I've used KDE for a long time. This isn't the first time I've looked into donating to them. However, it's never been easy. Maybe if I were in the EU, the options offered would be great, but as an american used to just giving a CC number or using a service like Patreon to help manage it, the level of effort was too high. If you want lots of money, lower that bar.
I just checked again and they now accept Github Sponsors. That is a good start. But I just tried throwing a few bucks their way and was told the minimum monthly donation is $5. Why? Other projects are happy with less than that.
Again, KDE. Lower. That. Bar. Stop giving people reasons to not donate to you. People going through this process are already doing something unnatural: giving away money for a free product. Stop making them pause and think about if they really want to continue!
For monthly donations, the minimum is actually 3 EUR. And it's super easy to do from the US - just enter a CC number and billing address. What would be a lower bar?
For smaller amounts, I can imagine it would be better to save them some overhead and donate annually. They have a button for doing 10 EUR per year if you still wanted to help out. You can choose any amount that's at least 3 EUR. I imagine even 3 EUR per year would help! Here's the site if you can't find it: https://donorbox.org/kde-community
There is PayPal if you go to their donate page, literally big American corporate. As a European (specifically Dutch), I have always HATED credit cards with a fiery passion, and dealing with big American corporations and their messy and buggy experiences on the web. In this regard many foreign systems such as iDeal, UPI, WeChat Pay and Alipay feel like they are straight from the future. But to each their own.
I just checked again and they now accept Github Sponsors. That is a good start. But I just tried throwing a few bucks their way and was told the minimum monthly donation is $5. Why? Other projects are happy with less than that.
Again, KDE. Lower. That. Bar. Stop giving people reasons to not donate to you. People going through this process are already doing something unnatural: giving away money for a free product. Stop making them pause and think about if they really want to continue!