I contribute what amounts to a few euros a month to a few open source projects. I do these because these projects have significantly helped my career and added

I contribute what amounts to a few euros a month to a few open source projects. I do these because these projects have significantly helped my career and added to my personal enjoyment. Perhaps not much in the grand scheme of things, but I feel I owe at least that much, especially if I'm not able to help in other ways (PRs for example). However, when I've asked employers to do the same - just throw what to them is would be tax-deductible chump change at some projects that have helped them make fortunes - there's lot of muttering and foot-dragging. More trouble than it's worth to do the paperwork, apparently. So we end up in a ludicrous situation where essential software, used by companies with revenues in the billions, depend on a single, relatively impoverished and stressed out developer toiling in obscurity. Google or Facebook or Microsoft could, for what amounts to a rounding error, have just put him on an annual salary or grant.