Hello, I started donating to my favourite open-source projects a couple years ago, but stopped about 6 months ago for different reasons and wanted to get back into it.
I wanted to ask if anyone here has a set system or process they follow when donating
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How much money do you donate? A set amount, whatever you feel like, a percentage of your earnings?
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When do you donate? Whenever you remember, on the first of the month, Thursdays?
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Do you have a minimum donation amount?
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How do you decide what projects to support? Do you forego donations if you’ve contributed in other ways? Do you keep a list?
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Do you donate to all equally or do you have some sort of ranking? Is it by amount of use, subjective preference, something else?
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What platforms do you prefer using? Liberapay, Opencollective, Patreon, ko-fi, Paypal, Monero, actual post?
So far the system I’ve devised for myself would go something like:
- put 2 % of all my earnings, whatever they are, in a separate account
- every quarter (on the first of January, April, July and October) donate the full amount of money in the account (with a minimum of 5 €, so as not to lose a big amount in fees)
- keep a ranked list of projects that I’ve used or deemed important or promising in the last three months (projects I donated to recently go to the bottom of the list), things at the top get more money than things at the bottom
- prioritise Liberapay since it’s open-source itself
Are there any foundations that distribute donations to various FOSS projects?
software in the public interest
These donations can be made to SPI directly, or they can be marked for use by a particular member project. It is preferred that the donations be made to SPI, as they can then be used wherever the need is greatest. Donations to SPI that are not marked for a particular project will be distributed to the projects that are currently affiliated with SPI as needed, and/or used for SPI’s own expenses.
Not specifically software, but I divide my donations into three categories - for my budget, that’s basically the $10-20 range, the $20-500 range, and $500-2000. I track the donations I make over the year, with a target in mind. For me, the target is 10% of income.
I decide which organizations are doing the most important work, and prioritize those. I try to donate monthly to those that I make use of regularly, then I give the rest as what comes up from day to day.
I consider free software to be a social good, so I don’t separate it from other giving.
The most annoying part for me is the fact that none of them have the capability for annual recurring donations. It’s literally monthly or ad-hoc, which is fucking stupid and basically hands more fees to the banks.
Librepay/Forgejo had the best I’ve seen, which encouraged me to double my donation (to minimize fees) and said it’d remind me in 2 years.
True, but most orgs and devs would take the reliable monthly income rather than an unpredictable infusion every two years. If it’s a massive donor base, maybe those things even out. For smaller, active projects, I don’t mind giving a percentage to the bank knowing that they can rely on my donations every month. The larger annual gifts are usually reserved for orgs like clinics, food banks, and community institutions that can handle the fluctuations.
I’m not quite that organized,
I’ve donated around 2 euros to huge projects like Wikipedia when they have a donation campaign, or 20 euros to projects like draw.io when I notice on github that they haven’t met their monthly goal yet.
The amount and frequency completely depends on my financial situation at the time and I only donate when I am using a piece of software/project (so when I remember, basically) on my free time and decide to check updates/state of the project.
So I’m not a frequent donor to any specific projects and several months may pass without donating any money, but when I have a bit more disposable income and when I’m doing free-time computer related hobbies I take a sum (lets say 50e) and distribute that money depending on project size. Smaller projects get more (less likely to have a lot of donors) big projects less (hopefully they have a lot of people donating small amounts that add up).
Smaller projects get more (less likely to have a lot of donors) big projects less (hopefully they have a lot of people donating small amounts that add up).
This is what I’ve been thinking of doing. It’s also possible that big projects have bigger reserves they can rely on and be able to mobilise donors should they be in need of a money injection
I’ve only done it for a year now, but I’m giving CHF 100.- (around 100$) equally shared between all the open source projects I’m using a lot.
I keep a list to remember all of them and I update it every year.
And then I’m adapting to the platform they use to get money.
Very interesting topic in fact, I am not sure a unique and perfect solution exists.
In fact, it depends to how much you earn, how matter does for you the project, how big it is, etc. It is a question of feelings after all.
For example you may want to donate $20 one time to a useful tool you use, but for an app you enjoy using which match your own values you may want to send each year $50. But for some people it is complicated to give money, they need to satisfy their own needs before and people don’t have all the same incomes.
FMPOV, if the project is “just a tool” it can be a $20 one shot. If I use the software daily, it can be $50 per year. Maybe more if I feel it will help.
About the transaction medium, it depends. Projects can use Liberapay, others PayPal or Open Collective, or also in-app purchases. I don’t use cryptocurrencies because of the transactions fees.
Hope it helps!
