Ask HN: Where to start with employer contribution to OSS

With the recent news of open source projects burning out due to lack of support, I'm looking to suggest to my small employer that we start making financial contributions to some projects, but I have no idea where to start. I know this might only be a small amount of money, so I'm keen to make it go as far as possible, but I don't know where to start.

Where can I find a list of open source projects and dependencies used the most? Is "used the most" even the best place to focus?

Are Github sponsors or a Patreon style model a good approach?

Does anyone have any experience proposing this to an employer. Does any resources exist to lay out the value and impact in a clear way?