Founding membership subscribers are, for some writers, a remarkably significant source of revenue. The founding member option allows readers to pay more than the listed price as an extra show of support, similar to a donation. You can set this price at whatever you’d like, as long as it’s higher than your annual plan price.
If you have paid subscriptions enabled, head to your publication's Settings page and click on Payments in the left navigation bar. Scroll to the Founding member plan.
Enter the suggested amount and click "Save".
Once this plan is enabled, it will be displayed on your subscription plans page along with the monthly and annual plans.
What can I send to my founding members?
Custom Welcome email
If you'd like to send a special message just for new founding members, you can customize a welcome email on your publication's Settings page. Head to the Basics section and select edit next to "Welcome email to founding subscribers".
This will be the first email founding tier members receive when they subscribe your Substack. You can embed a file in EPUB, PRC, XLSX, PDF, CBR, CBZ, KFX, or KPF formats.
Exclusive posts
With the founding member plan, you can send send posts via email and the Substack app to just this tier of subscribers or they can view posts on the web or on the Substack app that are just for them.
Once you're ready to publish your draft post, select "This post is for founding member only" on the Publish page.
Non-founding members will see a paywall when viewing a post that's only for founding members.
Note: Founding member posts will have a special founding members symbol instead of the standard lock symbol for paid posts.
