Hi everyone, I’ve recently had an idea for a project that I want to take open source so that other devs can freely access & contribute to it. For this project, I’ve been considering a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to get it off the ground, but I don’t know if it’s worth it.
We all rely on open-source software for so many aspects of development, but I’ve been curious to see if anyone has ever supported/backed an open source tool themselves. I personally haven’t, but it made me wonder - what makes you motivated to back a project?
I’d love to hear any thoughts, especially if you’ve backed or run a campaign before. Thanks in advance!
I think that unless your project is already popular or really really really obviously useful (along with proper marketing), your fundraising campaign will most likely fail.
Set up your repo, set up something like opencollective/kofi/patreon/etc, see if people need it and use it.
@Heath
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess part of my wanting to crowdfund is to get visibility & funding that I can use to incentivize other people to help, as I am unsure of how much I can do myself.
Do you have any advice on how to make the project more visible and get more contributions?
I’m backing SignalK personally simply because it literally saved me probably hundreds of development hours at the very least. Easily one of the biggest open source MVP’s within the maritime technology space.
Forget about it. Unless you have a top 0.1% project, nobody is gonna support it, let alone live out of it.
Massive frameworks have one or two paid devs, and they are in barely standard wages which could be making X2/X3 the amount they make out of doing open source if they move to enterprise work.
I donated a few times here and there, but in total it is less than 100€ always with a one-off donation.
Fay said:
Just yesterday, I submitted a PR with a minor bug fix to an OS project. I gave back because I absolutely love this project and want to be involved.
Nice! This year, I’ve been doing a lot more contributions to open source projects that I use just to give back. It’s definitely a rewarding feeling.
Honestly, I don’t think anyone would pay to get a project started from zero.
If you implement it and it becomes a critical piece of software for many developers and companies, you may get some compensation for the time you invested.
Being realistic, most maintainers even of very popular open source tools still have to run it as a part-time endeavor, maintaining either a job or freelancing as consultants.
And while I really agree that OSS devs should be fairly compensated for their time, if you’re going into it expecting anything in return, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Edit to answer the question: I am okay backing a project that actually does solve a problem I have, or provide me with something where all other alternatives are inferior. I’d see myself contributing to a Linux distro, IDE, or development tool I use on a daily basis, like Elementary OS, neovim, or PHPUnit.
If a new project comes around on Kickstarter offering me to contribute to the development of something that may potentially one day be a halfway decent tool, regardless of whatever promises the campaign makes, I’d just ignore it.
My acquaintance who manages one of the largest open source repos out there says donations don’t even cover a single full-time developer.
For finding people to help, you need to take a leadership position and get things going. Get visibility, and then people will start reaching out offering to help. Think of it as Forrest Gump. Once he’s running, everyone else wants to run with him. But you can’t wait for someone else to run first.
If you are tackling a real problem, I’d argue you’re way more likely to get an investment from angels than through crowdfunding. But this of course also brings business expectations with it.
I’ve supported many open source projects by sponsoring the dev on GitHub. Not gonna lie, it’s often been as a result of the dev making the “next” branch available only to sponsors and me needing access to it. There’s obviously a lot of devs that get sponsored on GitHub. As far as making a Kickstarter out of it… I don’t think that would work out… unless you already have a large following on social media and a proven track record of creating awesome open source projects.
I think “supporting an open-source project” is more about contributing via issues, PRs and so on and less about spending money.
Either way: I’ve spent over $200 on Eleventy and am also a contributor and member of the GitHub org. At the same time, I’m also contributing to several other projects.
The biggest motivation for me to contribute to a project is by far that I’m using it myself, and it makes it easy for me to contribute. This means that setup is not cumbersome, documentation is good, automations are used, and the community is welcoming.
I’ve donated to many open source projects and open source foundations, based on what I’m using professionally and personally. And if you’re able to launch soon, do you know that some U.S. companies offer employee benefits such as end-of-year donation matching?
I started and led an open source project for four years before passing the torch. I’ve contributed to other people’s repos. I have a few silly bits of published code that are also open source.
Most FOSS projects don’t do crowdfunding; they rely on volunteers until they get off the ground. Then seek funding to take it further (easier to get people to put money towards something that has materialized beyond ideation).
Start a project that fills a need. Find others that agree the need should be filled and are able to help it. Involve the stakeholders / affected groups early so you have someone to guide development and provide feedback.
I will contribute to a project that aligns with my values, or would be interesting to work on, or that I have a personal connection with. I generally wouldn’t donate money unless I was very sure it would be used correctly.
I’d be more likely to support an open source library that was a rare solution to a difficult problem, especially if I knew it was a small team and underfunded, and especially if that project was also the sort of thing holding up so much of the Internet like in that one XKCD (you know the one).
Basically, if it’s really useful and needs it more than others that I’m not supporting.