What you propose exists. It's https://flattr.com/ https://flattr.com/ It hasn't made enough impact over its long history. That's not necessarily because the mo

What you propose exists. It's https://flattr.com/ https://flattr.com/ It hasn't made enough impact over its long history. That's not necessarily because the model doesn't work. However, it does set up a zero-sum game. Each click to another project takes away from the ones you already support. Thus, it won't really change the overall economic situation much. There are also foundations that sponsor multiple projects. E.g. Apache. There are meta-level projects like Ubuntu. In principle these larger downstream projects should do what's necessary to support their upstream dependencies. That doesn't always happen though. Tidelift does funding that emphasizes awareness of upstream dependencies and supporting them. ## On microdonations and fees This is a payment-processor issue. I believe that Stripe and some others have the capacity to process aggregate charges without all separate. So, if in a platform, you donate $10 to 15 different projects and so do many others, they could charge you the one charge of $10 and give the recipients their single payment from everyone. Each donor would get one processing fee, not one for every project they support. This is key. And it cannot be solved at the platform level because holding funds in escrow is only feasible if you are a limited specific set of incorporated projects (that's what Open Collective helps support, they can do this approach with one donation fee for each Collective you donate to, even though the Collective could include a lot of projects. A specific Collective there could offer your system. In other words: Open Collective could do what you're asking somewhat. You donate to a Collective. They don't just have the money for any of their members, the Collective offers a tool for you to vote on which of the members you want to support. That's another way to see your proposal: An org that accepts donations and you get to vote on which projects they give grants to. ## On downstream vs upstream funding Anyway, the bigger problem in free/libre/open funding is that it relies too much on proprietary end-user products that have paywalls or ad-driven business models. If a product is designed to reach all the way to downstream users, everyone can freeride. So, freerider problem, game-theory dilemmas. You might be interested in the ideas at https://snowdrift.coop https://snowdrift.coop which is aiming to build downstream patronage via crowdmatching. The wiki there also has reviews of the issues: https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/about/existing-mechanisms https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/about/existing-mechanisms https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/about/economics https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/about/economics and this is a thorough review of all the existing funding platforms: https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/other-crowdfunding https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/other-crowdfundi... There's a long history of failed efforts, some mentioned at https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/history/software https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/history/software Cheers