I Donate to Open Source Does It Actually Help?

Posted by Jumpy-Win-2973@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 16 comments

Hello,

I’m someone who enjoys programming as a hobby and has a strong interest in computer science. I build projects using Rust and PHP, and I’ve also been able to introduce various improvements at my workplace thanks to my programming knowledge. Along the way, I’ve been encouraging the use of open-source software whenever possible.

I regularly donate to many of the open-source tools I use. However, I’ve been wondering: do these donations actually make a meaningful difference for the developers?

For example, I’m considering switching from GitHub to Codeberg and plan to support them financially as well. I even wanted to donate to the Rust programming language, but I couldn’t find a clear way to do that as an individual.

So I have two main questions:

Do individual donations really make an impact on open-source projects?
How can I help promote this culture in my environment? At my workplace, for instance, some open-source tools (like WordPress) are used to generate revenue, yet I rarely see any contributions or donations being made back to those projects.

Personally, I believe supporting open-source is important. For example, I use Zorin OS Pro as a way to contribute, and I’m quite happy with it.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

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mrlinkwii@reddit

Do individual donations really make an impact on open-source projects?

most of the time no , since most people people donate to the FSF and other functionally dead organizations

donating to smaller projects it can

frnxt@reddit

It depends a lot on what project? Codeberg is a large-ish collective now compared to a lot of other projects, and besides paying people to do the maintenance it has a lot of recurrent expenses related to hosting: any donation helps for both of them.

Even small donations help build up momentum for small projects held up by just one or a few maintainer(s). At the beginning it's mostly moral support I guess, but that's crucially important to be able to reach the end game where the maintainer(s) are able to pay themselves a large portion of their salary. Several projects I setup a recurrent donation to have reached these later stages: not only am I glad that the people building them are living their life through software I use, but it also resulted in a lot of amazing additions to the features I use regularly and the stability of the projects in general, because the people maintaining them can plan longer-term. Win-win, as they say.

OlOS_linux@reddit

They do matter, but not in isolation. Big OSS ecosystems rely more on cumulative small donations than large one-off ones.

For smaller projects though, even a few recurring donors can make a real difference in my opinion.

daemonpenguin@reddit

Yes. AS an open source developer, I can tell you it makes a difference. What you're describing, making small donations, is basically the reverse of the saying "No raindrop blame itself for the flood." A single $10 donation might not help a lot, but a hundred $10 donations have a meaningful impact.
Talk to your colleagues and boss about it. Knowing that they can get some software for free, but that donating will help the longevity of the project and may pave the way to getting bug fixes will probably motivate them.

no_brains101@reddit

Idk, the 2 ppl giving me 5$ a month make me feel appreciated at least. Cause I didn’t ask them to do that, they just are doing so, presumably because they like what I make, which is cool. Plus, I don’t have a ton of money so it’s still a useful amount lol

LocationReady788@reddit

Anche se pochi € o $ che siano, che possono essere donati ad un programma che trovi ottimo per le tue esigenze, per chi li riceve è uno stimolo a mantenere attivo quel programma, ed anche a fare meglio. Anch'io regolarmente tutti gli anni ho una serie di programmi e sistemi operativi a cui sono in forma privata, perché sono ottimi strumenti che utilizzo quotidianamente.

FryBoyter@reddit

If you reply to an English-language post, it seems like you understand it. So why not reply in English as well? Especially if you're in an English-language subreddit?

Actually, they're translated automatically. Even on the SUSE sub I post in English, they're automatically translated into Italian, and the replies I post in other Italian subs are automatically translated for those who read them. Perhaps there's a setting in the settings that does this.

dgm9704@reddit

In the big picture one small donation does nothing. But the income is made up of those small donations, so each one is important. If you want to think about what a small donation is good for, think of things like electricity bill, or internet cost, or server hosting cost. For a small project 5$ can pay a chunk of someones internet bill for the month. Or a cup of coffee, or a buss pass, or allergy medicine, etc. Those projects are made up of people, and people need all sorts of stuff to able to work on something. If a group of people make small but steady donations, it might even mean that someone can shorten their week at the dayjob and dedicate a full day for the project. (instead of sacrificing all of their free time and energy and burning out)

SirGlass@reddit

I feel like this is the voting problem. Will your 1 vote change the outcome of a election, probably not.

However if you and 1000 other people vote it might.

Meaning will your $10 donation help? A very small amount. However if you and thousands of other people pitch in $10 now we are talking serious money.

I always donate $10 or $20 to various open source projects every year. KDE , libre office ,vlc , xfce , thunder bird .

There are millions of Linux users around the world. If everyone donate what would amount to a coffee or beer, yes that would make a huge difference.

Infinity-of-Thoughts@reddit

I mean .. I think KDE consistently reach their donation goals?

The simple answer is: in some cases it works, in others it don't.

twitterfluechtling@reddit

Maybe research which projects are in need, and if projects don't make it easy to donate, assume they don't need the donation. Many projects are carried by big companies earning good money via support contracts or by huge companies like AWS using the software in their datacenters, making tons of money.

There sure are other project that need and deserve some donations. Don't feel bad for donating little, just think what it would accumulate to if every user gave a similar amount.

Maybe if your company is using tools and earning by doing so, advocate within your company to get support-contracts. It helps both sides: Your company will get support in case of trouble, your manager gets someone to blame if something goes sideways, and the project gets a regular income.

It depends on the specific project. For example, there are various projects that do not accept donations. Why? Because it doesn’t help them. For instance, because donations do not generate enough funds to achieve certain goals.

For these projects, it would make more sense to get directly involved rather than donate. For example, by reporting issues. Or by checking whether previously reported issues are still relevant. Or by creating or improving end-user documentation. And so on.

Yes, they help and motivate a lot !
If you have some kind of budget to buy licence or hardware at work, than arguing in favour of donating to OSS project should be doable