Gifting Patreon Memberships to the No. 1 Readers’ Club (ft. spreading out costs, digital gifting, supporting independent creators and other ways to not feel bad about the festive season)

Hello hello,

Looking to buy a gift you know a particular person will love, or searching for ways to support independent artists, educators and creatives when you buy presents instead of lining the pockets of a multinational corporation? You might want to consider gifting a Patreon membership. There are over 300,000 creators using Patreon and creators have generated $8 billion in revenue since 2013, which we can assume has returned more into local communities and raised more in taxes than most CEOs currently launching themselves into space have done. So when you gift a Patreon membership, you’re doing a good turn twice over: giving someone you like a membership to a creator they love, and supporting an independent creator’s small business.

I shared a guide to gifting memberships to the No. 1 Readers’ Club on Patreon with my newsletter subscribers recently, and with the festive season looming I thought I’d share it here too – we’re also nearing Just A Card’s Indie Week, which is all about supporting small businesses over mass consumerism. I’ve made some edits since the newsletter gang are already familiar with my work, but if you found this post elsewhere you might need more context. Hello, I’m Francesca, I write books and short stories and I’ve been on Patreon in some capacity since 2015. OKAY. Let’s go. Patreon’s gifting option is handy if you want to send a present to someone who lives distance away without paying for insanely expensive postage, or if a loved one prefers experiences to physical gifts. It’s also a good way to spread out the cost of gifting season, because you can buy memberships in advance of the big day. Plus a lot of creators will enable gifting at fairly low cost tiers, so compared with shelling out for a gadget or TikTok tat, you’re getting an extremely good deal.

These guidelines will work for all Patreon pages with gifting enabled; just replace the links I’m using for my page with the page of the creator you’re gifting.

Step one: find the page’s gift link

It’ll read as “patreon.com/creatorpage/gift.” This is my link. You’ll see a page that looks like this, except possibly not featuring me:

A screenshot of Patreon's gifting page, with the option to 'Customise your gift' by inputting specific months of membership, write who the gift is from, which reads 'Father Christmas' and a message to the giftee, which reads 'Happy Crimbo xxx'. Other side of page repeats the information in a more aesthetic way, reflecting a gift card.

Step two: customise the gifted membership

Choose how many months you’re gifting – I’d recommend 12 since that’s how magazine subscriptions and subscription boxes work! – and add a personalised message if you’d like. When you click ‘go to payment’ you’ll be prompted to log in to, or make, an account with Patreon. Then you’ll end up on a page like this. My personal Patreon account knows my card info, so I’ve blanked that out – if you’re new to Patreon, you’ll have to input your details:

Screenshot of payment page on Patreon with 'Payment details' section and 'pay now button' in green, with Francesca's card number blanked out. There is an order summary explaining the purchase is for 12 months of the Afternoon Tea tier, with cost and VAT breakdown totalling £66.

You’ll then be shown a customised gift link which you can forward on to your giftee! You could also print the page with the link, or make a little gift voucher yourself so your giftee has something to open. They will have 90 days to redeem their gifted membership, so if you’re buying for Hannukah or Christmas, you can do so in advance and the link will still be valid on the day, which lets you spread out costs. On my page’s settings I’ve ensured that you can gift any tier – mine start at £1 specifically so people can get a year’s membership for less than £15 including VAT.

Want to try before you buy?

I’m assuming that if you’ve got a friend or family member who’s a fan of a particular creator and you’re thinking about gifting them a membership, you’re familiar with that creator’s work by proxy. If you’re a parent wanting to check out the page of a creator your offspring covets before buying them a subscription, many Patreon pages offer trials or complimentary membership. For example, you can get a free month at the No. 1 Readers’ Club just for reading this blog.

…and that’s how it works! Let me know in the comments if this guide helped you navigate Patreon’s gifting process. Who would I like a membership to, you ask… I love The Cottage Fairy, Laini Taylor, Patricia Mycyk, Ren, Caitlin Doughty and of course my lovely critique partner Bel Campbell. Quite a mix, but entertainment is like a box of chocolates and you don’t always just fancy an orange cream, et cetera.

Look after yourselves,
Francesca

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to read my short stories and see behind-the-scenes work, you can sample? the No. 1 Reader’s Club on Patreon for a month with this link. No pressure to stick around! Think of it as trying a miniature dessert with no requirement to eat the whole menu. You can also find me on Ko-fi. Thank you for your support – you’re helping to fund this space and pay for other costs of running a creative business, like paying editors.

Here are the books I’ve published so far and where you can find them. If you enjoy my book recommendations, browse my Bookshop.org page here.

I’m on social media (reluctantly), via Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. I prefer my montly-ish newsletter! You can find all my books and my unhinged reviews of books I love on GoodReads and StoryGraph.

Francesca's Thoughts