Mastodon In-App Donations: A New Step Toward Funding Open Source Social Media
Mastodon, the decentralized social media alternative to X (formerly Twitter) and Threads, is rolling out a fresh approach to securing financial support—mastodon in-app donations. This new feature adds donation banners inside Mastodon’s official Android and iOS apps, encouraging long-time users to contribute directly to the platform. As a nonprofit open-source project, Mastodon lacks the ad-driven revenue models of its big tech rivals. With this feature, the platform aims to simplify giving, strengthen its community-based funding model, and stay independent in an increasingly competitive social media landscape.
Image Credits:Mastodon
This experiment is launching first on Mastodon’s two main servers—Mastodon.social and Mastodon.online. The banners will only appear for accounts older than four weeks and can be easily dismissed, ensuring a non-intrusive experience. Unlike recurring prompts or aggressive fundraising tactics, the goal is to gently nudge engaged users to support a platform they already value. If successful, Mastodon plans to expand the feature to web users and even open it up to individual server admins across other Mastodon instances, allowing each community to raise its own support funds.
Why Mastodon Needs In-App Donations to Sustain Growth
The open-source nature of Mastodon is what sets it apart—but also presents a challenge when it comes to sustainable funding. Unlike Meta and X, Mastodon doesn’t serve ads or harvest user data. Instead, it has historically relied on donations from Patreon supporters and grants from open-source-focused foundations. But that model has its limits. In 2023, Mastodon raised €545,000 in total donations—a 65% year-over-year increase—but its Patreon base dropped by nearly 23%, falling to just 7,400 monthly donors. That downward trend may have been a wake-up call.
As Mastodon gains visibility—especially during times when users flee mainstream platforms over privacy or policy concerns—so too does its need for dependable, scalable funding. Adding mastodon in-app donations directly inside the app makes it easier for casual users to contribute without having to search for donation pages on external sites like Patreon. It lowers the friction and may appeal to people who prefer simple, native support features. Think of it as Mastodon meeting users where they already are: in the app, scrolling through decentralized conversations.
How Mastodon In-App Donations Compare to Wikimedia and Other Nonprofits
Mastodon’s in-app banner campaign draws inspiration from tried-and-tested nonprofit fundraising models like that of the Wikimedia Foundation, which raises the bulk of its funding through donation prompts on Wikipedia. While Mastodon’s user base is significantly smaller—8.1 million registered users and fewer than 1 million active monthly users—the same principles apply. Clear, respectful prompts, placed contextually in the app, can drive meaningful revenue without harming the user experience.
The benefit of this approach is twofold. First, it reinforces Mastodon’s mission of staying independent and free from corporate advertising models. Second, it empowers individual Mastodon instance admins to raise money directly from their communities. If this model scales successfully, each server could become more financially sustainable, reducing the burden on Mastodon’s central organization and increasing resilience across the fediverse. With competition from Meta’s Threads and VC-backed Bluesky heating up, Mastodon needs innovative ways to fund its mission—and mastodon in-app donations may be just the beginning.
What the Future Holds for Mastodon and Community-Driven Funding
The launch of mastodon in-app donations is not just a technical update—it’s a strategic pivot toward deeper community involvement and long-term platform sustainability. By involving users in the financial health of their own social ecosystem, Mastodon reinforces the values of transparency, decentralization, and ethical technology. It’s a clear response to the corporate, ad-fueled models that dominate social media today.
Looking ahead, Mastodon plans to continue gathering community feedback on the donation feature and iterate accordingly. It’s also likely that future updates will offer additional options for donors, including recurring contributions, server-specific goals, and more transparent reporting. This move could become a blueprint for how open-source platforms raise funds in a user-first, privacy-respecting way.
If Mastodon succeeds in turning passive users into active supporters, this could mark a turning point—not just for the platform, but for the broader future of ethical, decentralized social networks. The world is watching, and Mastodon is making its next move count.
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