I've noticed a trend with software businesses that I think is wonderful. It may not be very new, but I sure haven't seen it before. The trend is to donate money to a charity or Open Source project for each product purchased.
For example, there is a company out there with a product that retails for around $500 for I believe a 25 user license. They setup a promotion only linked to by blogs that allowed users to download a 5 user copy for $5. And they donate the $5 to the Red Cross. I unfortunately can't seem to find the link in my book marks.
Now there is another company AM Software Design who is offering to donate a dollar to the PostgreSQL project provided they sell 1,000 copies of their product. The product is a GUI PostgreSQL administration application.
My question is why we don't see more of this in the FOSS world? Why aren't there more companies who will donate a small share of their profits to help out an Open Source project that is directly related to their product? Why doesn't every vendor who sells a Perl application not donating one, five, ten, or more dollars to the Perl Foundation?
If I was debating between two vendors products or whether or not to purchase a particular product at all, a donation to a good cause would help persuade me. It obviously would not make up for a shoddy product or one that doesn't fit my needs, but it would make a big difference when choosing between two like products.
I encourage more vendors to adopt this approach in their marketing promotions. I wager that you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.
