Donation Policy

At a glance

Donations are optional and support operations, not editorial decisions.
Live payments are not active yet on the website.
Supporter status does not buy influence, access, or special treatment.
Donor data is not sold or shared for unrelated marketing.
Future payments will be handled securely and transparently.

Live payments are not active yet

SOhS may describe future donation tiers and support options, but the website should not be treated as accepting live donations until a real payment processor, checkout flow, confirmation message, and donation record system are active.

This policy defines the standard SOhS should follow before and after donation processing goes live.

Editorial independence

Donations help fund operations. They do not buy influence over article conclusions, question framing, moral dilemma outcomes, correction decisions, moderation decisions, source selection, rankings, or public visibility.

SOhS may thank supporters, but supporter status does not create editorial authority, admin access, moderation privilege, faster approval, or special treatment in public discussion.

How donations may be used

Hosting, domains, email, database, and platform infrastructure.
Security, abuse prevention, backups, and reliability work.
Research, source review, editorial maintenance, and corrections.
Accessibility improvements, performance work, and design maintenance.
Moderation tooling, admin workflows, and community safety operations.
Future legal, accounting, payment, and compliance costs.

How donations should not be used

Buying favorable coverage, conclusions, or article placement.
Political campaigning or party propaganda.
Publishing fake claims, undisclosed sponsored content, or paid opinions.
Sharing donor lists for unrelated marketing or third-party fundraising.
Guaranteeing acceptance of user submissions or moderation appeals.

Donation types

One-time support

A single contribution to support SOhS operations without recurring billing.

Monthly support

A recurring contribution that continues until cancelled by the supporter or payment provider.

Custom amount

A supporter-selected contribution amount, subject to payment-provider limits and SOhS acceptance rules.

Future campaigns

If SOhS runs project-specific campaigns, each campaign should explain its purpose and limits clearly.

Payment processor disclosure

Before accepting live payments, SOhS should clearly name the payment processor, show the amount, frequency, currency, any visible fees, and whether the donation is one-time or recurring before payment is confirmed.

Payment processors may collect billing details, payment identifiers, fraud checks, device data, and transaction metadata under their own terms and privacy policies.

Receipts and records

After live payments are enabled, SOhS should provide a confirmation or receipt for successful donations. Donation records may include amount, currency, date, processor reference, user account if logged in, donation status, and donor contact details when needed for support.

Refunds, cancellations, and chargebacks

Accidental payments

If a supporter makes an accidental duplicate, wrong amount, or unintended payment, they should contact SOhS promptly with the transaction details.

Recurring support

Monthly support should be cancellable through the payment provider or by contacting SOhS. Cancellation should stop future charges, not necessarily refund past charges.

Refund review

Refunds should be reviewed case by case and may be limited by payment-provider rules, fraud risk, processor fees, legal obligations, or elapsed time.

Donor privacy

SOhS should collect only the donation information needed to process payments, maintain records, provide support, comply with law, prevent fraud, and understand operational support. SOhS should not sell donor data or share donor lists for unrelated marketing.

Public supporter recognition, if offered, should be optional. Donors who do not want public recognition should be able to remain private from the public website.

Restricted donations

Unless SOhS clearly accepts a restricted campaign, donations are treated as general operational support. A donor cannot restrict funds in a way that controls editorial output, moderation decisions, user access, or platform conclusions.

Right to refuse or return support

SOhS may refuse, return, or cancel support when accepting it would create a conflict of interest, legal issue, fraud concern, reputational risk, policy conflict, or editorial-independence concern.

Transparency promise

SOhS should keep donation language clear and avoid misleading claims about impact, charitable status, tax deductibility, payment fees, or how money is used. If SOhS is not a registered charity or if tax deductibility is unavailable, that should be clearly stated before accepting donations.

As SOhS grows, the support page should explain broad categories of spending and keep editorial independence visible wherever donations are requested.

Future payment integration requirements

Before live donation processing is enabled, SOhS should complete secure server-side order creation, payment success handling, webhook verification, donation record updates, clear receipt messaging, cancellation support, and privacy disclosures for the selected payment provider.

Donation questions

Questions about donations, refunds, recurring support, donor privacy, or editorial independence can be sent to sohs@societyofhomosapiens.org.

Donations support operations, not editorial truth.