Ease of use is key. I'm much more likely to support a project if I don't have to enter credit card information, and even more likely to do so if I don't have to it once a month.
I already have a Patreon; I would absolutely dump money into a fire-and-forget Patreon-like system for OSS.
I keep seeing dependencies cited as an issue. Humble Bundle may be something to look at here. When you donate to obtain a Humble Bundle, there's a slider that you can use to adjust the ratio that goes to the game developer vs. a selected charity vs. the humble bundle system itself. I can see copying this - each project lists its dependencies along with the maintainer's estimate of how critical each was, and the patron has a slider for % going to the maintainer vs. % going to the dependencies. Possibly a similar slider for the maintainer, which'd add interest-group type packages (art package: one-click this to support gimp, inkscape, and blender).
Add in the element of mutual assurance (like Kickstarter), and you've got Snowdrift.coop (disclaimer: I volunteer on the team). 100% of donations (after Stripe's fees) go to the project; we [are/will be] funded as a project on the site (currently the only one; although it's possible to pledge -- I'm patron #6 -- we're not quite ready to announce our launch to the general public).
I already have a Patreon; I would absolutely dump money into a fire-and-forget Patreon-like system for OSS.
I keep seeing dependencies cited as an issue. Humble Bundle may be something to look at here. When you donate to obtain a Humble Bundle, there's a slider that you can use to adjust the ratio that goes to the game developer vs. a selected charity vs. the humble bundle system itself. I can see copying this - each project lists its dependencies along with the maintainer's estimate of how critical each was, and the patron has a slider for % going to the maintainer vs. % going to the dependencies. Possibly a similar slider for the maintainer, which'd add interest-group type packages (art package: one-click this to support gimp, inkscape, and blender).