Suggestion: Lower Minimum Donation to Increase Donor Participation

[christerhäberli]

Dear Thunderbird Team,

I have been using Thunderbird for many months and greatly appreciate the free, open-source email software. Recently, I learned that only about 3% of users donate, and I wanted to contribute a small amount, such as €2. However, I noticed that the minimum donation is €20 for a one-time contribution or €9 monthly.

I believe that many users, like myself, use Thunderbird because it’s free and often have limited financial resources. A minimum donation of €20 may be too high for some, discouraging them from donating at all. If you introduce the option to donate as little as €1, more users would likely be willing to contribute. A lower entry barrier would probably increase overall donation rates and bring in more support.

I hope you consider this suggestion to further engage the community. Thank you for your excellent work on Thunderbird!

Best regards
Christer Haeberli

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[AJCxZ0]

1. Visit the web site.
2. See "Free forever. Donate to make it better." where "Donate" links to a dubious looking URL related to a donation_2023 campaign, as does the 🤍 (white) heart.
3. Hover over Contribute and a Donate link pops up pointing to a more sensible URL.
4. Click that Donate link and go to a sensible-looking donation page while wondering why there would be two different pages.
5. Read the entire page including every FAQ to be sure to understand all terms and conditions.
6. Enter $4 in the box, replacing the $20, with no problem.
7. Click Donate and Support.
8. See two modal boxes appear with the right one showing the donation form as before, except that the box with the amount is pink with a red circled exclamation mark. There is no error message, even when hovering and nothing in the left box to give a clue.
9. Conclude that Mozilla does not actually want donations.
   
   

Only if - for no obvious reason and contrary to any familiar with user interface - one clicks that tiny red circled exclamation mark, does a bubble appear saying, "The minimum donation amount is $5.".

If there is a good reason to not accept donations under a certain amount, then please say so - clearly and up front. One very good place would be temporary text in the box instead of pre-filling with "20". If someone tries to donate less, then give a useful error.

While fixing the form, note that a similar problem occurs when trying to donate e.g. $9,999,999,999 which is allowed by the maximum permitted digits (nine), as "The maximum donation amount is $999,999.99." despite the fact that donations can only be in whole dollars using at most six digits.