11 days ago, I talked a bit about the rapid (and unbelievably generous) influx of donations that happened in the first two days. Since then, donations have continued to come in at a steady pace of a few hundred dollars per day, which is still hugely impressive considering this is a community-powered endeavor.
A few people have very politely asked if I’m at all worried about not achieving the $50k goal, and my response to them is a two-parter:
First, it would be a shame to come all this way and miss the mark by such a small percentage. With IndieGogo’s “Flexible Funding” option, being underfunded costs us an additional 5% (around $2k) which is a not-insignificant difference.
Second, we’ve already achieved so much together, it’s impossible to be disappointed. We’ve proved that years of volunteering to open-source software are valuable, and we’ve attached a real-world number to what that value might look like.
In an industry so heavily weighted on the shoulders of volunteers, this campaign serves as a public example of an opt-in, peer-powered, donation-based compensation package – the first of its kind that I know of, and hopefully not the last.
The 174 funders of this campaign are not only investing in the future of BuddyPress, bbPress, and GlotPress; they’re empowering me to do the best work of my life, and providing a landmark achievement to prove others can and should attempt to do the same.
For the data-conscious among us, I’m including some screenshots from the IndieGogo campaign dashboard below. The interface is fairly comprehensive, and provides interesting perspectives that aren’t generally made available to non-campaigners.
