Before we take a closer look at Humanity Wall, it is good to understand the 'Paywall' mechanics. A 'Paywall' or payment wall only grants you digital access to online content when you pay for it. You know the drill: usually, you get to read the first part of an article and suddenly a payment wall appears. This mechanism is mainly used by publishers in online versions of newspapers, magazines and other publications. Humanity Wall uses the exact same principle as a paywall. The big difference: access is not granted via a commercial payment, but via a donation. A new way of monetizing online content, for good.

Humanity Wall is a new way of monetizing online content, for good. In times of crisis, online news-outlets are encouraged to temporarily replace their paywalls by humanity walls on all relevant articles to the crisis. Not just once. But every time there’s money needed. Important: Humanity Wall is not meant to be a temporary campaign. It is an open source idea, to be deployed in a permanent way, by any publisher to the benefit of the non-profit of their choice, whenever a humanitarian crisis hits or needs are high.

The Humanity Wall idea was born in Belgium and therefore first pitched to publishers in Belgium. HLN, Belgium’s biggest online news-outlet immediately engaged and agreed that in times of crisis they would replace their paywalls by humanity walls and all proceeds would go to 1212, a consortium of different non-profits. In the mean-time the Humanity Wall has been pitched across Europe with a growing number of Publishers engaging from Turkey over Israël to Portugal.

Being an open source idea, any of those publishers (after paying a one-off license-fee) can use the Humanity Wall mechanism to the benefit of the non-profit of their choice.

The implementation of the Humanity Wall is really easy. First the publishers pays a one-off license fee and agrees to use the Humanity Wall brand guidelines. Then, codes are delivered, and when a crisis hits and suddenly needs are high, the publisher agrees to replace his paywalls by Humanity Walls on all articles relevant to the crisis, and proceeds will go the non-profit (aiming to help solve the crisis) of his choice. Important note: by no means replacing the paywall by a Humanity Wall is taking away income from the Publishers! Since the Humanity Walls only appears on articles relevant to the crisis - which normally wouldn’t have a paywall – and the guidelines state that proceeds will be shared between the Publisher (20%) and the non-profit organization (80%). So apart from raising money for good, it also generates a little extra money for the publishers.

After just a few weeks, a growing number of online news-outlets across Europe are actively engaging. HLN and GrenzEcho in Belgium. Hurriyet and Milliyet, in Turkey. Maariv in Israël.

And Correio da Manhã in Portugal. With a cumulated daily reach of over 13 million people, and over 300 million daily page views. So, whenever a crisis hits or needs are high, those publishers will immediately replace their paywalls by Humanity Walls. On all relevant articles. In Belgium the Humanity Wall was used to raise money following the floodings because of cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Paywalls were replaced by humanity walls and proceeds were 38% higher compared to the average income with the normal paywall mechanic.