[coolestuk]

I also donated to the Livecode open source project. I just had a look at the Kickstarter programme. I tallied up all the contributions of those who received at least a license to the commercial product in the days after the Kickstarter ended.

Of the £493,795 raised, fully £368,285 of that donated was returned as commercial licenses to those who donated.

Those who donated in return for no immediate reward (about 0.2% of the total sum donated) got 8 years of free enhancements to the open source version. And those who have that open source version installed still get to use it ad infinitum (even if they were not contributors to the Kickstarter). There's no need to pay for any license unless features added in future are things they feel meet some need.

I've funded other projects where I never even got a viable product, never mind one that was actively developed for nearly a decade.