Today we're announcing some changes to how we're going to accept donations at Flarum going forward.
TL;DR: We are going to use Patreon to support individuals, and Open Collective to support the broader Flarum organization. You can support my work on my Patreon, @luceos on his Patreon, and Flarum on Open Collective.
I want to start by thanking each and every one of you, on behalf of the whole Flarum team, for your generous support thus far. Your donations are well and truly covering the monthly hosting costs for our website and community, which was previously an out-of-pocket expense. We really appreciate it!
A little while ago we set up an Open Collective page for Flarum. Open Collective is similar to Patreon (you can pledge a monthly donation), but it allows us to be fully transparent with regards to what happens to these funds. The funds accumulate in the Collective, and anyone can submit an expense to be approved for everyone to see. All of the funds you've donated through Patreon thus far have been added to the Collective, and we've been submitting expenses for hosting costs.
However, we've been a little unsure about how to distribute some of the excess funds to the project devs in a fair and even way. So we've decided to leave it up to you and start using Patreon as a way to support individuals, while keeping Open Collective as a way to support the broader Flarum organization.
As of today, we're changing the Flarum Patreon page to support me individually, rather than the Flarum organization. The money donated through this page will go directly to me as a source of income, allowing me to spend less time freelancing and more time working on Flarum. This will obviously still be beneficial to Flarum, but we want to make sure you know exactly where your money is going. If you wish to continue to support the Flarum organization in particular, please feel free to cancel your pledge on this page and head over to our Open Collective page. (I won't be offended!)
We think this model of funding will work really well for Flarum going forward. It gives you a choice as to whether you want to support the Flarum organization (paying for hosting costs, legal fees, and contracted development work), versus supporting a particular individual's ongoing contributions – or both!
Whether you choose to support our work on Flarum via Patreon, or support the broader organisation via Open Collective... Thank you! It means a lot to receive donations, big or small, that help us to move Flarum forward.
