There’s no shortcut to a donation-based model. It’s built, brick by brick. It requires creating a relationship of trust with your community, through highlighting your values, your transparency, and your impact. Here’s a selection of examples from independent European media outlets to inspire you.
This issue opens a new monthly case-study series exploring the practices and strategies of independent media across Europe through tech independence, business models, diversifying editorial offerings, and more, along with our advice on how to put them into practice. This series is produced as part of Sphera, our network of European media outlets, for media leaders and founders across the continent.
→ This guide is also available in French. Please note that some of the resources linked here are currently only in French.
A donation is a powerful act of trust, a way of supporting journalism the donor believes in and wants to see grow. Supporters give because they believe in the mission, not because they expect something in return. As donations become more established and grow across media, some publishers have made them the foundation of their business model. Among the most notable cases is The Guardian, which has more than a million regular supporters worldwide funding its model. Across Europe, much of the independent press has also built its independence on donations, letting it offer free-access journalism: Novara Media, Recorder, Reporterre, Netzpolitik, and others. But donations can also matter for subscription-based outlets, whether to fund a specific project, get through a cash-flow crisis, or simply (re)launch. At every stage of a media outlet’s life, this approach can help mobilise readers, provided you know how to win them over.
Because whether donations fund all or part of the model, it still has to be built, not decreed.
Even your most loyal readers will need convincing. Without a financially equivalent return, donors expect something else: transparency, consistency, and the feeling that their support truly matters. Below are examples and advice to help you build the conditions needed to get there.
Does This Apply to Me?
Contrary to some persistent clichés, donations aren’t a marginal phenomenon, reserved for politically committed outlets, free-access media, or older audiences. Recently, even more “traditional” outlets, such as Le Monde* in France, have developed this revenue stream alongside subscriptions. Donations also attract younger audiences: at StreetPress*, a Sphera network member, nearly three-quarters of the audience is under 35, yet donations accounted for 36% of its revenue in 2023, growing 77% in 2024.
Donations can come into play at several points in a media outlet’s life :
- At launch, to fund the first months without depending on advertising or institutional revenue.
- On an ongoing basis, as a structural funding source.
- During a campaign, to fund a specific project such as an expensive investigation, a technology tool, a documentary, an editorial shift.
- In an emergency, in response to an unforeseen cost increase or a threat to independence.
Donations are flexible: they can be adapted to very different models, sizes, and editorial lines. At the French daily La Croix*, donations and subscriptions coexist without competing: 90% of donors are also subscribers. Donations don’t necessarily cannibalise subscriptions, unless that’s a deliberate choice. The Salt Lake Tribune, one of the first major American dailies to move to a nonprofit model, is a recent example: it offered a sample of subscribers free access while letting them choose to keep donating, it saw 87% keep giving despite the free access. The result reinforced its decision to remove its paywall entirely in 2026.
Conversely, some outlets end up introducing a paywall after building their model on donations for years. That’s the case for the Polish outlet OKO.press, which explains its reasoning clearly: cuts in subsidies and too few donors (0.5%, or one reader in 200). A reminder that money doesn’t just fall from the sky. It isn’t a given, not for every newsroom, and not in every country. In France, for instance, individuals can deduct 66% of donations to certain qualifying outlets from their taxes. In Romania, some outlets, like Recorder, invite readers to direct 3.5% of their income tax to them. Comparable schemes exist elsewhere in Europe, though in very different forms, and donor culture varies from country to country too. Before you get started, look into the regulations in your own country, since they can significantly shape your strategy.
Setting the Conditions
Clarify Your Values, and Tell Their Story
A donation is a form of support rooted in a cause or a set of values. For readers to commit, they need to know what they’re standing behind. Independence can be the foundation, but you also need arguments specific to your outlet alone. What genuinely sets you apart? A distinctive editorial line? Strong local roots? Total independence from advertisers and wealthy backers? A cooperative ? You may already have a mission statement or manifesto, rather than tucking it away on an “About us” page, showcase it and turn it into a real tool for conversion and mobilisation. These traits are your arguments; it’s up to you to adapt them across formats.
How they did it: Rather than relegating its manifesto to a website page, the Belgian outlet Médor chose to print it. Its “Call for Robust Journalism” takes the form of a simple folded sheet, plain, free, and easy to hand out at events. An object that carries the manifesto beyond the web and turns it into a genuine way to meet readers in person.
Also update your commitments over time. Your principles can evolve in light of current events or issues your readers care about. That’s what the French outlet Reporterre did by publishing a public commitment on the use of generative AI in its newsroom, a transparency effort that matters even more given that the outlet relies almost entirely on reader donations: in 2025, 95.4% of its €4,254,987 budget came from contributions by 54,038 donors.
Related resource: Writing Your Manifesto, a practical guide from Médianes on writing the text that defines your outlet’s identity. Please note that this resource is in French. An English translation will be available shortly.
Show What Your Work Achieved
Declaring your values and intentions isn’t enough. You also need to document their concrete impact. The impact report is the go-to format for this, letting you tell the real story of what your investigations achieved: the decisions your articles influenced, the people your reporting helped.
