Terms and Conditions

The 2010 Adobe-TechSoup "Show Your Impact!" Design Contest

Sponsored by TechSoup Global, 435 Brannan St., Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94107, and Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95100-2704 (jointly, "Sponsors")

1. Contest Schedule.
Contest submission opens May 10, 2010 at 12:00:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) and ends May 21, 2010 at 11:59:59 p.m. PT. All submissions must be received by the Contest end date and time.
2. Submission Procedure.
Visit the Contest home page at www.showyourimpact.org to enter your submission.
(a) Submission Form.
Complete the contest submission form with all required information. Select the category of your creative piece submission (for complete description of categories, see section 5(a) below). NOTE: Your organization’s contact person must be an authorized representative of your organization who has all right, power and authority to bind the organization to these Official Rules for purposes of this Contest.
(b) Creative Work
Submit an exceptional piece of work created with Adobe Products that demonstrates or showcases how your organization is generating innovative and creative ideas to address issues that impact the communities you serve. Whether it is reaching out to new audiences, forging unconventional partnerships or trying something that has never been done before, we want to hear about the unique and inspirational ways your organization is revolutionizing how people engage with ideas and information to improve lives, communities, or the globe.
(c) Impact Statements.
Please provide detailed responses to support the work’s impact:
  1. Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
  2. What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
  3. How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
(d) Consent to Official Rules.
Check the box indicating that you (on behalf of yourself and the organization) have read, fully understand and agree to the Official Rules. If this box is not checked, submission will NOT be accepted
3. Eligibility.

Submissions must be made by organizations that have received Adobe product donations via www.techsoup.org (TechSoup’s donation web site) and have been determined by TechSoup in its sole discretion to have qualified for such donation on or before May 21, 2010. Submitting organizations must qualify for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the (U.S.) Internal Revenue Code; or be a charity registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (which is located and operating outside of Quebec Province); or be a public library in the United States or Canada. Charities and libraries in the Canadian province of Quebec and the states of Maryland, North Dakota and Vermont are not eligible.

Organizations that advocate, support or practice (or, in the sole discretion of Sponsors, are believed to advocate/support/practice) discrimination based on age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, race, size, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status are NOT eligible.

Organizations that are donation recipients through any of the following Adobe-administered product donation programs and have not received Adobe product donations through TechSoup Stock are also NOT eligible: Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), Adobe Direct Donation Program, Adobe Employee Product Donation Program for K-12 Schools (EPDP K-12).

The contact person (i.e., authorized representative) for the submitting organization must be 21 years of age or older and a legal resident of the United States (excluding Maryland, North Dakota and Vermont) or Canada (excluding Quebec Province) as of May 1, 2010. All other persons/entities are NOT eligible to participate in the Contest or win a prize.

4. Submission Restrictions.
(a) In General.

Limit one submission (online submission form, essay and creative work) per organization. Essay and creative work must be solely the original work of organization. Do not copy the work of any other person or entity. This incliudes both essay content and art contained in the creative work. Works previously submitted, in whole or in part, to any contest sponsored by TechSoup Global will not be considered. Essays and/or creative works deemed by Sponsors in their sole discretion as inappropriate, objectionable or unfit for publication or that Sponsors determine in their sole discretion are not in compliance with these Official Rules will be disqualified. Essays may only be included in the indicated field on submission form; attachments or other forms of submission of the essays are not permitted.

Creative Works may be submitted via upload through the online submission form or a link may be provided to works that are already available and viewable online. Creative Works to be uploaded through the submission page cannot exceed the maximum allowable file size of 20 megabytes. Uploaded files must be one of the following file types: .jpg, .png, .pdf, .gif .tif, .eps, .psd, 300 dpi, .swf, .mov, .wmv, .avi, mp4, or MP3. If the creative piece is in another file format (e.g. .doc, .ppt), please submit it in a .pdf format.

The online form, essay and creative work must all be submitted at the same time; partial submissions will not be accepted.

(b) Third Party Rights.
Do not reference or identify any person, entity or property in your essay or work unless your organization has received that person’s/entity’s permission in writing. Sponsors may require proof of written permission as a prerequisite to award of prize, and the inability to produce the proof of written permission within 1 month of the Sponsors’ request may result in disqualification.
(c) Grant of Rights to Sponsors.
In entering a submission, your organization grants the Sponsors a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable license and right to use, perform, exhibit, reproduce, distribute, and/or otherwise exploit the essay and/or creative work in any manner and in any media now known or hereafter devised. Sponsors may, but are under no obligation to, post the winning essays and/or creative works on the Contest web site (or to otherwise use the winning essays and/or creative works). Organization must also agree to sign and return, upon request of Sponsors, any assignments, releases or other documents that Sponsors may require so as to perfect, effect or record such grant of rights in submission. As set forth above, the organization’s contact person (on behalf of him/herself and the submitting organization) understands that the organization will not receive any compensation (other than prize, if submission is determined to be a prize winner) and releases and agrees to hold harmless Sponsors from any liability in conjunction therewith.
5. Winner Determination.
(a) Categories.
The Creative work component of the contest submissions will be organized by category (as identified on submission form). The categories are::
  1. Print/Photo: includes photographs, newsletters, flyers, brochures, reports, banners, billboards, print advertising, etc.
  2. Web: (web sites, blogs, internet advertisements, web conferencing and/or communications/collaboration applications, online training, e-learning, web accessibility features, rich Internet applications)
  3. Other Media: includes photo slideshows, video or flash presentations, websites, blogs, internet advertisements, communication/collaboration applications, online training/e-learning, web accessibility, online games, mobile phone/device applications, enterprise/data management, etc
6. Judging.

