What's the best way for me to donate to FOSS projects? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been trying to switch to (mostly) open source software. I’d like to somehow contribute to the software I use and the people making it, but I have no programming expertise or other skills that would be useful. Is there anywhere I can set up a monthly donation so I can at least help support the people who do have those skills?

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[-] felsiq@piefed.zip 2 points 3 months ago

I feel like I do nothing but plug liberapay these days, but it really is great and it’s how I do what you’re trying to do. Because of the processing fees payment networks charge, it’s usually more realistic to do yearly rather than monthly donations if the amount is small, but it’s otherwise exactly what it sounds like you want

[-] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

This is a great place to start, thanks!

[-] dynamoMaus@feddit.org 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I think you are looking for something like https://liberapay.com/

Edit: just saw it's already mentioned. Kudos to the other (better) comment

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Your comment is good too.

[-] clean_anion@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago

There is no central location to donate to open source software in general. Most open source projects include donation details on their website or in their code repositories.

[-] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

That was my first thought, but I hoped there was some kind of foundation that supported multiple developers/projects to which I could set up a recurring donation.

[-] ambitiousslab@feddit.uk 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There are a few such foundations!

NLnet (among other things) donates to a lot of fediverse and similar projects, including multiple donations for lemmy.
Software in the Public Interest acts as a fiscal host for its 45 member projects. You can make a general donation, or a donation to specific projects.
The Software Freedom Conservancy, among other things, acts as a fiscal host for its projects. You can donate to individual projects, or make a general donation to conservancy and they will use it in whatever way best advances software freedom.
Likewise, the FSF has a "Working together for free software fund" which has a few projects listed. I can't see a way to donate to the fund as a whole, but if you don't mind some (most?) of the money going to things that aren't directly developing software, you could make a standard donation to the FSF.

[-] CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

It’s not the ideal solution, but a lot of foss is hosted on GitHub and uses GitHub sponsorships. I would start by looking at the repositories for the projects you use the most and seeing if there is a button or link on it.

[-] remon@ani.social 1 points 3 months ago

Is there anywhere I can set up a monthly donation so I can at least help support the people who do have those skills?

Yes, many places. They are usually listed under the "donate" section of what ever project you want to support.

[-] BigBolillo@mgtowlemmy.org 1 points 3 months ago

IMHO it is better to use a low fee crypto option if it's available. That way the project can get almost the total amount of your donation.

[-] randomaccount43543@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Here are a few:

https://organicmaps.app/donate

https://www.freecad.org/sponsor.php

https://inkscape.org/support-us/donate

https://donate.kicad.org/

this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026

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