Donate
This site is non-commercial, carries no advertising, and has no investors. Reader donations are what will keep it running.
My name is Codrin Kruijne. I built this site on my own initiative because I believe the public deserves a clear, evidence-based explanation of how attention-optimising platforms work and what they do to us. To scale this professionally — with translations, accessibility audits, and long-term maintenance — I am seeking funds to register a Dutch foundation (stichting) and run it through its first year. Your support helps make that happen.
🤲 Support this project 🚀Help us become a foundation
This site is being organised as a Dutch foundation — a stichting — which separates the organisation's assets from personal liability and enables transparent governance. Registration is in progress.
Once registered, ANBI (public benefit organisation) status will be applied for — which makes donations from Dutch residents tax-deductible, within the rules: one-off gifts count only above a threshold of 1% of income, and the deduction is capped at the basic rate (about 37%), not the top rate. A periodic gift committed for at least five years is deductible in full, without a threshold.
Registration also makes the foundation eligible to apply for Google Ad Grants (up to $10,000/month in free search advertising) and TechSoup technology discounts, each of which checks an applicant's non-profit status before accepting it, and strengthens a Cloudflare Project Galileo application. If we ever use the Google grant, we will say so here — a site that describes search as an advertising platform owes its readers that disclosure.
What the first year costs
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Notary fees (deed of incorporation and statutes) | ~€1,200 |
| KvK registration | €85 |
| Tax advice on receiving donations | ~€600 |
| AI credits, one year | ~€1,200 |
| Bank account and administration, one year | ~€2,400 |
| Phone and internet subscriptions, first year | ~€1,200 |
| Domain and analytics server, one year (see Running costs) | €50–100 |
| Total | ~€6,800 |
These are our own estimates for the foundation's first year, not published prices; the KvK fee is the one published figure. A foundation must be set up by notarial deed, so the notary's fee is unavoidable. The AI credits pay for the AI assistance that the notice at the foot of every page discloses.
Transparency
No advertising
This site carries no advertising and never will. Advertising creates an incentive to maximise engagement regardless of user wellbeing — which is what this site documents. Accepting advertising would be inconsistent with the argument.
No investors or commercial backers
This site has no investors, no commercial backers, and no editorial obligations to any funder. Nobody pays to have their product, organisation, or position represented here.
What funds it
Reader donations: readers who find this site useful can donate above. No subscription, no pressure, no recurring commitment required unless you choose one. This is the only income the site will take.
Affiliate commissions: none at present. We have considered affiliate links for the books on the reading list, but have not adopted any; if that changes, the links will be disclosed on the Things Worth Paying For page and the income reported here.
Running costs
Hosting: Cloudflare, on the free plan — the site is a Worker, and the free plan covers its traffic. Analytics: a self-hosted, cookieless Plausible instance on a small rented server (see the privacy page) — the software is free and open source, so the cost is the server, and it is the one technical cost besides the domain. Newsletter: not yet launched. Domain: €15/year. Approximate annual total, domain and analytics server together: €50–100. Those two are our own invoices rather than a published price list; the quarterly figures we will publish here, once the foundation is registered, will report what was actually paid.
What we will publish
When registration is complete: the date of incorporation, KvK number, full statutes (public documents), and an account of how contributions were spent. Every quarter after that: income, costs, and balance. This is the transparency the site argues for. We apply it to ourselves.
Common questions
Is my donation tax-deductible? Not yet — ANBI status requires registration first, and then an application on which the Belastingdienst says it decides within eight weeks. We will announce clearly when it is granted.
What if you raise more than the first year needs (about €6,800)? Surplus goes to operating costs, published openly.
Can organisations donate? Yes — contact us for an invoice or documentation. Bank transfer becomes available once the foundation's account is open.
Sources
- Belastingdienst, Voorwaarden voor het aftrekken van gewone giften — the threshold for one-off gifts: 1% of threshold income, minimum €60, with a maximum of 10%.
- Belastingdienst, Voorwaarden voor het aftrekken van periodieke giften — a gift recorded in a deed or written agreement and paid for at least five consecutive years, with no threshold.
- Belastingdienst, Tariefsaanpassing aftrekposten als u hoog inkomen hebt — deductions in the top bracket are worth at most 37.56% in 2026.
- Belastingdienst, U hebt de aanvraag verstuurd. En dan? — "binnen 8 weken een brief met onze beslissing" on an ANBI application.
- Google, Google Ad Grants — "up to $10,000 per month in search ads" for qualifying non-profits. Vendor page.
- TechSoup — donated and discounted software and services for non-profits. Vendor page.
- Cloudflare, Project Galileo — free protection for public-interest sites in human rights, civil society, journalism and democracy. Vendor page.
- KVK, Inschrijfvergoeding — the one-off registration fee, €85.15, adjusted annually.
- KVK, De stichting — a foundation is established by notarial deed, and the notary usually files the registration.
- Cloudflare, Workers pricing — what the free plan includes. Vendor page.
- Plausible, Self-hosted web analytics — the community edition is free and open source; the cost of running it is the server. Vendor page.
- Ko-fi, Pricing — the platform the button above uses: its free plan takes no service fee on one-off tips, its Standard plan (the default for new accounts) takes 5%, and the payment processor's own fee applies on either. Vendor page.