Judging will occur over the 3 weeks following the close of the submission period on May 21, 2010, and the contact persons of the winning organizations will be notified by e-mail and/or phone thereafter, or by June 14, 2010 at the latest.

  1. In each category, a judging panel comprised of representatives of Sponsors will review each eligible submission. All eligible submissions will be judged on the combined demonstrated-impact as explained in the impact statements (30%) and the aesthetic merit of the creative piece (70%).
    1. Impact statements will be evaluated based on how well they address the questions regarding the impact and benefit that the creative submission has had on the organization, its mission and/or its constituency..
    2. Creative pieces will be evaluated based on three factors:
      1. Emotional impact of the piece
      2. Creative combined use of text, visual and/or audio elements
      3. Clear conveyance of message
7. Prizes.
The following prizes will be awarded:
(a) 3 first prizes; 1 per category.
$1,000 unrestricted cash grant (awarded to organization as a check) and winning organization’s choice of one of the following Adobe products: CS5 Web Premium, CS5 Design Premium, or CS5 Production Premium. These grants will be unrestricted and will carry no obligation on the part of the winning organization..
(b) 6 runners-up prizes; 2 per category.
Winning organization’s choice of one of the following Adobe products: CS5 Web Premium, CS5 Design Premium, or CS5 Production Premium.

If the distribution and quality of entries among the four categories results in the Sponsors’ determination of an inequitable result in its sole discretion, the Sponsors reserve the right to eliminate categories and reassign the entries and reallocate prizes to the remaining categories as appropriate. The organization’s contact person individually will have no right to the prize. No prize transfer will be permitted. There will be no prize substitution except at Sponsor’s sole discretion due to prize unavailability for any reason and only then for prize of comparable value. Any taxes on prize are the sole responsibility of winning organization.

8. Conditions of Participation.
(a) Agreement to Rules/Releases.

Agreement to Rules/Releases. The organization’s contact person (on behalf of him/herself and his/her organization) agrees to (i) abide by and be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsors and the judges, which are final and binding in all respects; (ii) release, indemnify and hold harmless Sponsors, judges, their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, agencies and the directors, officers, agents, shareholders, representatives and employees of any of the above entities, from any and all liability associated with participation in the Contest and receipt, acceptance, possession or use/misuse of prize; (iii) if organization wins a prize, by accepting prize on behalf of organization, to grant Sponsors and their designees the right to print, publish, broadcast and use, worldwide in any media now known or hereafter developed, including but not limited to the world wide web, at any time or times, the name of the winning organization and other identifying information concerning the organization for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without additional compensation, and without review, approval or further notice.

As part of the prize notification, the winning organizations will be asked to sign an affidavit of eligibility, a liability release and a publicity release (where legal). Refusal to sign these documents or failure to sign them within 15 days of notification may result in the forfeiture of the prize and the selection of an alternate winner at the discretion of the Sponsors.

(b) Limitations of Liability.
Sponsors will not be responsible or liable for: Sponsors will not be responsible or liable for: (i) lost, late, incomplete, damaged, misdirected or illegible essays, works or entries; or for any computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic or Internet hardware or software malfunctions, failures, connections, availability or garbled or jumbled transmissions, service provider/Internet/web site/use net accessibility or availability, traffic congestion or unauthorized human intervention; (ii) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by web site users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest or for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to any web site; (iii) injury or damage to participating organization’s or any other person’s computer (or information/data stored thereon) related to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading/uploading materials from/to any web site. If, for any reason, the Contest (or any part thereof) is not capable of running as planned by reason of infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of Sponsors which, in the sole opinion of Sponsors, could corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest (or any part thereof), Sponsors reserve the right at their sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and select the winning organizations in a manner which is fair, equitable and in accordance with these Official Rules, as determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion. Notice of such action by Sponsors will be posted on www.showyourimpact.org.
 
(c) Grounds for/Effect of Disqualification.
Sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to disqualify any organization they find, in their sole discretion, not to be in full compliance with these Official Rules, to be ineligible to participate in the Contest, to be tampering with the submission process, the operation of the Contest or any web site. Disqualification will result in submission entered by the disqualified party being rejected without further review or notice, and Sponsors reserve the right to take any other actions against such disqualified party and/or other persons/entities as Sponsors deem necessary and appropriate in their sole discretion so as to protect their rights.
9. Dispute Resolution/Governing Law/Waiver of Jury Trial.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, by participating in the Contest, contact person (on behalf of him/herself and his/her organization) agrees that: (a) any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these Official Rules or the rights and obligations of any entrant and/or Sponsors shall be filed exclusively in the courts of Santa Clara County, State of California and contact person (on behalf of him/herself and his/her organization) hereby consents and submits to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action, and any right to a trial by jury and a trial by jury is hereby waived, (b) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with these Official Rules, and/or the rights and obligations of any contact person, organization and/or Sponsors shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and (c) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with participating in this Contest but in no event attorneys' fees; and (d) under no circumstances will any contact person/organization be permitted to obtain awards for and hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, exemplary, special, incidental, indirect and consequential damages and any other damages (whether due to negligence or otherwise), other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of any contact person/organization and/or Sponsors shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California without giving effect or regard to any principles or doctrines of conflicts of law/choice of law of the State of California or of any other jurisdiction.
10. Winners List.
Names and submissions of winning organizations will be posted on www.showyourimpact.org on or after June 14, 2010.