I think this comes down to brand visibility, and also to a large extent, deliberately built emotional brand attachment. Both are completely missing in this art

I think this comes down to brand visibility, and also to a large extent, deliberately built emotional brand attachment. Both are completely missing in this article and should really be featured prominently. There's another article currently at number 2 on the HN front-page[0] about The Guardian. While this isn't an open source project (though they are open source contributors[1]) there are definite parallels. As well as having the nags and donation drives in place, people also need to think the Guardian is worth donating to. And they do, not just because it provides a valuable service to them, but also because the Guardian has a very recognisable name, and because it has been successfully sold to them as a reliable, stable entity they can trust. Obviously something of the scale of The Guardian is not the ideal comparison to most small FOSS projects, but the general ideas hold true - you have to invest in somehow developing in people an emotional attachment to the idea of your product if they're going to click donate. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15786802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15786802 [1] https://github.com/guardian https://github.com/guardian