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by elevation 1952 days ago
I use K9 for a small LLC, and would like to support the developer. My CPA advises that anonymous[1]/charitable contributions are not tax deductible business expenses. However, if the recipient publicly acknowledges your sponsorship, it's considered an "advertising" expense.

To accept contributions from small corporations using your app, consider offering a low-friction non-charitable service such as a one-year placement on a "sponsors" page of your website, like (the Python Software Foundation does this for contributions of any amount. [0])

Another option could be an annual per-user license (for organizations large enough that the person with a credit card wanting to support you cannot also influence the advertising budget.)

If you're a solo developer, don't forget small businesses when considering how to raise funding!

[0]: https://www.python.org/psf/donations/ [1]: https://liberapay.com/about/
2 comments
fxtentacle 1952 days ago
Fully agree. Nobody is going to ask about me purchasing a monthly license or a monthly recurring advertisement slot with company money. But monthly donations are a PITA with regards to taxes and you run a risk of having to pay taxes on them as if they had been pure profit.

So give me a way to "purchase" and I'll be happy to donate.

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cketti 1952 days ago
I understand it's difficult for a company to give money to an open source project. But none of the options you've mentioned sound very appealing to me.

GitHub displays the avatars of sponsors. Maybe that's an option that satisfies the "acknowledges sponsorship" criterion? https://github.com/sponsors/cketti

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fxtentacle 1952 days ago
They could release a paid upgrade that allows you to customize the splash screen to show your company logo

That's clearly advertisement and paying extra to have your logo on a product is an established business practice.

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Cu3PO42 1952 days ago
You could also sell access to some "extra documentation". It doesn't have to be particularly useful or add any value at all, it just has to be there. You could probably go as "far" as just writing a two-page rundown of IMAP or something. Maybe even put it online for free and sell access to a PDF. The point is there's a tangible "benefit".

This does not apply solely to taxation, but also what is an easy sell to management.

All of this is extra administrative work that understandably you don't want to deal with, but it may open the door to significantly more sponsorships, so it could be worth looking into.

Disclaimer: I am neither a lawyer nor a CPA.

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