Refund policy

Understand how our refund policy works

We're working on this page at the moment. This is not the final version at the moment, but we're working hard on ironing out possible issues and covering edge cases behind the scenes.

If you see this notice at the homepage, that means the entire policies site is being worked on right now but we publish working drafts to production to allow us to collect feedback early on during policy developments.

Last updated on July 20, 2025 (changelog)

Our refund policy is roughly based on the default one in the Open Collective platform (docs), with some adjustments. Depending on how and where you donate or pay, we may be able to issue you a refund once it is reviewed by both our team and our fiscal sponsor.

General guidelines

To minimize refund fraud, we only refund to the original payment method used if processed via Stripe on HCB, Open Collective, Substack, Ghost, and Lemon Squeezy or the original account if processed via PayPal. Other payment methods are unsupported at this time. Refunds may take up to 15 banking days to be credited back to you and show up in your bank statement.

We only review refund requests if the transaction occurred within the last 30 days, unless the funds in question are fully used, which we cannot process without paying you back out of pocket, or when allocated in the reserves or to other projects.

Once we receive a refund request, we'll try to respond within 1-2 weeks to allow us to investigate for possible issues and check if the amount requested

Timeline for refund requests

Depending on the payment method used and payment processor, it may take up to 10-20 banking days for refunds to reflect on your bank or credit card statement if approved. If it takes longer than that, contact your bank for details.

Covered vs not covered by refunds

Covered

• Donations and payments processed through Stripe on the following platforms in particular order:

  • HCB (your refund request will be forwarded to the HCB team for review)

  • Open Collective (email [email protected] first so we can review your request)

  • Ghost and Substack (contact Substack Support first if you are requesting refunds within 7 days after subscription, unless you requested more than 3 times)

• Telegram Stars (we'll refund those stars back to the original account, although you may need to contact Telegram Support or Google Play Store/Apple App Store support for refunds)

Not covered

• Discord Server Subscriptions and Premium Apps - see Discord's refund policy and contact Discord Support here

• GitHub Sponsors - contact GitHub Support here

• Donations and payments via manual bank transfers (not through Direct Debit if processed through Stripe)