Organizations that add value to others lives deserve support, and freeCodeCamp is no exception. I believe in supporting projects that I enjoy and receive value from. This is why I purchased a backpack from FCC (still waiting on delivery).
I have a few suggestions that might benefit FCC…
- If a supportive merchandise purchase was made within X amount of time, cease the donation popups for X amount of time.
- Instead of asking only for a $5/mo contribution, FCC should A/B test (if they haven’t already) if providing alternative contribution methods increase the average donation per person. I.e. why not a link to purchase merchandise -or- donate $5/mo instead of a monthly reoccurring or yearly contribution? (I am the type of person that despises subscriptions).
3 . (Not popup related) When I purchased the backpack there was a note that stated shipping could take upwards of 12 weeks. Is there no possible way to track or streamline this supply chain?
If these are beneficial ideas and you find value in them, I would like to volunteer my business experience to FCC if at all possible.
Best Regards,
HoneyLocust
freeCodeCamp used to have a shop, but discontinued it. I’m not sure why, but I assume that the benefits weren’t enough to make it worth dealing with the logistics. Or maybe the way they were doing it originally worked fine for the small community we were back then, but wouldn’t scale. (IIRC, @QuincyLarson mailed us our stickers in hand-addressed envelopes). I also remember there being some concern at the time about the fact that swag that was inexpensive for some of us, but were prohibitively expensive for others. I remember buying stickers for people who told me that the cost of buying them would feed them for several days. I think this made people uncomfortable. freeCodeCamp tries to walk a careful line of “Donate what you can, if you can”. The backpacks have been a rare exception in the last year. Maybe they are experimenting and if it goes well we’ll see more of this sort of thing. I assume that budget plays into it too. freeCodeCamp runs on an absolute shoestring budget and is probably averse to the risk of stocking a store upfront. Presumably that’s why the backpacks are on a pre-order system (which contributes to the unpredictability of the manufacturing time). Maybe it’s just one of those things that Quincy didn’t have time to deal with 
.
FYI, once the backpacks have shipped, you will get a tracking number. I don’t know if the Coronavirus outbreak has affected the manufacturing timeline, but I do know that manufacturers will often bump the priority of smaller orders in favor of larger ones.
I’m not arguing against any of your suggestions, just participating in the conversation. 
In terms of adding a feature to the donation tracking/popup, it might be a good idea to make an enhancement request as a GitHub Issue.
I think it’s really cool that you’re interested in contributing your expertise. I don’t know what the interest level is in a shop or donation rewards, etc, but if it’s something they’re considering your help could probably have a big impact.
And thanks for donating! I hope you love your backpack.
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@HoneyLocust Thanks for your patience on the backpack. I emailed you a couple days ago with an update on our production (it was delayed a bit by the spread of the coronavirus). We will send you tracking information when we ship it to you.
Regarding the shop, merchandise generates very little money for freeCodeCamp (less than 1%). It would take a lot of additional time and energy to try and get merchandise to become a significant source of funds for our nonprofit. We may do this in the future, but for now if you want to print your own freeCodeCamp T-shirts or hoodies, you can use our logo (for your personal non-commercial use) here: https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/design-style-guide/tree/master/downloads
About 95% of freeCodeCamp’s resources come from monthly supporters. We have A/B tested the amount, and so far we’ve found that $5 is a reasonable amount for most people where they will continue to support us long-term.
If you want to make a one-time donation to freeCodeCamp, we would welcome it. Every little bit helps. You can do this here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate
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