It's like chipping in $10 for a bag of artisinal coconut chips on Kiskstarter, but instead of getting a bag chips you get a mature web framework. And maybe artisinal coconut chips.. I don't know, I've never been to DjangoCon.
Obligatory mention of how Tom Christie successfully funded the latest version of Django Rest Framework from a Kickstarter campaign. While my donation was modest, I participated because I use it regularly, and KS made it easy to give.
I think donating by way of kickstarter is fine, but it attracts the same people that regular donations attract. Developers themselves, rather than the companies that are profiting from the use of free software. That's really the gap that needs to be filled.
"like" in that $10 is $10. Otherwise, totally unlike in every way. Django is a public good (non-exclusive, non-rivalrous, everyone can share), coconut chips are private goods (exclusive, consumed). Nobody adds expenses to Django by becoming a user. But somehow the costs that are stable regardless still need to get covered.
If you've ever run an Open-Source project then you know that users do often increase the costs. They tend to ask questions which they expect to be answered for free even if it costs you time and time is money.
I do run Open Source projects. I do not buy the argument that more users inherently increase costs.
Users also answer questions or contribute otherwise. And you can completely discard and ignore their questions if you wish and it still doesn't stop the software from working. You can even put out an Open Source project somewhere anonymously and provide no contact information.
Support for users has costs as there are more users. I happen to volunteer my time supporting users because I think it leads to better long-term success for the project. But regardless, each user has capacity to not ask for any support or to ask for it. I'm sure there are some Django users who never ask for support. If someone comes along and uses Django and has no questions, it is totally unlike someone coming along and eating all the coconut.