How they did it: In its 2025 impact report, The Conversation (French edition) lists 781 examples of media impact. Rather than limiting itself to a summary document, the outlet turns it into a genuine editorial piece: several articles’ authors describe in their own words the concrete effects of their reporting and the impact they observed after publication.
Worth checking out: Outlets Disclose* and Rembobine put together a guide (in French) to help newsrooms build their own impact report. You can also look at the methods used by the American outlet The Markup or by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
But “why give?” isn’t the only question. Supporters also want to know “towards what, exactly?” Several outlets publish their accounts and figures in very different formats.
Newsrooms like Reporterre, Follow the Money, and Mediacités publish annual activity or financial reports. Some push transparency further into other areas like the German outlet Republik, which shares figures on the gender imbalance in bylines as well as on staff wellbeing: 32 of its 49 employees took medical leave at some point, with sick days dropping from 1,306 to 582 according to its 2024/2025 report. The French investigative outlet Mediapart also shares data on its environmental impact and CO2 emissions.
How they did it: Long paragraphs and detailed tables are thorough, but can be hard for audiences to digest. During one of its donation campaigns, the French outlet Arrêt sur images* offered its community an interactive quiz about its operating costs. It was a playful way to explain what it costs to run a media outlet (staff salaries, website maintenance, office rent) while directly involving readers instead of handing them a long, technical financial document.
Fumaça, a Portuguese investigative outlet, offers real-time budget transparency: its donation page directly displays the current month’s budget and live fundraising progress. This creates urgency without alarming anyone, and makes each contribution immediately tangible.
Converting
Once trust is established, it’s time to act. Turning a community of readers into a community of donors doesn’t happen through a single campaign: it’s long-term work built on two complementary approaches:
- One-off campaigns: a clear goal, a limited timeframe, a strong message. They create urgency and visibility, and can attract new donors.
- Ongoing donations: more discreet, but more stable. They build a lasting base of support and smooth out cash flow.
The two can coexist and reinforce each other: a successful campaign can convert one-time donors into regular supporters.
Plan your annual calendar as a whole, tying it to key moments (the outlet’s anniversary, a major investigation, year-end) rather than handling it case by case.
Target a Specific Project or Issue
A donation is easier to mobilise when it has an identifiable object. Before thinking about how to phrase the appeal, start from your audience’s needs and concerns: a project only resonates if it genuinely matters to them. Médor, committed to using free and open-source software to break free from American tech, launched a fundraiser (technically a stake in the outlet’s cooperative rather than a classic donation) to fund the in-house maintenance and development of its software. Result: €38,680 raised. A concrete, specific topic makes an appeal feel more tangible than a generic call to “support independent journalism.” The same logic applies to Mediapart’s crowdfunding for its documentary investigating how former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign was funded, or to the local investigative outlet Mediacités with its fundraiser earmarked for a photo report on a controversial highway construction project.
Think Carefully About How You Phrase the Amount
“How much to ask for” deserves real thought, and it starts with another question: who are you talking to? Knowing your audience, their means, and their relationship with money is the starting point for calibrating your ask.
How they did it: Novara Media, a British outlet that drew 89% of its annual revenue from supporter donations in 2022, came up with an original formula: “We ask for the equivalent of one hour’s wages a month, but you can support us with whatever you can afford.” This has several advantages: it accounts for supporters’ varying economic realities, reinforces the project’s social and inclusive character, and grounds the ask in something concrete without excluding anyone. It’s also a subtle way of suggesting the amount could be higher than people might have spontaneously considered.
Don’t overlook the “small” donation either: for part of your readership, €2 or €5 a month is a real commitment, and giving it a legitimate place in your messaging avoids shutting out those for whom a larger gift isn’t feasible. It’s also a chance to secure a first point of contact, the start of a relationship that may lead to bigger contributions later. Finally, resist the temptation to multiply price tiers. Too many amounts on offer overwhelm the reader and slow the decision down: 3 or 4 clear, well-ordered options beat a ten-line grid that requires comparison. Fewer choices often means more donations.
How they did it: Stupid Economics*, a video focused newsroom specialising in economics explainers, built its entire model on micro-donations: an average contribution of €2.70/month from 1,300 people, based on a philosophy its co-founder Valentin Levetti described in 2023: “if 1% of subscribers fund the channel at €1 a month, it stays free for the other 99%.”
On Perks: Trust Your Supporters
To encourage giving, it can be tempting to offer perks (early access, an exclusive newsletter, members-only events, a free subscription…), but be careful. First, check your country’s legal framework: perks tied to tax-deductible donations are often regulated. And above all: people don’t give €10 to receive mugs, pens, and calendars. Supporters may end up wondering whether their money was well spent, or even think their donation funded low-quality merchandise with a negative environmental footprint.
Retention
Turning a reader into a donor is one thing. Turning that one-time gift into a lasting commitment is another. The first step, often overlooked, is the simplest: say thank you. A quick, sincere thank-you after every donation is the foundation of loyalty. Its absence is noticeable, its presence builds trust. But retention doesn’t stop there: donors shouldn’t feel like they paid and then vanished from your radar. They want to feel like they’re part of something.
