Rachael Ray

Rules

1. AWARDS PROGRAM: Rachael Ray Digital LLC (the "Sponsor") is conducting a nationwide search for charitable organizations who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to pet rescue, rehabilitation and/or adoption in connection with its Mutt Madness Awards Program (the "Awards Program"). Nominations for such Awards will be accepted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness from August 4, 2009 to September 30, 2009.
2. ELIGIBILITY: Each entity nominated ("Nominee") must meet the following criteria: a not-for-profit corporation with 501(c)(3) status in good standing at the time of nomination and thereafter that has been duly organized under the laws of a state within the United States of America and that is dedicated to rescue, rehabilitation and/or adoption services for pets, primarily dogs and/or cats, and practices no-kill rescue services, who agrees that, if selected as the Grand Award Recipient or the Second Place Awards Recipient, it will use its best efforts to use the proceeds of such Award consistently with its proposed use of such proceeds as set forth on the Nomination Materials. The party submitting the nomination materials ("Nominator") must meet the following criteria: a legal resident of one of the fifty (50) United States (including the District of Columbia) who is at least 18 years old or older and an authorized representative of the Nominee at the time of nomination. Employees (and their immediate families, i.e., parents, spouse, children, siblings, grandparents, step parents, step children and step siblings) of Sponsor, and its respective parent and affiliated companies, subsidiaries, franchisees, licensees, advertising or promotional agencies, and other agents, as well as the immediate family members and household members of such employees are not eligible to be Nominees or Nominators. The Awards Program is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Participation constitutes Nominators' and Nominees' full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and Sponsor's decisions which are final and binding in all matters related to the Awards Program.
   
   Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
3. ENTRY PERIOD: Nomination Period begins on August 4, 2009 and ends on September 30, 2009 (the "Nomination Period"). First Round of the Voting Period begins on October 12, 2009 and the Final Round of the Voting Period concludes on November 22, 2009.
4. HOW TO NOMINATE YOUR ORGANIZATION:
   1. A Nominee may be nominated by any authorized representative of Nominee who is at least 18 years old and a legal resident of any of the 50 United States. To nominate an organization, go to rachaelray.com/muttmadness, a web site owned and controlled by Sponsor, at any time during the Nomination Period to complete the nomination form (collectively, the "Nomination") and:
      1. Read the Official Rules.
      2. Complete all required fields on the online nomination form, including the submission of a description (between 250-500 words) of the Nominee Organization and an essay (between 500-700 words) explaining why the Nominee should be considered for an award, based on the selection criteria set forth in Rule 6 below (the "Nomination Form"). Scan and upload a copy of the Nominee's 501(c)(3) certificate and its submitted tax return for the previous year (collectively, the Nomination Form, 501(c)(3) certificate and the submitted tax forms shall be referred to herein as the "Nomination Materials"). In the event that the organization is selected as one of the initial 64 Awards Candidates, a copy of the Nomination Form, or portions thereof, will be posted online, but neither the Nominee's 501(c)(3) certificate nor its tax return will be so posted.
5. PARTICIPATION:
   1. Limit one (1) Nomination per Nominator/e-mail address.
   2. Nomination Materials must meet the following criteria:
      1. Nomination Materials must be accurate, truthful and complete;
      2. Nomination Forms shall not promote any particular political agenda or message;
      3. Nomination Forms cannot contain misrepresentations or disparaging remarks about other people, products or entities;
      4. Nomination Forms cannot contain the logos, trademarks, trade names, service marks or trade dress of any third party without permission;
      5. Nomination Forms cannot contain copyrighted materials owned by any third party (including photographs and other works of art or images published on or in any media, such as websites, television, movies) without permission; and
      6. Nomination Materials cannot depict, and cannot themselves, be in violation of any law.
   3. In submitting Nomination Materials, each Nominator and Nominee agrees, confirms and represents that he/she/it has not, and to his/her/its knowledge, no one else has, directly or indirectly participated in or engaged in any activity in connection with this Nomination Process that: (i) may, or is likely to, harm or create a risk of physical or mental harm, injury or distress to any person, entity or property; (ii) may, or is likely to, create a risk of any other loss or damage to person, entity or property; (iii) is or may constitute a crime or tortuous activity; (iv) is, or is likely to be considered as, a violation of the rights of any other person or entity; or (v) violates any of the terms or conditions of these Official Rules.
   4. Nominators hereby agree to submit their Nomination Materials under the following terms and conditions: (a) that they have received the Nominee's permission to be nominated for a Mutt Madness Award; (b) that all physical materials submitted become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned; (c) that all materials submitted are free from any lien or claim by anyone, including, but not limited to any union, guild or performance rights society; (d) that Nominators have obtained all rights, permissions and licenses necessary for the Sponsor to use the Nomination Materials for any purpose; (e) that no Nomination Materials, or any part thereof, infringe any trademark or copyright or otherwise violate any third party's rights, including but not limited to any third party's rights of privacy or publicity; (f) that description of the Nominee and essay are the Nominator's original work or that Nominator has all rights necessary to submit such materials and have them become part of the Nomination Materials; (g) that the Nominator has obtained permission from each person whose name, image, likeness or voice is used in the Nomination Materials; and (h) that publication of the Nomination Materials through various media, including but not limited to web posting, will not infringe on the rights of any third party.
   5. The Nominator and the Nominee shall have no right of approval, no claim of compensation and no claim (including, without limitation, claims based on invasion of privacy, defamation or right of publicity) arising out of any use, blurring, alteration, or use in composite form of their name, picture, likeness, biographical information or materials. The rights granted to Sponsor hereunder shall extend to Sponsor's affiliated companies with respect to all Nominators and Nominees, including all Awards Candidates and those Nominees who are not selected as an Awards Candidate.
   6. By accepting recognition in this Nomination Process, each Nominator and Nominee shall abide by, and be bound by, these Official Rules and the decisions of the Panel of the Judges, which are final.
   7. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify Nominators and/or Nominees found tampering with or otherwise abusing any aspect of this Nomination Process as solely determined by Sponsor.
6. SELECTION CRITERIA: A panel ("Panel") of judges selected by Sponsor ("Judges") will review and judge the Nomination Materials, including the Nominees' responses to the following questions:
   1. What effect has the Nominee Organization had in its community?
   2. How would receiving a MUTT MADNESS Award impact the Nominee Organization and what would the organization do with any award money received if it were selected as the Grand Award Recipient or the Second Place Award Recipient?
   3. Cite a few examples of successful programs and/or events that the Nominee Organization is responsible for creating.
   Based upon the judging criteria set forth above, up to 64 Nominees will be selected by the Panel from among all eligible Nominees to be recognized as the "Awards Candidates." Total number of Awards Candidates may vary based on the number of eligible Nominations received.
7. VOTING: Beginning at 12:01 am (E.T.) on October 12, 2009 through 11:50 pm on November 22, 2009, the public will be invited to register with rachaelray.com and subsequently vote for their favorite Awards Candidates once each week. The public is encouraged to review the Profile Pages with respect to each Awards Candidate, and the criteria identified in these Rules, prior to casting their votes for the Awards Candidates that they believe should move on into the next round of Voting. The Voting will have 6 rounds as follows: The First Round shall take place on October 12, 2009 at which point the 64 Awards Candidates will have been randomly paired and placed into a sports-style bracket format which shall be posted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness to be voted on by the public. The Second Round shall take place on October 19, 2009, and the 32 Awards Candidates selected in the First Round will again be randomly paired and placed into a sports style bracket format which shall be posted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness to be voted on by the public. The Third Round shall take place on October 26, 2009, and the 16 Awards Candidates selected in the Second Round will again be randomly paired and placed into a sports style bracket format which shall be posted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness to be voted on by the public. The Fourth Round shall take place on November 2, 2009, and the 8 Awards Candidates selected in the Third Round will again be randomly paired and placed into a sports style bracket format which shall be posted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness to be voted on by the public. The Fifth Round shall take place on November 9, 2009, and the 4 Awards Candidates selected in the Fourth Round will again be randomly paired and placed into a sports style bracket format which shall be posted at rachaelray.com to be voted on by the public. The remaining 2 Awards Candidates will enter into the Sixth Round (the "Finalists"). The Finalists will be notified and the Sixth and final Round shall take place on November 16, 2009 and will be posted at rachaelray.com/muttmadness to be voted on by the public. The Finalist with the most votes will receive the Grand Award.
   
   In each round of voting, the public will need to select one of each of the two paired Awards Candidates in each bracket, and must complete the full voting in each round for their selections to be counted.
   
   Profile Pages. Each Awards Candidate shall have access to a blog profile page ("Profile Page") which will contain information obtained from the candidate's Nomination Form, and will have a blog-type functionality which will permit the Awards Candidate to provide written updates and to upload image files, provided such additional files are not longer than 500 words per post or exceed 500 pixels by 400 pixels per image, and provided further that such additional materials comply with the criteria set forth in Rule 5(B) – (G). The additional files may be uploaded by the Awards Candidate during any voting period and shall be made available and accessible at the end of the voting period in which they were uploaded, provided such Awards Candidate gets selected for inclusion in the subsequent round of voting; the additional materials shall then remain accessible and available throughout the duration of the Awards Program. To the extent any Awards Candidate who has uploaded additional material does not get voted into the subsequent round, then the materials such Awards Candidate submitted during the voting period in which it was not selected to move to the next round may not be made available to or accessible by the public.
   
