Existing Tools
- http://flattr.com ("social micropayments" - the rising, most popular method of tip jar for Drupalistas)
- http://rockethub.com
- http://kickstarter.com
- http://chipin.com - track record of failure for Drupal projects
- http://spot.us (for journalism, Ruby on Rails code is open source, Benjamin Melançon knows founder David Cohn)
- http://www.fossfactory.org (appears dormant)
- https://www.opensourcery.com/donor-rally - A Drupal distribution for social fundraising
- http://modulecraft.com/ - fund-raising project by Pronovix that aims to rally Drupal professionals around a shared effort to create the ultimate toolset for Drupal business.
- Seeder (Built on Drupal 6 for The Cedar, code not yet released)
The Need
Earl Miles states the need to raise funds for Free Software clearly:
It works when your employer uses the software you create. It's a lot tougher when you want to create something that no single employer is going to get enough value out of to justify the total cost. That's where you want something that allows you to pool customer's money together.
He considers the app store model or the support model or a hybrid subscription model, but sees practical difficulties with both. The possibility of coordinating our needs and funding software development up front needs to be presented here and everywhere as a strong possibility with infrastructure to back it up.
Full post and comment thread: http://www.angrydonuts.com/contributing-to-open-source
Dries Buytaert states the need also:
Open source is the best way to build and distribute software. There are few things about which I'm more convinced. In some, but not all cases, Open Source also offers a viable business model. When it does, it's great because it allows you to do well and do good at the same time.