Funding & independence
Who pays for this — and what their money can’t touch.
Document-based investigation is slow and costly, and the people best able to pay for it are exactly the people we must never take money from. Here is where our money comes from, what it pays for, and what it can never buy.
- Policy ref
- FUN-01
- Advertising
- None
- Money from subjects
- Not accepted
- Disclosure
- Yearly, itemised
The rule before any funding
No money from anyone in the archive — or anyone acting for them.
Nor from anyone whose interest in a subject we could not comfortably disclose. We check this before a contribution is accepted, not afterwards.
01Four things money never buys
What every funder signs up to.
No advertising
There are no ad slots, sponsored posts, native ads or newsletter placements. Nothing on the site is for sale to anyone.
No money from subjects
Nothing from the people or companies we cover, their owners, managers, lawyers, agencies or reputation contractors — in any form, at any time.
No paid removals
Records are never taken down, hidden, softened or pushed down for money. Attempts to buy one are logged and reported in total.
No say over coverage
Contributors, members and institutional subscribers do not choose subjects, see drafts or get advance notice — and have no veto afterwards.
02Ways to support the work
Four routes in. None of them reaches the newsroom.
The first three are open to anyone. The fourth comes with extra checks, because the sums are larger and the reputational risk cuts both ways.
Reader membership
No editorial accessAnyone who wants the archive to keep going, and the research tools that come with membership.
Disclosed: Totals only; members are never named.
One-off contribution
No editorial accessReaders who would rather give once than subscribe.
Disclosed: Totals, unless above [NAMED-DONOR THRESHOLD].
Institutional subscription
No editorial accessCompliance teams, law firms, universities, newsrooms and public bodies with several users.
Disclosed: The institution is named in the annual report.
Investigation grant
No editorial accessFoundations and philanthropic funders backing particular fields of investigation.
Disclosed: Funder, amount, term and any conditions published in full.
03Where the money goes
The quiet costs behind every record.
Most of the cost of an investigation never shows in the finished record. It is worth naming, because it explains why one dossier can take months.
Getting the records
Court and registry fees, certified copies, company searches, property records, and the per-page charges authorities apply to anyone who asks.
Translation & local knowledge
Reading Arabic, English and other filings in their original language, with someone who understands the legal system behind them — not machine translation alone.
Verification
The second editor who argues the other side, the late review that kills weak claims, and the re-checks that stop older records quietly going stale.
Legal review
Checking contentious records before publication, and being able to stand behind an accurate record when someone would rather sue than reply.
Protecting sources
Careful handling of what people send us, safe equipment for opening untrusted files, and security work that only shows on the day it matters.
Keeping records alive
Hosting, version history and preservation, so records still load and can still be cited long after the events behind them.
04Funding we refuse
What we turn down — and report.
We report money we refused alongside money we accepted. Disclosing only what you took tells half the story.
We refuse contributions from anyone in the archive and from anyone acting for them. We refuse funding tied to which subjects we choose, to early sight of material, to how findings are framed, or to how a correction turns out.
We refuse money when we cannot establish where it really comes from, when accepting it would create a conflict we could not disclose, and when the funder is likely to become the subject of reporting. Where a refused offer is material, it appears in the annual report with the reason.
If a conflict appears after money has been accepted — a donor becomes a subject, or a subscriber turns out to be linked to one — it is entered in the public conflict register, the coverage is reassigned, and the money is returned where that is the only clean fix.
Research tools for people who check records for a living.
Membership helps fund the archive and, once you are approved, opens Lens and the professional research that comes with it.