   In the event of a tie in any round of voting (or any other circumstance in which the public's voting results cannot be used to establish order and/or placement of the Awards Candidates), the Panel of Judges selected by Sponsor may determine which of the Awards Candidates shall move into the next round of Voting, or be selected as the Grand Award Recipient based on the initial judging criteria. Decisions of the Panel of Judges and of Sponsor shall be final and binding in all respects. Public voting is open only to persons age 18 or older.
   
   Only one (1) entry per person, and per email address, per round, is permitted. Multiple entries are prohibited and will result in disqualification. Duplicated entries and partially completed entries will be voided. All entries become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned or acknowledged. In the unlikely event that there is human error in connection with the Awards Program, etc., Sponsor and its affiliates will not be held responsible.
8. AWARD AND ODDS:
   1. Grand Award Recipient: The Awards Candidate with the most votes during the in the final round of Voting above shall be recognized as the Grand Award Recipient. An Award in the amount of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000) will be paid directly to such Grand Award Recipient. Total value of Grand Award: $50,000.
   2. Second Place Awards Recipient: The Awards Candidate with the second highest number of votes during the in the final round of Voting above shall be recognized as the Second Place Awards Recipient. An Award in the amount of Twenty Five Thousand Dollars ($25,000) will be paid directly to such Second Place Award Recipient. Total value of the Second Place Award: $25,000.
   3. Each Nominee selected as an Awards Candidate shall receive an Award in the amount of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) and each time a Awards Candidate advances into a subsequent round of Voting in the Awards Program, such Awards Candidate shall receive an additional Award of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000), other than the Grand Award Recipient and the Second Place Awards Recipient, who shall receive. Awards as set forth in Subsections A and B above
   4. Awards will be made in the form of a check upon verification of both Awards Candidate's eligibility and the Designated Charity's status. Nominators will not receive any award or other consideration in this Process. The Grand Award Recipient and the Second Place Awards Recipient must each agree, in writing, to use its best efforts to use the proceeds from the Award consistently with the proposed use of the award money as set forth in its answer to the question on the Nomination Form concerning what the organization would do with any award money received.
   Odds of receiving an Award depend on number of eligible entries and the number of votes received.
9. GRAND AWARD RECIPIENT NOTIFICATION AND ACCEPTANCE: The two Finalists will be notified on or about November 23, 2009 at the telephone number provided on their entry forms. Staff of Sponsor will call during regular business hours at the number provided on entry form and will leave no messages. Sponsor shall have the right to record any such call. Failure to reach Finalist by phone, after three (3) attempts, may result in disqualification of Finalist, forfeiture of its interest in all awards, and selection of a substitute Finalist from among all remaining eligible entries. The Grand Award Recipient will be announced by December 31, 2009. An Awards Candidate may waive its right to receive awards. Awards are non-assignable and nontransferable. No substitutions allowed by any Awards Candidates. Awards Candidates are solely responsible for reporting and payment of any taxes on any Awards. Sponsor shall withhold taxes from any Award as is required by law. Prior to receiving any Award, the recipient must execute a W9 tax form verifying their tax identification number. Finalists will be required, as instructed by Sponsor, to complete and sign (i) an affidavit of eligibility/liability certifying that such Awards Candidate has complied with the Official Rules of the Awards Program, and (ii) a liability and publicity release (except where prohibited by law). Failure to sign and return any of these documents or to comply with any term or condition of these Official Rules may result in an Awards Candidate's disqualification, the forfeiture of its interest in any Award, and the presentation of the Award to a substitute recipient. Except where prohibited, participation in the Awards Program constitutes each Awards Candidate's consent to the publication of its name, organizational information and completed Nomination Form in any media for any commercial or promotional purpose (including, without limitation, the Internet), without further compensation. Awards not won and/or claimed by eligible Awards Candidates in accordance with these Official Rules will not be awarded and will remain the property of Sponsor.
10. DISQUALIFICATION: Should Sponsor determine, in its sole discretion, that any participant has violated any of the prohibitions contained in these Official Rules, Sponsor shall have no obligation to award an Award to such participant. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any Awards Candidate it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the Awards Program; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.
11. VOTING: GENERAL RELEASE/LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: By participating in the Awards Program, participant releases and holds Sponsor and its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and successor companies and each of their sponsors, advertising or promotions agencies, directors, officers, employees, representatives, partners and/or agents harmless from and against any claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Awards Program or with the acceptance, possession, use of or defect in any Award (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to, loss or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light).
    
