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steps
Last updated September 17, 2026 · Built by notacompany · Operated by Pipedesk OÜ, Estonia
Steps (steps.org) is provided by Pipedesk OÜ, a company registered in Estonia, trading as Not a Company, the parent organization behind the Steps brand and product. "Steps", "we" and "us" mean Pipedesk OÜ.
Steps offers two services. Year-round walkathons: a campaign Steps sets up with a nonprofit, which its supporters then take part in by text (sections 3 to 9). The Steps journal: a journaling service in iMessage for people with an account at app.steps.org (sections 10 to 13). Sections 14 to 19 apply to everyone.
Steps also sets up walkathons for personal causes, run by a person for someone they are raising money for. In sections 3 to 9, what applies to a nonprofit applies to that person too, except that a donation to a person is not a donation to a charity. Where the written agreement between Steps and a nonprofit or a person says something different from these terms, that agreement applies between Steps and them.
Steps sets up a year-round walkathon campaign with a nonprofit: its name, logo, messages, join word, its handle on steps.org and a connection to its own Stripe account. The nonprofit checks the campaign before it goes live. After launch, supporters text the campaign's join word to the Steps phone number in iMessage or WhatsApp. To join, a supporter sets a daily step goal, sets up a monthly donation to the nonprofit (section 5), and installs the Steps app, which counts their steps with their permission; if they like, they can write a few words about why they walk. Steps sends each walker a short report once a month, or each week if they ask, and answers when they write, including when they ask for their score. A cause may have a leaderboard of its walkers (section 8). Goals are invitations, and nobody has to meet them.
Steps is free for nonprofits: we charge nothing to set up or run a campaign. Stripe charges its own fees on each monthly donation under the nonprofit's agreement with Stripe. Steps takes nothing from donations. Steps is paid for by optional tips from donors (section 6).
The monthly donation. When a supporter joins a campaign, they set a daily step goal and set up a monthly donation, the most they will give in any billing month (for example, $30 a month). Before they set it up, Steps shows the amount each successful day gives (for example, $1 a day). A day on which the goal is not reached gives nothing.
A successful day is a calendar day, in the walker's own time zone, on which the step count their phone shares with Steps, with their permission (section 8), reaches their daily step goal. If a phone's step count syncs late or fails to sync for a while, Steps picks up the missing steps automatically when the phone syncs again, and recounts that day before the monthly charge. If a day still looks wrong, the walker can reply in their conversation with Steps or write to [email protected].
The monthly charge. A monthly donation is a recurring donation with a variable amount, set up as a Stripe subscription billed by usage. The supporter saves a payment card once, with Stripe, on the nonprofit's own Stripe account. Their billing month starts on the day they set up their monthly donation, and they authorize the nonprofit to charge the card at the end of each billing month for the successful days in that billing month, at the per-day amount, up to their monthly donation. A billing month with no successful days is not charged. The charge appears on the supporter's card statement as STEPS. Each charge is a payment from the supporter to the nonprofit, made through Stripe directly into the nonprofit's own Stripe account. Steps never receives or holds a donation, and card details are handled only by Stripe.
Changing or stopping. A supporter can change their monthly donation or their daily goal, or stop their monthly donation, at any time, by telling Steps in their conversation, or by replying STOP (section 8). Stopping ends future charges: successful days already walked in the current billing month are charged at the end of that billing month, and nothing after.
Receipts, refunds and rules. The nonprofit is responsible for its Stripe account, for any tax receipt it gives a supporter, which covers the amount actually given, for refunds of donations, and for following the fundraising, charity and recurring-payment rules that apply where it raises money. Stripe processes each payment under its own terms.
When a supporter sets up a monthly donation, they may add a tip for Steps. A tip is optional, starts at zero, is shown on its own line, and is added on top of the donation, so the full donation goes to the nonprofit. The payment screen shows what goes to the cause and what goes to Steps before the supporter saves their card. A tip goes to Steps. It is separate from the donation and does not go to the nonprofit or its cause. We refund a tip on request: write to [email protected].
A nonprofit running a campaign confirms that it is who it says it is, that what it tells supporters about its cause is true, and that it has the right to the name, logo and words it gives us. It grants Pipedesk OÜ a limited license to use them to run its campaign. It approves the campaign's messages, and the per-day amount its campaign uses, before launch.
For its supporters' personal data, the nonprofit is the controller and Steps processes that data on its behalf, under a data processing agreement. The nonprofit is responsible for having a lawful basis for its campaign and for its own privacy notice to supporters.
No campaign may be aimed at children. Steps does not yet accept political campaigns, candidates, parties or political committees.
