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I've been trying to encourage more "Charityware" for software [0]. My software is free and open source (MIT license) [1] but I also sell it for $5 and donate $3

by yboris 6y ago

I've been trying to encourage more "Charityware" for software [0]. My software is free and open source (MIT license) [1] but I also sell it for $5 and donate $3.50 of every sale to a cost-effective charity. My goal is to increase donations to the charity, and asking people for donations wouldn't be as effective. My software now has generated almost over $9,000 in donations. Personally, every purchase of my software feels rewarding. It's probably not as great as a regular donation, but it's a close second. Furthermore, since my software is pay-what-you-want (with a minimum of $5) people have been often giving more than the minimum. That really feels like a donation. [0] https://medium.com/@whyboris/charityware-doing-good-with-proceeds-from-software-purchases-e48e66a5d1a https://medium.com/@whyboris/charityware-doing-good-with-pro... [1] https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App

syshum 6y ago
One thing that always hurts OpenSource project is the fact they have not ability for me to "Buy" it, with an actual invoice or receipt that I can give to my accounting people for the sale... It is "donation" of a undetermined amount which is a much harder thing for me to clear the bean counters. So by being able to go to a site, it buy now with a fixed price, and (I presume getting a receipt) you likey having gotten much more income than if you where to have a "donate to me" link with a open ended amount...
- njarboe 6y ago
  This is even more important if you want people in academia to support open source projects with money. It is view as fraud and is illegal to give money to an open source project from a federal grant. If one can buy it and get an invoice, then support is possible.
- kubanczyk 6y ago
  Congratulations, you've discovered the Enterprise Edition (or Enterprise Support). People think it needs a shitload of extra functionality, when in reality it just needs some minimal perks and a tag with a LARGE price written on it.
- YorickPeterse 6y ago
  I think the challenge here is that there aren't easy to use solutions for this. For donations there's Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, etc; but for invoices I'm not sure if there's an equivalent that makes sense.
erk__ 6y ago
I would guess that the most well known charityware is Vim though I am not sure how well known it is that it is charityware. It has it embedded in the license [0]. [0]: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html#license http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html#license

by yboris 6y ago

syshum 6y ago

One thing that always hurts OpenSource project is the fact they have not ability for me to "Buy" it, with an actual invoice or receipt that I can give to my accounting people for the sale... It is "donation" of a undetermined amount which is a much harder thing for me to clear the bean counters. So by being able to go to a site, it buy now with a fixed price, and (I presume getting a receipt) you likey having gotten much more income than if you where to have a "donate to me" link with a open ended amount...

njarboe 6y ago
This is even more important if you want people in academia to support open source projects with money. It is view as fraud and is illegal to give money to an open source project from a federal grant. If one can buy it and get an invoice, then support is possible.
kubanczyk 6y ago
Congratulations, you've discovered the Enterprise Edition (or Enterprise Support). People think it needs a shitload of extra functionality, when in reality it just needs some minimal perks and a tag with a LARGE price written on it.
YorickPeterse 6y ago
I think the challenge here is that there aren't easy to use solutions for this. For donations there's Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, etc; but for invoices I'm not sure if there's an equivalent that makes sense.

erk__ 6y ago

I would guess that the most well known charityware is Vim though I am not sure how well known it is that it is charityware. It has it embedded in the license [0]. [0]: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html#license http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html#license