyond Spots & Dots reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to conduct a brief interview with any Entrant and request for Entrant to submit additional materials relating to their Entry if Beyond Spots & Dots deems, in its sole discretion, necessary to fairly judge such Entry. Beyond Spots & Dots reserves the right to not award any grants, if in its sole discretion, it does not receive any suitable Entries. No details of the deliberations on individual Entries will be revealed to Entrants or the public.

Entries may be featured from time to time by Beyond Spots & Dots during and/or after the Grant Program Application Period in Beyond Spots & Dots social media pages, marketing, public relations efforts and other channels, in Beyond Spots & Dots's sole discretion; being selected as a featured Entry is unrelated to the Judging Criteria and does not guarantee selection as a finalist or winner in the Grant Program. 

6. NOTIFICATION OF FINALISTS:

Finalists will be notified by email and/or phone at the email address or phone number provided by the Entrant at the time of entry. Beyond Spots & Dots is not responsible for suspended or discontinued Internet or wireless service or a change in Finalist’s phone number or email address, which may result in a Finalist not receiving notification. Finalists will be required to sign and return a Grant Acceptance Agreement and a Non-disclosure Agreement. In the event any required documents are not provided as requested, Finalist grant may be forfeited. If any Finalist notification is returned as undeliverable, without a forwarding address or if any documents are not returned within the required number of days, or if Finalist cannot be found or verified, or if Finalist is otherwise unable to accept the grant as stated, grant may be forfeited. Upon forfeiture for any reason, no compensation shall be given.

Entrants may not make any public statement regarding the award of a grant without the prior written consent of Beyond Spots & Dots, not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed.

7. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY AND RELEASE:

No responsibility is assumed by Beyond Spots & Dots for lost, late, mutilated, illegible, unintelligible, incomplete, misdirected Entries. No liability or responsibility is assumed by Beyond Spots & Dots resulting from Entrant’s participation in or attempt to participate in the Grant program or ability or inability to upload or download any information in connection with the Grant Program. Beyond Spots & Dots is not responsible for any typographical, technical, computer, network or human errors which may occur in the administration of the Grant Program, the uploading, the processing of Entries, the judging of Entries, the announcement of the Finalists and awardees, or these Official Rules or in any Grant Program-related materials. Use of Web Site is at user’s own risk. Beyond Spots & Dots is not responsible for any personal injury or property damage or losses of any kind which may be sustained to user's or any other person's computer or web-enabled device resulting from participation in the Grant Program. 

8. RELEASE OF LIABILITY:

By participating in the Grant Program, Entrants agree to release Beyond Spots & Dots, affiliates, officers, directors, employees, owners, distributors, retailers, agents, assignees, advertising/promotion agencies, representatives, and agents (altogether the “Released Parties”) from any and all claims, damages or liabilities arising from or relating to such Entrant's participation in the Grant Program.

9. GENERAL CONDITIONS:

The grant(s) will not be awarded to any Entrant; the grant will be awarded to the Company. Company will be responsible for reporting and paying all federal, state, and/or local taxes, and for any other fees or costs associated with the grant Company receives, regardless of whether it, in whole or in part, is used. The value of the grant awarded to the Company may be reported for tax purposes where required by law and will receive an IRS Form 1099.  No cash equivalent or substitution of the grant is offered, except at the sole discretion of Beyond Spots & Dots. Grant cannot be transferred. Unclaimed grants will not be awarded. If for any reason the Grant Program is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Grant Program, Beyond Spots & Dots reserves the right to (a) cancel, suspend and/or modify the Grant Program, or any part of it, and (b) disqualify any individual who is responsible for such action. If terminated, Beyond Spots & Dots may, in its sole discretion, determine the Finalists from among all eligible Entries received up to time of such action in a manner as determined by an independent judging agency. This Grant Program is offered only in the United States and all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, Entrant’s rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of the Beyond Spots & Dots in connection with the Grant Program, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of State of Pennsylvania, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules. By entering, Entrants consent to the jurisdiction and venue of the federal, state and local courts for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

All personal information collected in connection with this Grant Program will be used in accordance with Beyond Spots & Dots's Privacy Policy, please visit https://www.beyondspotsanddots.com/about-us/privacy-policy Additionally, any communication between Entrant and Beyond Spots & Dots regarding this Grant Program (e.g. phone calls, text messages, chats, emails, etc.) may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes. The Finalists and awardee Companies’ names will be included in a publicly available winner’s list.

LEGAL WARNING: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN INDIVIDUAL, WHETHER OR NOT AN ENTRANT, TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE, DESTROY, TAMPER OR VANDALIZE THE WEB SITE OR INTERFERE WITH THE OPERATION OF THE GRANT PROGRAM IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND THE BEYOND SPOTS & DOTS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES AND DILIGENTLY PURSUE ALL REMEDIES AGAINST ANY SUCH INDIVIDUAL TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

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Beyond Spots & Dots