Here are some thoughts on backing tiers for maintainers on OC.
For starters, the base should not be a sponsorship. This is very much backing a maintainer, supporting them in having time available to maintain code over time, review issues, and so on. It is a vote to say “thank you for building and sharing this” and “please have time to keep spending time on this”.
Tiers
Backer
For individuals, we want to keep the price at a no brainer level. $5 / month or $50 / year. Possibly only $50 / year to keep transactions and costs low?
Business Backer
Should this vary by complexity? eg a plugin vs a custom app?
These business backer tiers
$50 / month or $500 / year
$100 / month or $1000 / year
Sponsors
Sponsorship is a different thing where the buyer is getting different things of value.
This shouldn’t be contracting. This is a direct channel to the maintainer as well as associating the company as a highly public supporter of the project.
Logos and links on README / website? Anything else?
Two tiers? Maybe the higher tier is one live call per month?
Is there any tension between backers and sponsors?
$500 / month or $5000 / year
$1000 / month or $10K / year