Mastodon's drive for user contributions: An exploration of the background

In a bid to secure the future of a more ethical and independent social web, Mastodon, the open-source social media platform, has launched an in-app donation campaign on its Android and iOS applications.

The campaign, initially targeting users on Mastodon.social and Mastodon.online, servers operated by the non-profit, aims to streamline the donation process for users of Mastodon. The expansion of the campaign could allow individual server administrators to receive direct financial support from their users.

According to a Mastodon blog post, the complexities of fundraising are acknowledged, but it is an essential step towards securing the future of a more ethical and independent social web. The organization has stated it will not persistently prompt users for donations.

The in-app donation feature will appear for accounts that have been active for at least four weeks. It is not mentioned whether the donations received by Mastodon will be tax-deductible or not.

In 2023, Mastodon raised €545,000 in total donations, marking a 65% year-over-year increase. Despite this increase, Mastodon's Patreon donor base decreased by almost 23% to 7,400 during the same period.

Unlike advertising-supported platforms such as Meta and X, Mastodon faces financial support challenges as a decentralized social media platform. The campaign, if successful on web platforms, could aid in operational sustainability of Mastodon instances.

If the Mastodon in-app donation campaign succeeds and the project is expanded to all Mastodon instances, the financing responsibility would likely be managed by a community-oriented or social enterprise structure, relying on collective funding models rather than a single entity. This mirrors approaches seen in similar open-source or community-driven projects. The exact responsible party would be an organizational body formed to handle sustainable funding and coordination across instances.

The fundraising efforts of Mastodon are similar to those of other non-profit organizations, such as the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation obtains most of its funding from individual donors, including through pop-up banners on Wikipedia. However, Mastodon's user base is smaller compared to the Wikimedia Foundation, with 8.1 million registered accounts and under 1 million monthly active users.

It is important to note that the campaign, at this time, does not appear to be targeting users outside of Mastodon.social and Mastodon.online. If the campaign is successful on these platforms, it could potentially be made available to all Mastodon instances in the future.

The success of Mastodon's in-app donation campaign could pave the way for a more sustainable future for the platform, ensuring its continued commitment to ethical and independent social networking.