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private-donations.md

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Monetization via Private Donations

AKA: Donationware

Voluntary contributions made from private persons to individual maintainers, contributors, or OSS projects. Often these are one-time donations, but recurring payments are also becoming more common.

Requires:

  • Setup of a payment mechanism (hosted or self-build)
  • Description of one or more donation tiers
  • Recurring "marketing activites" to motivate users to donate

Variants & Options:

  • Single Donation: One-time contribution
  • Recurring Donation: Monthly recurring contributions
  • Tiered Donation Levels: Offering of mentions (on Twitter, etc.), swag, chats, meetups, etc. for higher or recurring donations

Platforms

Evaluation

Characteristics Value Note
Effort to set-up Hours Some descriptions and bank info is sufficient
Effort to maintain High Constant reminders to donate necessary
Cost to set-up None
Cost to maintain None
One-time Income Low Few private sponsors will pay more than a few dollars (due to own finances and high competition (too many projects to feed))
Recurring Income Low Very few sponsors will pay recurringly
Income Predictability Low Constant reminders to donate necessary; Sponsors can come and go on a whim
Full income Threshold 1000+
Recipient I + C
Additional Work None
Visibility Low Easy to forget, ignore, or overlook by users
Necessity to pay Low Completely voluntary
Entry Threshold Low Credit card is sufficient
Countervalue None
Scalability Medium Scales with the number of users (who want to donate)
Effort for marketing High
Competitors None
Software types All