How they did it: Facing a traffic drop due to AI, Wikipedia, which draws about 90% of its revenue from individual donations (average contribution: $11–12), is preparing for a future with fewer visitors and is now betting on a smaller but more engaged user base. How? By growing its presence on TikTok and Instagram, putting more of a human face on its work with videos featuring its editors, and communicating more about its behind-the-scenes work, impact, and values.
Create a Members’ Club
More outlets are formalising retention by creating clubs: spaces where the most engaged donors get exclusive perks, but above all, a sense of belonging. Vert*, a French outlet specialising in environmental stories, built its club around recurring monthly donations starting at €5, which make up the bulk of its budget (90%, with nearly 12,000 members).
The Bristol Cable and Chut! have both developed schemes that turn financial support into active membership, with access to masterclasses, meetings with the newsroom, or members-only content. The point isn’t the material perks so much as giving people a sense that they’re actively part of the outlet’s life. Some good ideas:
- Organise events reserved for donors (meetings with the newsroom, behind-the-scenes looks at an investigation, previews).
- Send regular updates on the progress of funded projects.
- Ask donors about their editorial expectations.
- Credit donors by name in your thank-yous, whether on your website or in your publications.
Related reading: Clubs for More Inclusive, Participatory Journalism: Chut! and The Bristol Cable share their experience building exclusive access, content, masterclasses, and even drinks with the newsroom as a way to strengthen community and convey their values.
Organise Projects
How they did it: A few weeks after exposing a secret meeting between far-right figures and AfD officials, the German investigative outlet Correctiv launched an interactive map of Germany to chart, together with readers, the ripple effects of its investigation (local political fallout, protests, and more). Anyone could add an event, which the newsroom then verified. Two birds, one stone: the outlet showcased its impact and strengthened its community. Three months after publication, its donor base grew from 9,200 to 16,000.
Don’t Burn Out Your Team or Your Readers
A donation campaign creates pressure on both sides: on the team running it, and on the readers receiving it. Managing that tension is often what separates a campaign that strengthens your relationship with your audience from one that damages it.
Team Side: Build Structure, Don’t Collapse
A campaign is prepared long before launch. The to-do list is long: campaign messaging, a reverse timeline, a donation page, dedicated visual identity, editorial calendar, contact and outreach lists, press release, media kit. Don’t underestimate a campaign’s time structure. It generally follows a U-shaped curve: a peak at launch (curiosity, the announcement effect), a dip in the middle (natural fatigue), then a rise as the closing date approaches (urgency, last call). Anticipating this dynamic helps you avoid mid-campaign panic and adjust your editorial calendar accordingly: follow-up messages, new arguments, a mid-campaign event to regain momentum.
Related resource: Running a Crowdfunding Campaign, a practical guide walking through how to structure a campaign operationally. Please note that this resource is in French. An English translation will be available shortly.
How they did it: Pooling resources can lighten the load: when resources are limited, teaming up with other outlets can make a real difference in both visibility and workload. In 2023, four French magazines, La Revue Dessinée, 6 Mois, XXI, Topo, launched a joint campaign, “40 Days for 4 Magazines,” in response to paper costs that had risen more than 50% in a year. By sharing a common message and campaign infrastructure, they turned an economic constraint into a call for solidarity, reaching far more people than any single title could have alone. Another example, from Georgia: in August 2025, twenty-one online outlets voluntarily went offline for several hours as part of a joint campaign called “The Lights Must Stay On.” When their sites came back, they displayed a call to support a pooled fund for the Georgian press.
Set aside time to debrief after the campaign, financially, but also on a human level. What worked well? What exhausted the team unnecessarily? These lessons are valuable for next time. And don’t disappear afterward. Your donors placed their trust in you. Show them concretely what that made possible.
Reader Side: Pace Yourself, Vary Your Approach, Be Respectful
Misleading subject lines, guilt-tripping appeals, made-up matching promises — these all burn out mailing lists and create lasting distrust, and outlets built on trust simply can’t afford them. The Kyiv Independent, operating in a difficult context, told The Audiencers it made the opposite choice: “When we work on new messaging, we look for the balance between showing the unique context of a newsroom at war and not sounding too desperate. We share behind-the-scenes material, but we never guilt-trip our readers into giving, and we never say we’re going to shut down if they don’t support us.”
This doesn’t mean banning urgent messaging altogether, it’s effective, which is exactly why it’s overused. But its power rests entirely on credibility: an urgent message needs to be honest, grounded in real numbers and concrete realities (a measured drop in revenue, a specific deadline, a project under threat), and tailored to your audience.
Some common-sense principles: pace how often you reach out. Too many messages kill the message. Vary your tone rather than repeating the same urgent appeals. Segment your audience: regular donors don’t need the same messages as people who’ve never given. Before launching a campaign, decide in advance how many times you’ll contact each segment, on which channels, and with what messages.
*Transparency note: Médianes, the studio works or has worked with StreetPress, Vert, Arrêt sur images, Le Monde, La Croix, Stupid Economics, and Disclose.
