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
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.
10 % is really good!
Are there any foundations that distribute donations to various FOSS projects?
nlnet is the main one that comes to mind.
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.
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
Very true!
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.
How much money do you donate?
I am very privileged to have some money left over after fulfilling essential needs. So, I set a fixed amount a while ago, and then whenever I am able to make a saving (e.g. switching to a cheaper phone plan) or get a pay rise (if it ever comes), I’ll put some of the gains into donations.
When do you donate?
I remember reading somewhere that many organisations prefer regular donations to one-off donations, even if the regular amount is smaller, since it helps them plan better. So I always give regular donations, even if the amount is smaller to compensate.
I have everything set up as automatic donations in liberapay and OpenCollective. So, it’s pretty seamless!
If anyone ever wants to gift me anything, I’ll ask for them to consider a donation to a project instead.
Do you have a minimum donation amount?
I try to avoid payments under £5. Below that point, way too much of the money goes to fees. For some projects where I donate a small amount, I donate yearly instead of monthly instead.
How do you decide what projects to support? Do you forego donations if you’ve contributed in other ways?
I don’t donate to every project I benefit from, but I care a lot about XMPP and Linux on Mobile, so I donate mainly to projects in these areas. I’ve also contributed code to some of these projects, but I keep donating as I want to support the ongoing maintenance as well as just individual features.
Do you donate to all equally or do you have some sort of ranking? Is it by amount of use, subjective preference, something else?
I care about XMPP as a whole succeeding, so I donate to many projects I don’t even use myself. I wanted to donate to clients and servers for each major platform, so I split the clients like this:
- iOS clients: 1 project
- Android clients: 1 project
- Linux clients: 4 projects
- Server software: 1 project
Then, I donated an equal amount to each platform (so, for example all the Linux clients combined would get the same as the single Android client).
However, since I was donating so little to each Linux client, I decided to gradually increase the amount I donate to those over time.
I’ve also recently started donating to libraries / ancillary projects in the same space. But I don’t have much money left to play with for them, so the amount is smaller :(
Linux on Mobile is simpler as I only donate to two projects, so I just donate equally to both.
So, long story short, it started with some kind of structure, but has become more subjective since then :)
What platforms do you prefer using? Liberapay, Opencollective, Patreon, ko-fi, Paypal, Monero, actual post?
I really like liberapay, especially as it mostly works without Javascript. But Opencollective is pretty nice too. If the developer themselves gives a preference, I’ll normally use that platform.
One thing I’m interesting in knowing is - do people generally prefer donating to fewer projects, but with bigger amounts, or vice versa? One criticism of my approach is that, because I am spread quite thin, I risk not really helping any project that much, whereas if I focused on one or two projects, at least those could benefit a bit more.
I am all in favor for spreading donations across many - especially smaller - projects. I think that there are two levels to donations:
- The monetary one. Donating helps fund development either by paying for a full-time dev or by helping the dev stay financially stable to do a bit less work hours so they have time for the project.
- The psychological one. Most people that publish their code online are not expecting this to become big. And when a stranger from the internet appreciates their code enough for a donation this is a huge motivational factor.
I even tend to think that donating 5€ more to GIMP is less valuable than giving the money to some random project.
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!
I don’t use cryptocurrencies because of the transactions fees.
Unless you are sending cash, check or ACH, credit card rent seekers take 3-4% cut
Time for me to make a new excel sheet it sounds like. I have no idea what I’ve given or what I’m giving to regularly 😬
Hey there! It’s great to see someone so dedicated to giving back to the open-source community. I think your system is pretty solid and well thought out! Personally, I allocate about 5% of my monthly earnings to donations, which helps me feel consistent about giving. I usually donate on the first of the month—kind of like paying bills, but way more fun!
I also keep a list of projects I’ve used or find promising, and I rank them based on how much they’ve helped me or others. Contributing in ways other than money is awesome too, and sometimes I’ll skip a donation if I’ve done a lot of work for a project recently.
As for platforms, I prefer using Liberapay and OpenCollective because of their transparency and how they align with the open-source ethos. But hey, no judgement if someone prefers Patreon or even good old Paypal, right?
Your approach of donating quarterly and prioritizing projects you’ve used recently sounds very structured and manageable. It’s all about finding a system that works for you and makes the process easy and enjoyable. Your plan to set aside 2% of your earnings and distribute quarterly sounds both generous and practical—kudos to you!
Keep up the fantastic work and thanks for supporting open source!
