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How to get sponsors for my Open source project

I have an open source project, it's a android ROM that created during the start of this year and It kind of took off.
Here take a look on github: https://github.com/ProjectSakura
website: projectsakura.xyz
Statistics: https://projectsakura.xyz/stats.html

I was also able to get a sponsor for servers too but that wouldn't help me financially. And after that I started giving more and more time into it and now I kind of hit a wall financially. I tried asking for donations but obviously very few people did.
So, I kind of started finding ways to get a sponsor for the website for an ad or something. But I have no luck with it, I just couldn't think of any way to get them.
So please guide me if anybody knows how to get a sponsor.

  1. 3

    Nice project!

    It's tough monetizing open source. Perhaps you could try something like elementary OS does. They're a Linux distribution who has the optional donation in-built into their download section itself. People have to select a number to donate as part of the download form (they can write 0 if they don't want to pay) https://elementary.io/

    They're also having exclusive early betas and other stuff for sponsors only. See here https://blog.elementary.io/updates-for-july-2020/

    I wrote a bit more about how to pay rent with your open source project here https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-funding

    1. 1

      I had thought of this way, But currently I feel it will drastically affect my user base. I can see the numbers going as low as few 100s.

  2. 3

    I've created with some friends monetizeyourcode.com a year ago, to provide some resources to developers in search of funding/sponsor, you might want to check it out. it's just a simple list of useful resources, you can also access a spreadsheet with the full list including articles, videos, and more on the subject. That could give you some ideas ;)
    I redeployed the website on a new platform last week and just realized that we can't click on the different cell of the table anymore XD I will fix that asap haha

    1. 2

      Well, maybe you are working on the excel sheet because it was empty xD

      1. 1

        I just fixed the home page, you can now click on the different solutions and access each details ^^ mmmh weird the spreadsheet works fine on my side, you can use the tab at the bottom of it to navigate ;)

  3. 3

    This may be difficult since you're targeting individuals. Individuals are used to the "get everything free" mentality (thanks google). For a FOSS project living of donations it has to be either pretty big (=enough individuals donating) or needs to have something to offer for companies. I'm not sure how that would work with a ROM though.

    Going forward, I would suggest this: Either find a way you can provide value to companies (B2B) or find a way to get more donations from your users. Maybe something like "Pay this $2 to unlock pink backgrounds" so some kind of customisation feature people might pay for.

  4. 1

    There are many ways to monetize open source. Check out the collection at https://www.oss.fund/ for inspiration. But finding a platform or sponsors is not the answer in my view.

    I believe you are asking the wrong question. You have change your mindset from "how do I monetize my open source project" to "how does open source help my business model".

    Check this amazing video to see what I mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SJAPxU5bs

    HTH

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