I love KiCad and I have seen it grow over the last couple of years.
It is embarrassing to how this years fund drive is stuck at $99,871.
I have contributed, not this year but previous years.
To make donations “more fun”, the developers could define 5-6 different new features that they like to consider. And when we, the users, can choose to give our $10, $20, $50 to the feature we want the most.
This will give us, the users, a feeling that we pay for a bit of influence, and it will give the developers an insight into what the paying users really want, while still being free to choose which direction to go.
Sorry! It is mostly stuck there because I’ve been too busy fixing some bugs to get around to writing the blog post and updating on the fund drive! Not because people haven’t been up for contributing but just due to lack on time.
I’ll pop an update and summary hopefully this week.
@dchisholm is touching on a real problem because it could very much look like a trick to leave the counter at $99.871 for over a week, giving people a feeling that their payment is the deciding payment, that push the fund drive over the finish line. I remember something similar happed the year I contributed.
It is very important that the people that donate to KiCad are treated fairly and that they feel that they are appreciated. The majority of people don’t ever contribute to anything that they can get for free (KiCad, Wikipedia, Blender, FreeCad and so on). The few people that do contribute, are far more likely to contribute again, and again. Therefor they need to be shown some appreciation. It could be a little gold star, that will show proudly that this user has contributed this year, or the year before.
In effect KiCad, is already showing the corporate sponsors a lot of appreciation with a on the website:
