Donate
The magazine takes no advertising and sells nobody's attention. Readers are the entire budget.
Every essay, comic and film on this site is free to read, and every writer who made one is paid for the reading. Those two facts are only compatible because people who can afford to pay do, and people who cannot still get in.
A donation is not a subscription and it buys you nothing — no badge, no early access, no thanks-in-the-credits. It pays a writer in Nairobi for work you have already read for free.
What a donation does
Ksh 500
50 reads paid for
A good evening's reading, paid forward.
Ksh 1,500
150 reads paid for
About a month of the magazine, for one reader.
Ksh 5,000
500 reads paid for
Commissions the better part of a new piece.
Any amount works — the numbers above are a starting point, not a menu. There is no minimum and no recurring charge; send it once, or send it again whenever it seems right.
“Reads paid for” is the writer’s share at our default rate of Ksh 10 a qualified read. An editor sets a higher rate on a piece when it earns one.
A donation is not a membership
Membership unlocks the paid pieces and is billed monthly. A donation does not — it is a gift to the writers' pot, and paid work stays behind its wall. If it is access you want, take the membership instead; it supports the same people.
Membership · Ksh 500 a month · or Ksh 50 for a single piece
How to send it
Our payment details are not live yet, so they are withheld here rather than shown as something to copy. Please do not send money to any Nyirobi paybill you find elsewhere — write to [email protected] and we will send you the real details the moment they exist.
M-Pesa
- Paybill
- —
- Account
- Your name or email
- Open M-Pesa, then Lipa na M-Pesa, then Pay Bill.
- Business number: the paybill above.
- Account number: your name, or an email if you want a receipt.
- Enter the amount, then your PIN, and send.
Bank transfer
For larger gifts, and the only route that supports a standing order.
- Account name
- —
- Bank
- —
- Account number
- —
- Branch
- —
- SWIFT
- —
Where the money goes
Writers, first and most
The per-read rate is paid out of this. When there is more in the pot, an editor raises the rate on a piece rather than banking the difference.
The desks
Commissioning a comic, filming a lecture, and paying the people who edit both.
Keeping the lights on
Hosting, the domain, and the tools. It is the smallest line and we would like to keep it that way.
Questions about any of this? Write to us.