Charity Policy

Last updated: October 3, 2025

Merlin Classics is a for‑profit apparel project inspired by hometown pride. As part of our mission, we periodically support hunger‑relief efforts serving communities we celebrate. This page explains our discretionary, corporate‑giving approach in plain language.

1) Definitions

• Revenue: money received for an order (exclusive of sales tax collected for authorities).
• Cost of Goods Sold: direct costs to fulfill an order (blank item, printing/embroidery, POD/production fees, packaging, shipping we pay).
• Wages & Overhead: No wages or overhead costs are charged to operations. Merlin Classics is built by the community, for the community — all wages, IT, hosting, coding, rent, utilities, overhead and day-to-day operations are contributed voluntarily by supporting members without charge. This allows every dollar of net proceeds to remain within the business until discretionary community contributions are made.
• Benefit: Revenues net of Cost of Goods Sold with no Wages & Overhead deducted.
• Corporate giving: discretionary business contributions we may make from time to time to reputable hunger‑relief organizations. Corporate giving is not tied to individual transactions or products.
• Beneficiaries: local or regional food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, and hunger‑relief meal programs.

2) Contribution Approach

• We may make cash contributions from time to time. We do not count in‑kind product toward any contribution.
• We do not guarantee amounts, percentages, or timing. There is no per‑sale or per‑product formula.
• Announcements about contributions, if any, are typically made after the fact.

3) Community Focus

• Our aim is to support hunger‑relief efforts that serve the broader regions including the communities we feature.
• If a specific town lacks a suitable organization, we may consider a nearby or regional program that serves residents of that town.
• Where multiple towns are served by the same program, we may combine or allocate support at our discretion.

4) Selecting Organizations

• Recipients are chosen at management’s discretion using a clear, good-faith screen designed to ensure that contributions support legitimate, verifiable hunger-relief efforts.
• Eligible recipients fall into one of three categories:
• Recognized tax-exempt charitable organizations: Must be a current U.S. nonprofit recognized under Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) (or comparable federal provision), in good standing with the IRS and applicable state regulators. The most recent IRS Form 990 (or 990-EZ / 990-PF) should be publicly available via GuideStar / Candid, the organization’s website, or another verifiable source.
• Municipal, town, or city-operated food-security programs: Programs or departments administered by a city, town, county, or regional government that directly run food-security initiatives (for example, community food pantries, senior-meal services, or emergency food-distribution efforts).
• Inter-municipal or regional partnerships: Joint programs coordinated between multiple towns, cities, or counties that pool resources to provide hunger-relief coverage across several communities.
• All organizations or governmental programs must further demonstrate:
• Active operations serving the relevant community or surrounding region.
• Transparency and accountability through accessible program information or public reporting.
• No conflicts of interest with management or supporting members of Merlin Classics.
• Nominations: Email merlinclassicsstore@gmail.com (subject line “Organization for Consideration”) including the organization’s or municipality’s name, city/state, website or contact page, and charitable status or government affiliation.
• We may decline, defer, split, or substitute potential support if an organization does not meet these criteria, becomes ineligible, cannot be reached, or cannot lawfully or practically accept a contribution.

5) Commercial Nature of Purchases

• Purchases are commercial transactions for goods. They are not charitable donations.
• We do not provide charitable receipts and purchases are not tax‑deductible.
• Any references to organizations are informational and do not imply endorsement unless explicitly stated.

6) Communications & Accuracy

• We strive for clear, accurate language about our discretionary giving.
• If any wording could be read as implying a per‑sale promise, percentage of sales, or guaranteed cadence, we interpret and correct it to reflect discretion and independence.

7) Transparency

• From time to time, we may publish post‑hoc summaries about contributions or organizations supported.
• Summaries may be aggregated across communities served by a regional program to protect privacy and simplify operations.

8) Governance, Conflicts & Changes

• Conflicts: we aim to avoid conflicts; potential conflicts are disclosed internally and may prompt selecting an alternate organization.
• Changes: this policy may be updated for clarity or operational needs; the “Last updated” date will reflect revisions.
• Governing law: this policy is governed by U.S. law and the law of our principal place of business.

This page is a plain‑language explanation of our discretionary corporate‑giving approach. It is not legal or tax advice.