Funding policy

Accepted sources

• Individual reader memberships.
• Institutional subscriptions from newsrooms, universities, compliance functions and public bodies.
• Restricted research access granted by application.
• Philanthropic grants from foundations whose terms satisfy the conditions below.
• Unconditional donations.

Refused sources and conditions

• Any funding from a subject of our reporting, or from a party acting for one.
• Funding conditioned on covering a named subject, avoiding one, or producing a particular conclusion.
• Funding requiring pre-publication review, approval or sight of unpublished material.
• Advertising, sponsored content, and affiliate arrangements.
• Funding whose ultimate source cannot be established to our satisfaction.

Disclosure thresholds

Funders contributing above [threshold] in a calendar year are named in the annual transparency report, with the amount banded and any conditions summarised. Individual member and subscriber identities are not published.

Where a funder is connected to a subject we later cover, the connection is disclosed on the profile itself and entered in the conflict register. Coverage proceeds; the disclosure is what changes.

Returning funds

Where we discover after acceptance that funding came from a source that would have been refused, we return it and record the return in the transparency report.