Supporters must be 18 or older. A supporter takes part only after texting a campaign's join word themselves. The first reply names the campaign and says how to stop: reply STOP any time. Replying STOP ends both the messages and the monthly donation, after Steps asks the supporter to confirm. Once they confirm, Steps sends one last message saying they are out and nothing after it, and makes no further charges, except that successful days already walked in the current billing month are charged at its end (section 5). We also honor a request to stop made in any other reasonable way. Your mobile carrier's usual messaging or data charges may apply.
The Steps app reads a supporter's step counts only with their explicit permission, which they can withdraw at any time; without it, no day can be counted toward a monthly donation. Step counts are used only for the count of successful days, the supporter's reports and score, the leaderboards and the campaign totals, and never to infer anything about anyone's health. A goal is not medical or fitness advice. Walk at your own pace and within your own limits. Stop if something hurts or you feel unwell, and if you have a health condition, check with your doctor before walking more.
A cause may have a leaderboard of its walkers, ranked by the days they reached their goal and showing their average daily steps, and each walker may see a leaderboard of their own, with the walkers who joined through their personal invite link. It is opt-in: a walker appears on a leaderboard only if they choose to join it, under the display name they pick, and they can leave it at any time. Steps gives each walker a personal invite link to pass on themself, and may occasionally invite a walker to share an achievement, such as a month's days walked and what it gave. Sharing is optional and done by the walker themself; Steps never messages a walker's contacts and never reads their address book.
A donation is made to the nonprofit, and questions about a donation, a receipt or a refund of a donation go to the nonprofit. Questions about how a day was counted go to Steps.
Campaign messages are carried by iMessage (through our provider Sendblue) and WhatsApp (through the Meta WhatsApp Business Platform), and step counts by the Steps app on iPhone and Android. Steps depends on those services and cannot promise that every message is delivered, that every step syncs on time, or that any channel stays available.
The Steps journal is a micro journaling service you use in iMessage. On the mornings and at the hour you choose (from one morning a week to seven), it sends you a short message with no question in it; when you reply it asks your questions one at a time, suggested from your answers at sign-up or in your own words, and saves what you write as that day's entry. Your first journal opens when you say hi. It keeps your journal and its history, readable on the web at app.steps.org.
Every account starts with 30 free days. No payment card is needed for them, nothing is charged during them, and nothing is charged when they end. To keep journaling afterwards, subscribe from your account on the web: Steps has one monthly plan, at an amount you choose within the published range — currently $3 to $15 a month, in US dollars — charged in advance each month. The amount you choose stays your price for as long as you keep the plan; you can change it from Settings, and a new amount applies from your next renewal. A month that has started is not refunded. Payments are processed by Not a Company, and charges appear on your statement as NOTACO. Changes to the published range are announced at least 30 days in advance and do not change what you already pay.
Cancel any time from Settings; your plan stays active until the end of the month you paid for and does not renew. Whether your free days end, you cancel, or a subscription lapses, your journal and your full history remain readable and exportable at app.steps.org, free.
Your journal is yours. You grant Pipedesk OÜ a limited license to store and process your entries to provide the service — including having our AI provider, Anthropic, label them by topic and by the names they mention so you can find them later, and count a word your answers keep repeating — and, with the names in them (yours and anyone you mention) and every email address and phone number hidden, to improve it; the hiding is automatic and its limits are set out in the Privacy Policy. Your entries are never used to train AI models.
What supporters send in a campaign is processed to run that campaign and, as the Privacy Policy describes, to improve how Steps replies. Any words a walker writes about why they walk are their own content: Steps uses them only to send back to that walker, and deletes them when the walker leaves the campaign or asks. Nothing anyone sends Steps is used to train AI models, sold, or used for advertising.
Use Steps only for what it is for: year-round walkathons for a nonprofit's cause or a personal cause, or personal journaling. Do not abuse the service, use it for unlawful content or unlawful fundraising, send messages to people who did not ask for them, misrepresent step counts, or attempt to disrupt or reverse-engineer it. We may pause or end a campaign or an account that breaks these terms.
Steps is not medical care, therapy, or a health or mental-health program, and it deliberately offers no health or medical advice. A step goal is only an invitation to walk, and a missed day costs nothing. If you have a health condition, check with your doctor before walking more. If you are struggling, please talk to a qualified professional, and in an emergency, contact your local emergency services.
The service is provided "as is". To the extent permitted by law, the total liability of Pipedesk OÜ is capped at the amounts you paid in the twelve months before a claim.
These terms are governed by the laws of Estonia; disputes are resolved by the Harju County Court in Tallinn, unless mandatory consumer law says otherwise.
We will notify you of material changes to these terms; continued use after notice means acceptance. Questions: [email protected], or send us a message.