Question about funding development

From: Dan Collens <dan(dot)collens(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Question about funding development
Date: 2019-06-06 15:47:09
Message-ID: CAK-+j7ichH2nU_n4xjWRCnvSKTz8ZraCKre1rVWDobTn7ZVYeQ@mail.gmail.com
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I've used PostgreSQL in a variety of commercial projects now for 10 years
or so. It's been a delight! During this time, we've never needed any
support, nor paid for anything.

Recently, I've started thinking about and discussing with others the idea
of making a recurring payment in support of the project.

Ideally, we'd like those funds to support further development work (rather
than, say, advocacy, or sales & marketing at a commercial enterprise). And
we'd like the work we support to be 100% open source.

The most obvious option I found was to donate to the general project, here:
https://www.postgresql.org/about/donate_pg_org/
From that page, the description of funds usage is:
"The money donated goes to many vital services that the PostgreSQL
community needs including advocacy materials, project infrastructure, legal
expenses, and more."
This sounds like worthwhile stuff, but it doesn't sound exactly like what
we're looking for (see above)?

Another option seems to be to pay for commercial support from one of the
vendors that employ core/major contributors:
https://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/
Of course, we don't actually need support (yet!), and presumably those
funds would be used for all the functions of such a business, like sales,
marketing, support, etc. in addition to software development and
documentation work.

Perhaps I'm being naive, and the community is better funded than I realize,
and this isn't a practical need (whereas, say, funding for the
above-mentioned community needs is)?

Generally speaking then, what guidance would you provide for someone
looking to give back to the project by supporting the ongoing development
of open-source PostgreSQL software?

Thanks in advance for any input, and thank you to everyone who has made
PostgreSQL such a great product over the years!
--Dan.

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