A donation to the Blender Development Fund has always been a non-targeted form of support that the Blender project further distributes as it sees fit. This will stay the same: the established process brings balance to development activities, ensuring that high-demand features go hand in hand with the necessary but sometimes invisible maintenance and quality-of-life improvements.
However, from an individual donor point of view, the act of supporting a specific activity carries more weight and comes with a sense of purpose. It is also important for the Blender project to know which features have the most impact for supporters of the Blender Development Fund.
To address this, we recently added a “Show your support” feature to the donations page and the Blender Roadmap. Now, a donation can start from a project on the Roadmap page. Once the transaction is complete, it’s added to that project’s supporter count, shown as ‘likes’. This way, donations stay non-targeted, but still help increase a project’s visibility and highlight demand for it.
Explore the Blender Roadmap and show your support for your favorite projects! We are excited to see what projects will be highlighted by you the most.
Natalie Rozvezeva
Project Manager and Development Manager, Blender