A Proper Perspective.
We were very hesitant to even consider accepting donations. We have seen open source projects become overwhelmed by calls for financial support - alienating the user base and halting development when the cash didn't flow in quickly enough. We do not want our development efforts to be held as ransom over our users heads.
On the other hand, the core team is currently all employed in full-time jobs outside of SWCMS. This means the majority of development, design, and support occurs on nights and weekends. Thankfully, several of our positions give us the flexibility to put additional time towards SWCMS if we can put some butter on that bread. That is where the donations come into play.
We love code, the web, and things geeky. It runs in our blood. We'll keep writing code and designing layouts because we can't help ourselves. But if you'd like to see us do a little more or perhaps just say thanks by adding a few nickels to our change jar...we aren't going to say no.
A Proper Openness.
An open source project should not only be open in its code but also in its financial decisions. We want to be open in the finances we receive and in the finances we expend. Its our intent to offer bi-weekly updates of donations coming in and how that money was expended. For example, we'll let you know how much it costs to keep the server running, how we spent that extra $100 to accelerate the release of a critical new feature or patch a security hole. If we decide to flush a few benjamins down the toilet - we'll even tell you about that (though we have no intention of doing so...).
Make a Donation.
Use the form below to make a donation. We have an account setup with PayPal. Feel free to leave a comment explaining how you would prefer your donation be utilized (e.g. "I really want to see x feature" or "Get your butts working on rewriting x.") We expect donations to be made without conditions, but will seek to honor the spirit of each donation.
But I Want This...
If you have a specific feature you need developed, consider posting a job/gig opening on the forums. One of our developers or another third party may pick it up. Then you pay for exactly what you ask for. We hope you will consider contributing the final code back into the SWCMS code base.
