Show Your Appreciation with a Donation

Over the years, I’ve created a lot of software, authored many articles, and given a number of talks at conferences and meetups. If you’re familiar with my work, you know that I’m happy to give my code away for free, to anyone whom it might help. I don’t ask for anything in return; I’m just glad to be able to help people out and make a difference.

The topic at hand, however, is donations. I’m not going to justify your donation by saying that it’s needed to pay for my web hosting or backup system or some other infrastructure expense. Honestly, it’s not that costly to keep this website running, and it’ll keep running even if I never receive a donation. I run this site and write plugins for fun. I love to do it.

Why donate?

The reason you, person-whom-I-helped-indirectly (or directly), should donate is that it tells me you not only appreciate what I’ve done, but you’ve also looked at the bigger picture and realized that my code saved you time or money. Or both. And you want to show your thanks in a tangible, feel-it-in-your-pocket, kind of way.

You might think, “Ben Alman? I bet he gets a ton of donations for his jQuery plugins. Why, I used like five of them in my last project!” But did you donate? Probably not. Do I get a ton of donations? Nope.

Please donate!

Anyway, here’s your chance to make a difference and finally give back, by donating. Just think about how my code, article, or talk helped you out. Think about how much time or money you saved. Think about that headache you avoided. And please give what you think is fair.