To offer a fee waiver in Dapple, the cleanest method is to duplicate your project, remove the submission fee from the duplicate, set the duplicate to Private visibility, and share the private link with creators who qualify. This keeps your main project's fee structure intact while giving selected creators a fee-free submission route. Apply a Creator Tag like 'Fee Waiver' so you can track who's been offered one.
Why offer fee waivers?
Submission fees help cover the cost of running projects but they can be a barrier for creators in difficult financial circumstances. Offering selective waivers:
Removes barriers for underrepresented voices.
Encourages wider participation and diversity.
Shows empathy, fairness, and transparency in your process.
Signals that quality of work matters more than ability to pay.
The best-practice waiver flow
Duplicate your existing project so the submission form, stages, and settings stay identical.
In the duplicate, remove the Payment field (or set the fee to $0).
Set the duplicate's Visibility to Private — it won't be discoverable, only accessible to people with the link.
Optionally add an Access Code for extra security.
Share the private link with creators who qualify for a waiver.
Apply a 'Fee Waiver' Creator Tag to those creators so you can track waivers given.
This approach keeps your public project's fee structure intact while giving qualifying creators a clean, fee-free route to submit. Their submissions land in your dashboard alongside paying submissions and behave identically.
Why not just refund the fee?
You could let creators submit and pay, then refund them — but this:
Asks creators to front the money in the first place (which is the whole reason for the waiver).
Creates more admin overhead (refunds, transaction fees).
Forces the creator to share the request publicly via Messages.
The private-link approach is cleaner for everyone.
How to decide who qualifies
Set criteria in advance and communicate them clearly. Common categories:
Students or early-career creators
Creators on a low income (sometimes self-declared, sometimes evidenced)
Creators from regions where the standard fee is disproportionate
Members of specific groups your programme serves
Creators referred by a partner organisation
Best practice
Have clear criteria — decide in advance who qualifies. Vague criteria invite difficult conversations.
Be discreet — handle waiver requests privately. Don't surface the request in public Discussion threads.
Track waived entries with a Creator Tag — filter by tag to see how many waivers you've given per project.
Set an Access Code on the waiver project if you want extra protection against the link being shared widely.
Refresh your waiver project each cycle — duplicate the latest main project so settings stay in sync.