The first donation to my open source project (1) came from someone who went through the trouble of emailing me to ask how they could donate.

Since then, I've embraced receiving donations and last year I ended up receiving more than 10.000 euro. (2)

I (re)donate everything to charity, for reasons (3), but even then it's a great motivator. If it wasn't for the money I would have burned out long ago. It really means a lot when people show their support in such a tangible way.

I recommend everyone to both accept donations, and donate to others.

(1) https://freesewing.org/ (2) https://freesewing.org/blog/bye-2020/ (3) https://freesewing.org/docs/various/pledge/motivation/