My Pay-What-You-Can pricing experiment

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I wanted to share a behind-the-scenes experiment we’ve been running in my healing Skool, in case it sparks some thoughts for your own groups.

For a long time, I've felt that rigid paywalls can get in the way of what communities are actually meant to do. My core goal is that financial strain shouldn't block someone from getting support when they're struggling. So I decided to test a shift toward a gift-economy model.

Here is how we set it up and how it’s running so far:

The Dual-Tier Setup: Our premium tiers ($33/month or $16/month yearly) remain completely intact for members who can comfortably pay full price. That revenue helps hold the door open and sustains the backend.

The "Pay What You Can" Path: For members facing tight budgets or high medical costs, we opened a flexible tier where they can contribute any amount that feels right to them—no questions asked, no one turned away.

The Operational Workaround: Because Skool's native checkout is fixed, we handle the flexible option via an external giving page combined with a simple note system (PayPal/Stripe) where members drop their community handle, and I manually move them into the Premium tier within 24 hours. It adds a tiny bit of admin work on my end, but it completely removes friction and gatekeeping for the member.

I’d love to hear from other builders here: Have any of you experimented with gift-economy models, sliding scales, or hybrid pricing in your communities? How do you balance financial sustainability with radical accessibility?

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My Pay-What-You-Can pricing experiment