    Sponsor is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by technical or human error which may occur in the processing of entries or voting in this Awards Program or in the running of this Awards Program. To the greatest extent permitted by applicable law, Sponsor is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims any liability arising from: (i) the use of entry form information by third parties, or from any error, defect, omission, theft, destruction or alteration of, or unauthorized access to, Awards Program entries; (ii) any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to the site; (iii) technical, network, electronic, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind, and/or (iv) injury or damage to any Awards Program participant or to any other person, or to the Awards Program participant's (or other person's) computer, other equipment, relating to or resulting from participation in the Awards Program, or from downloading materials or accessing the Awards Program.
    
    If for any reason, the Awards Program is not capable of running as planned, including but not limited to by reason of fraud, computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, technical limitations or failures, human error, mistake or any other cause that in the sole opinion of Sponsor could compromise, undermine, corrupt or otherwise affect the security, integrity, fairness, administration, or proper conduct of this Awards Program, Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Awards Program.
    
    The entrance and participation in the Awards Program constitutes each participant's agreement to comply with these Official Rules.
    
    Notwithstanding anything set forth above, to the extent that the preceding release is determined by a tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or void for any reason, each Awards Program participant agrees that, to the fullest extent permitted by law (i) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the Awards Program, or any awards awarded shall be resolved individually without resort to any form of class action; (ii) any claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred by such participant, but in no event attorney's fees; and (iii) under no circumstances will any participant be permitted to obtain any award for, and participant hereby waives all rights to claim, incidental, punitive or consequential damages.
12. CONSTRUCTION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION: The construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, and all issues and questions relating thereto, along with the rights and obligations of all participants and of Sponsor, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions. In the event that any provision is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, such determination shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision, and these Official Rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained therein.
    
    Any specific waiver of any obligation hereunder by Sponsor does not constitute a general waiver of that obligation nor of any other obligation of Nominators or Nominees.
    
    Any dispute concerning this Awards Program shall be submitted to binding arbitration in New York within one (1) year from the date that the cause of action arose (or, if multiple cause of actions are involved, from the date that the first cause of action arose), with such arbitration conducted pursuant to the then prevailing rules of the American Arbitration Association. To the fullest extent permitted by law, no arbitration brought pursuant to these Official Rules shall be joined to any other arbitration initiated pursuant to these Official Rules.
13. COPYRIGHT: By participating in this Nomination Process, each Nominator and Nominee grants to Sponsor (and any and all of its subsidiaries, agents, and affiliates and affiliated broadcast stations and networks) an exclusive, assignable, royalty-free and irrevocable right and license to edit or otherwise use their submitted Nomination Materials and any other materials submitted in connection with the Awards Program, in whole or in part, for any purpose and in any manner or media (including, without limitation, the Internet) now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world in perpetuity, and to license others to do so, without notice and without compensation, royalty, accounting, liability or obligation of any kind to any Nominators or Nominees. Each Nominee further agrees that it will use its best efforts to have its employees, consultants, volunteers, officers and directors sign any additional licenses or releases that Sponsor may require. Each Nominator further agrees that if the Nominee that he/or she nominated is selected as a Awards Candidate, Nominee will sign any additional license or release that Sponsor may require and will not publicly display his or her submission without the express written permission of Sponsor.
    
    BY SUBMITTING NOMINATION MATERIALS, NOMINATOR AND NOMINEE EACH ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE NOMINATION FORMS, AND ANY OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AWARDS PROGRAM, MAY BE POSTED ON THE SPONSOR'S WEBSITE(S), IN SPONSOR'S DISCRETION. Sponsor reserve the right to, and may or may not, monitor/screen/edit Nomination Forms and other materials prior to posting them to the website.
    
    NOMINATION FORMS AND OTHER MATERIALS POSTED TO THE WEBSITE EXPRESS THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL NOMINATOR AND NOMINEE, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF SPONSOR.
14. GENERAL RELEASE: By participating in this Awards Program and in Nomination Process, and/or accepting an award herein, each Nominator and Nominee release Sponsor and each of its respective affiliated companies, directors, officers, employees, franchisees, licensees, advertisers, representatives, partners and agents from any liability whatsoever for any claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Awards Program, the Nomination Process and/or the acceptance, possession or use of any award (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to, loss or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light). Sponsor will not be responsible for typographical, printing or other errors in these Official Rules or in other materials relating to the Nomination Process.
15. PERSONAL INFORMATION: Information collected from Nominators, Nominees and individuals voting in the Awards Program is subject to Rachael Ray Digital LLC's privacy policy, which can be found at rachaelray.com/privacy.php.
16. AWARD RECIPIENTS' LIST: The name of each Award recipient may be obtained 30 days after the close of the Awards Program by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address set forth below:
    
    Rachael Ray Digital, LLC
    900 Broadway, Suite 1001
    New York, New York 10003
    Attn: Rachael Ray's Mutt Madness Awards Program