We’ve received 200,000 donations in 1030 days, from May 1st 2013 to February 24th 2016, with an average of 194 donations per day. The best day was February 11th 2016 – the day after we announced LibreOffice 5.1 – with 474 donations. Together with volunteers who are contributing their time, and Advisory Board members who are investing in The Document Foundation, individual donors are making the dream of an independent self-sustaining free software-oriented foundation – capable of pushing the best free office suite to the next level of awesomeness – into a solid, enduring reality.
Back in 2010, when the independent foundation was announced, one of the most frequent objections was based on the assumption that a large free software project cannot exist without a single large corporate sponsor. After five and a half years, the dream has come true and has a bright future. Thanks to donations, we have been able to fund a large number of projects, from hackfests for developers to LibreOffice booths at exhibitions, along with native language community events, a stronger independent infrastructure, and so on. In addition, our staff is growing, taking care of background activities, and making things happen.
More importantly, we have been able to demonstrate that a large free software project does not need a single large corporate sponsor to thrive, but can rely on a diverse ecosystem based on companies and volunteers, and supported by individual donors. Companies come and go, while volunteers – and hopefully donors – stay, and possibly grow. So far, they have had the unique power of making a ten year-long dream come true, and become history. With a simple donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org, they can keep the history alive, forever.
200,000 thanks, again.
