Comment by hackuser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hackuser | Hacker News Reader

OSTIF's financial support is sad. Why is the open source world so generous with time and so cheap with money? Kudos to DuckDuckGo for apparently being the only business that pulls their weight; another great reason to use them.

https://ostif.org/top-ostif-donors/

    Top OSTIF Donors

    These are the individuals and organizations that have given
    the most support to the OSTIF.

    Individuals:
    Derek Zimmer – $1947
    Zach Graves – $188
    Amir Montazery – $200
    Ben W – $30
    Nathan N – $10

    Groups:
    DuckDuckGo – $25,000
    VikingVPN – $1000
    A special thank you for website support from Mike from
    HTPCGuides.com

EDIT: On a second look, is that list really accurate? The fifth highest individual donor gave $10?

I read about the founder and long-time developer of a well-known, respected Linux distro, who had to move back to his hometown because he couldn't afford the Bay Area and has no health insurance. Maybe some of his millions of users could chip in a little for the incredible service he provides to them. How depressing.

Might be also about how they present things. For example in the linked page they have the request for donations in small font and end of the results, but no link to donation page [1]. Edit: and on the donation page the Amazon and PayPal links are not working.

Don't know how they are collecting money in general, but for me it works best when you do this: "Now we have $xxx, but we still need $yyy to do this fairly specific great thing. Please donate!"

[1] https://ostif.org/donate-to-ostif/

I thought you were exaggerating at first, and then I went to try and donate. Wow. The "donate to OSTIF" link looks like text (black), when all other links are blue, and, as you said, the PayPal link isn't working (so that removes my first donation method), and the Bitcoin link requires me to copy/paste an address to my phone (there isn't even a QR code), so I just plain can't donate.

Like you said, that was surprisingly tough to donate with. I had to make a donation by sending money via Square Cash to $OSTIF.

I've often found a problem with open source projects is that they aren't set up for non-profit, so you can't claim a donation on taxes. Perhaps minor but this could mean a lot for, for example, an organization looking for a donation target.

Just look at the openssl debacle.

One critical and almost ubiquitous piece of software and the funding it was getting was ridiculous.

That bureacracy is part of why joining an open source foundation such as KDE with your project can be worth it.

(KDE is a registered entity in Germany, and donations to them can be reclaimed from taxes)

To back this up with an example, we (DuckDuckGo) tried to look for open source projects with 501(c)3 status or similar for donations, but many projects or organisations don't make it clear. The alternative was to look through online IRS records which not every donor will do.

Another problem was finding up-to-date info about whether funding is actually needed and what for. Donors usually want to donate to a project that is needy and in line with their values.

My advice for any OSS project looking for donations is:

* Have a dedicated easy-to-find donations page or donations.md file.

* Explain what you need funding for. Specific is better.

* Indicate how to donate and how to contact you for donation questions.

* Make your tax status clear, even if you're not a non-profit.

* To reduce bureaucracy, consider joining a non-profit umbrella organisation such as OSTIF ( https://ostif.org/ ) or Riseup Labs ( http://riseuplabs.org/ ).

* If you do get donations, report the effect of the funding either publicly or to the donor. This builds trust and increases the chance of repeat donations in future.

* Include non-financial donation ideas and link to your developer page or contributing.md file (or equivalent).

EDIT: The OpenBSD Foundation is a good example of easy-to-access information about donating, activities, and current and past fundraising campaigns: http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/

> long-time developer of a well-known, respected Linux distro, who had to move back to his hometown

Interesting. Do you remember what distro?

Cursory research seems to suggest Pat Volkerding, of Slackware fame.

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