Terms of service
Version 2026-10-draft-2
What Mad4Change is
These terms are between you and Mad4Change Incorporated, EIN 43-2654728, which does business as Mad4Change and is called "Mad4Change" below.
Mad4Change is a nonprofit fundraiser. You make a donation, choose a charity in your city, and make picks about real sporting events. Each round you are matched with another fan, and the better picks move money to that fan's chosen charity.
Your opponent is normally a fan in your own city. When your city has no suitable opponent for you in a round, you may be matched with a fan in another Mad4Change city — we call it a rivalry battle — and the loser's stake for that round goes to a charity in the winner's city. It is the only circumstance in which money moves between cities.
This is not gambling and not a contest for money. You never receive winnings, prizes, gift cards or anything else of value for playing. The only thing you can earn is a badge on your profile.
Your donation
Your buy-in is a donation to Mad4Change, not a payment for a service and not a bet. The minimum is $20 in whole dollars, and you may add to it until the season's first game.
When the season starts, your donation is split into a stake for each battle round, a share banked for your charity straight away, and a share that covers our overhead. We show you that split before you give.
You choose which charity you play for, and we take that seriously. Mad4Change keeps final say over where its funds go, as the law requires of a public charity. If a charity you chose loses its tax-exempt status or cannot accept the money, we will grant it to another charity in your city and tell you.
Refunds
You can ask for a full refund at any time before the season's first game, and we will return what you paid.
After the first game your donation is committed to charities and we cannot refund it.
Your account
You must be 18 or over to create an account. One account per person. Keep your password to yourself; you are responsible for what happens under your account.
Your display name is public on leaderboards. Your email address is not shown to other players.
We may suspend or close an account that is used to cheat, to abuse other players, or to break these terms.
Your picks
You can change any pick until the first game of that stretch starts. From that moment every pick in the stretch is fixed, including games that have not been played yet.
If you leave a pick blank, we fill it in using the backup rule you chose, so you are never left out of a round. Those picks count the same as any other.
If a game is cancelled, postponed or its result is corrected, we may re-score the round. Corrections are recorded, never quietly applied.
Your information
We ask for as little as we can: an email address, a display name, a ZIP code, and a phone number only if you want text reminders. We do not ask for your home address.
We use your ZIP code to work out which city you play in. We never sell your information, and we never share it with a charity without asking you first.
Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
What we collect, who else sees it and how to get it back is set out in full in our privacy policy, which is part of this agreement.
What we do not promise
We cannot promise that a season will run exactly as planned. Games get cancelled, sports leagues change their schedules, and software has bugs. If a season cannot be completed, we will bank every remaining stake for the charities involved and tell you what happened.
Examples of how much a charity might receive are illustrations, not predictions.
Mad4Change is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any sports league, conference, team or broadcaster.
Changes to these terms
If we change these terms we will tell you, and we record which version you agreed to. Carrying on using your account after a change means you accept the new version.
Questions? Read the rules and FAQ or about us.