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
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!
Unless you are sending cash, check or ACH, credit card rent seekers take 3-4% cut