Donating your subscriptions to charity

Some Substack writers, for various reasons, don’t necessarily want to accept money from their readers. Sometimes these writers are transparent about not needing the money. Other writers want to treat their Substack more as a fun hobby than a potentially-lucrative side hustle.

Whatever their reasons, the reality is that many readers want to offer their support with a paid subscription, even if the writer doesn’t necessarily want to accept the money.

Turning on paid subscriptions and donating your proceeds to charity is a great way to have the best of both worlds — let your readers show their support for both you and a good cause.

You’re currently not able to donate your proceeds directly to a charity through Stripe, so writers manage the process of donating and handling tax documentation on their own. The examples below should provide helpful models for how and where writers frame this to their readers and the impact it can make.

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Jon Haidt, After Babel

NYU Stern School of Business professor Jon Haidt outlines three major non-profits he supports on his About page and promises to show receipts for how he’s divided the money amongst each organization at the end of the year. This model has allowed him to keep his content free, but donate multiple thousands of dollars to these charities.

On his About page, Jon details his thought process around accepting paid subscriptions.

Immediately afterwards, Jon outlines the missions of three foundations he supports, as well as how readers can donate.

Margaret Atwood, In the Writing Burrow

The legendary author of The Handmaid’s Tale made an announcement post outlining her “to go paid or not to go paid” thought process before posing her solution: she would donate the proceeds to a small charity for a few months at a time. She followed up with a post shortly after announcing that she raised over $10K for The Peele Island Bird Observatory in less than a week.

Margaret’s post announcing her decision to accept paid subscriptions.

Margaret’s thank you note to her subscribers with an update on donation amounts.

José Andrés, Longer Tables

World famous chef José Andrés launched Longer Tables with the goal of sharing his favorite recipes and building a community of food lovers. In his first post, he announced that he would donate 100% of subscription revenue to his personal foundation, World Central Kitchen. Since 2023, he’s been allocating $10 from each subscription to WCK and donated over $20k last year.

José’s launch post.

José’s About page, recently updated to include how much money he donated to WCK in 2023.

Peter Singer, Bold Reasoning with Peter Singer

Known as the “world’s most influential living philosopher," Peter Singer has moved the global needle on extreme poverty, animal rights, bioethics, and more. Singer recently launched a Substack after retiring from his long-held role at Princeton and announced his intention to donate all Substack subscriptions to his charity, The Life You Can Save:

Peter’s recent Substack launch post.

These writers are some of the biggest names on Substack, and they’re substantially moving the needle for their chosen nonprofits. Donating some or all of your revenue to a charity of your choice is a fantastic way to rally your readers behind a cause near and dear to you, which ultimately leads to a greater sense of community between writers and readers. Let readers support both you, and a great cause.

If you have more questions on how to turn on paid subscriptions, check out our step-by-step guide on how to set up payments.