In the long-run, a project can become dependent on such donations and this can give donors power over the project and those donors may want to steer the project

In the long-run, a project can become dependent on such donations and this can give donors power over the project and those donors may want to steer the project in ways that we don't want to see it go. That may not happen and may even be unlikely but it's important to be prepared for that possibility and have contingencies available. There is already a comment here which discusses one such scenario: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=41695062&goto=item%3Fid%3D41694283%2341695062 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=41695062&goto=item%3Fi...