At Novara Media we believe in the power of people to build a new media for a different politics.

Novara Media is a not-for-profit organisation, and we don’t have any shareholders, so the funds we raise from all income streams go directly into supporting our journalism and creating new content.

We’re not funded by corporate partnerships, venture capitalists, paywalls or advertorials. Here is a breakdown of exactly where our funding comes from. 

Donations from our supporters

Because the vast majority of our income is raised directly from supporters, we can be editorially independent without ever having to toe someone else’s editorial line. It’s a key principle that has always underpinned our funding model.

Our supporters are individuals who donate to us on a monthly or one-off basis. We ask for one hour’s wage a month, but you can become a supporter with whatever you can afford.

Supporter donations made via our website make up the vast majority of our annual income (around 89% in 2022). These donations are what we use to plan our future and grow the organisation, whether it’s taking on more staff or expanding our range of content. 

Website donations form the backbone of our funding model. The platform we use to process the payments has one of the lowest payment processing fees (approximately 1.5%) meaning we get to keep more of your donation. Whereas some platforms only allow you to set up a regular donation to a preset amount, our website gives supporters total flexibility of their donation amount (anything from £1) – which they can edit at any time depending on their circumstances. 

A smaller proportion of our income comes from YouTube, where viewers can donate via the ‘Super Chat’ and ‘Super Thanks’ features. Donations via YouTube are typically made during Novara Live and are a great way for our audience to show their support and interact with the team. However, Google (which runs YouTube) takes 30% of all donations made via YouTube, meaning we only get to keep £3.50 for every £5 donated.

Our YouTube channel

We get a small portion of income from YouTube Premium users who watch our videos, and from the ads that YouTube places at the beginning of and/or during some videos (just over 7% of our annual income in 2022). This generic advertising is controlled by Google AdSense and allocated on the basis of real views. Facebook provides a similar type of income, but at a much smaller scale (0.75% in 2022).

Grants

To fund specific projects, we also apply for grant funding from time to time. Grant funding from awarding bodies (such as the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation) generally contributes towards specific projects that help us try something a little out of the ordinary without directly affecting our core costs too much. 

Maintaining editorial independence from any grant awarder is a key principle for us, so we don’t publish sponsored content such as advertorials and all editorial decisions rest with our editors.

Merchandise

We sell a range of merchandise through the Novara Media shop (accounting for 3.2% of our annual income in 2022). Our merchandise is sold directly from our Leeds office and produced to the highest labour and environmental standards. 

Events

In the past we’ve also fundraised through ticketed events – typically discussion events or parties. Our events programme has been quiet since the pandemic, but we’re aiming to bring them back soon.