Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Origin LLC dba Grant Velocity (“we,” “our,” or “us”) operates a grant search, discovery, and application management platform that helps businesses, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and organizations identify, track, and apply for federal, state, local, private, and corporate grant opportunities. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal and business information you share with us.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, store, and safeguard your information when you visit our website at www.grantvelocity.com (the “Site”), create an account, use our search and matching tools, or otherwise access our platform and services (collectively, the “Services”).

By accessing the Site or using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described herein, please do not use our Site or Services.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account and Profile Information

When you create an account, subscribe to a plan, or use our Services, we may collect:

• Full name, email address, phone number, and mailing address
• Organization or business name, entity type (LLC, nonprofit, corporation, sole proprietorship, etc.), industry, and sector
• Employer Identification Number (EIN) or tax identification number
• Organization size, annual revenue range, number of employees, and founding date
• Geographic location, service area, and operating jurisdictions
• Login credentials and account preferences
• Subscription plan selection and billing information

2.2 Grant Search and Matching Data

To provide personalized grant recommendations and search results, we collect and process:

• Search queries, keywords, filters, and search history
• Grant categories, industries, and funding types of interest
• Organization mission statements, project descriptions, and program focus areas you provide for grant matching
• Eligibility criteria you enter, including minority-owned, woman-owned, veteran-owned, disadvantaged business, or nonprofit status
• Saved grants, bookmarked opportunities, tracked deadlines, and watchlist preferences
• Grant application status tracking data (drafting, submitted, awarded, declined)
• Notes, comments, and annotations you create within the platform

2.3 Grant Application Materials

If you use our platform to prepare or manage grant applications, we may store:

• Draft and completed grant applications, proposals, and narratives
• Budget documents, financial statements, and project plans uploaded to the platform
• Letters of support, organizational charts, resumes, and other supporting documents
• Historical grant application data, award history, and funding outcomes
• Collaboration data, including shared access, team member assignments, and review comments

2.4 Payment and Billing Data

When you subscribe to a paid plan, we collect:

• Credit or debit card information (last four digits only stored by us; full card data is processed exclusively by Stripe)
• Billing name, billing address, and company billing details
• Subscription plan, payment amounts, billing cycle, and transaction history

2.5 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our Site or use our Services, we may automatically collect:

• IP address, browser type and version, operating system, and device identifiers
• Pages viewed, features used, time spent on pages, clickstream data, and referring URLs
• Cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar tracking technologies (see Section 8)
• Log data and analytics information collected through services such as Google Analytics
• Geolocation data (city/region level)

2.6 Information from Third Parties

We may receive information from third-party sources, including grant databases, government registries (SAM.gov, Grants.gov), business intelligence platforms, identity verification providers, and referral partners. We may combine this information with data we already hold to improve grant matching accuracy and enhance our Services.

3. How We Use Your Information

3.1 Grant Search and Discovery

• To power our grant search engine and deliver relevant search results based on your queries, filters, and preferences
• To generate personalized grant recommendations matched to your organization profile, industry, eligibility criteria, and funding needs
• To send grant deadline reminders, new opportunity alerts, and saved search notifications
• To maintain and update our grant database with current funding opportunities from federal, state, local, private, and corporate sources

3.2 Application Management

• To provide tools for drafting, organizing, tracking, and managing grant applications
• To enable team collaboration, document sharing, and workflow management within your organization
• To track application status, deadlines, and award outcomes across your portfolio of grant submissions
• To store and organize your application materials, templates, and reusable content for future submissions

3.3 Account and Platform Operations

• To create and manage your account, verify your identity, and authenticate access
• To process subscription payments and manage billing through Stripe
• To provide customer support and respond to your inquiries

3.4 Communications and Marketing

• To send transactional notifications, including account confirmations, deadline reminders, and security notices
• To send newsletters, grant funding insights, educational content, webinar invitations, and promotional communications you have opted into
• To respond to your inquiries, feedback, and support requests

3.5 Analytics and Improvement

• To analyze platform usage patterns, improve our search algorithms, and develop new features
• To generate aggregated and de-identified analytics on grant trends, award rates, and funding patterns for benchmarking and research
• To detect, prevent, and address fraud, security incidents, and technical issues

3.6 Legal and Regulatory Compliance

• To comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations
• To enforce our Terms of Service and protect our legal rights

4. Legal Bases for Processing

Where applicable (including under the GDPR or similar laws), we process your personal information based on:

• Contractual Necessity: Processing required to provide the Services you have subscribed to, including account management, grant search, application tools, and billing.
• Consent: Where you have provided explicit consent, such as opting into marketing communications, providing eligibility data for grant matching, or enabling third-party integrations. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate Interests: Processing necessary for our legitimate business interests, including fraud prevention, platform security, analytics, service improvement, and marketing, provided these interests do not override your rights.
• Legal Obligations: Processing required to comply with applicable laws, tax obligations, and regulatory requirements.

5. Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information with the following categories of recipients:

• Stripe, Inc.: To process subscription payments and manage billing in compliance with PCI DSS Level 1 standards.
• Service Providers: Third-party vendors who support our operations, including cloud hosting, email delivery, analytics, customer support, search infrastructure, and document storage. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and use it only for specified purposes.
• Grant-Making Organizations: Only with your explicit consent, we may share limited information with grant-making organizations or their application portals if you choose to submit an application through an integrated workflow. You will always be informed and asked to authorize any such sharing before it occurs.
• Team Members and Collaborators: If you invite team members or collaborators to your account, they will have access to shared data based on the permission levels you assign.
• Legal and Regulatory Bodies: We may disclose your information to regulators, courts, law enforcement, or government agencies when required by law, subpoena, or court order, or when necessary to protect our rights, safety, or property.
• Professional Advisors: Attorneys, auditors, accountants, and consultants who provide professional services to us.
• Affiliated Entities: We may share information with affiliated companies for operational and administrative purposes, subject to this Privacy Policy.
• Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred to the successor entity, subject to this Privacy Policy.

6. Your Application Materials

Grant applications, proposals, narratives, budgets, supporting documents, and other materials you create or upload to the platform (“Application Materials”) remain your intellectual property. We treat your Application Materials with the following commitments:

• Ownership: You retain full ownership of all Application Materials. We do not claim any ownership rights to your content.
• Confidentiality: We do not access, read, review, or use the contents of your Application Materials for any purpose other than providing, securing, and improving the Services, unless required by law or with your explicit consent.
• No Sharing Without Consent: We will never share your Application Materials with grant-making organizations, other users, or third parties without your explicit authorization.
• Aggregated Insights: We may use aggregated, anonymized, and de-identified metadata (such as application counts, submission rates, and award statistics) for platform analytics and benchmarking. This data cannot be used to identify you or reconstruct your application content.
• Deletion: Upon account closure, you may request deletion of all Application Materials, subject to any legal retention requirements.

7. Data Retention

We retain data according to the following guidelines:

• Active Accounts: We retain your data for the duration of your account and active subscription.
• After Account Closure: Upon account deletion or subscription cancellation, we retain certain information for up to three (3) years to satisfy legal, regulatory, and legitimate business requirements, unless a longer period is required by law.
• Application Materials: Retained for the duration of your account. Upon account closure, Application Materials are deleted within ninety (90) days unless you request earlier deletion or legal retention applies.
• Billing Records: Payment and subscription records are retained in accordance with tax and financial record-keeping obligations (typically seven years).
• Aggregated Data: Aggregated and de-identified data may be retained indefinitely for analytics, benchmarking, and research purposes.

When data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it using industry-standard methods.

8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to support platform functionality and improve your experience:

• Essential Cookies: Required for authentication, session management, and core platform functionality.
• Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how users interact with our platform, including page views, feature usage, and traffic sources (e.g., Google Analytics).
• Functional Cookies: Remember your preferences, saved searches, dashboard settings, and display options.
• Marketing Cookies: Used to track visitors across websites for delivering relevant advertisements and measuring campaign effectiveness.

You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect platform functionality. For more information, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

9. Data Security

We implement comprehensive safeguards to protect your personal information and application materials:

• Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2+ and at rest using AES-256 encryption.
• Access Controls: Role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and the principle of least privilege for access to sensitive systems and user data.
• Secure Infrastructure: Our platform is hosted on secure, SOC 2 compliant cloud infrastructure with firewall protection, intrusion detection, and continuous monitoring.
• Payment Security: All payment processing is handled by Stripe in compliance with PCI DSS Level 1 standards.
• Document Security: Application materials and uploaded documents are stored in encrypted, access-controlled environments with per-user isolation.
• Incident Response: We maintain a formal incident response plan for rapid detection, containment, and remediation of security incidents.

Despite these measures, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and managing access permissions for team members you invite.

10. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights:

• Access and Portability: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you in a machine-readable format.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information and Application Materials, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Restriction of Processing: Request limits on how we use your information under certain circumstances.
• Objection: Object to our processing of your information based on legitimate interests.
• Withdrawal of Consent: Withdraw consent at any time for consent-based processing without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Data Export: Export your organization profile, saved grants, application tracking data, and Application Materials from the platform.
• Opt-Out of Marketing: Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link or updating your communication preferences. You will continue to receive transactional and account-related communications.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the information provided in Section 14. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law (generally 30–45 days).

11. California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), provides you with additional rights, including the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

We do not sell personal information as defined under the CCPA/CPRA. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.

California residents may submit requests by contacting us at the information provided in Section 14.

12. Third-Party Links

Our Site and Services may contain links to third-party websites, grant-making organizations, government portals (such as Grants.gov and SAM.gov), and other external services not operated by us. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party service you visit or engage with. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or security of any third-party websites or services.

13. Children’s Privacy

Our Services are intended for business and organizational use and are not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information promptly.

14. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Please include your full name, organization name, and a detailed description of your request so we can respond appropriately.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or business operations. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on our Site with a revised “Effective Date” and, where required by law, notify you via email or in-app notification. Your continued use of our Site or Services following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of those changes.