Google donates $5,000 USD. "Thank you" is not enough.

For the curious, while Google has made payments to Haiku, Inc. in the past, they were for mentoring services rendered during Google Summer of Code and travel reimbursements (for sending two mentors to attend the associated Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit). In other words, this is the first actual donation from Google, Inc! Hopefully this signals that in the eyes of corporations and similar entities, Haiku is gaining recognition as a usable operating system and worthy of investment.

In the past few years, our financial health has continued to accelerate, both in terms of who is donating and how many times each person makes a donation. Here is a quick break down on the number of individual people who donated and the number of donations per year:

Some anecdotal background information will help interpret those numbers. Haiku, Inc. started accepting donations in 2005. The first year in which a formal call for donations for development purposes was the Haiku Code Drive in 2008, which provided contracts to Google Summer of Code applicants that were not selected as accepted students. From a fund raising perspective, the call for donations was very successful and raised several thousand dollars in a single month. (Though from looking at the produced results, it was less than expected. As an eventual result, development contracts became available only to existing contributors with a known reputation.) September 2009 was Haiku's initial public release: R1 alpha 1. Finally, in 2010 Haiku, Inc. returned to providing existing contributors with development contracts. Since then, the growth has dramatically and steadily increased. Thank you everyone who has helped!

Speaking of development contracts since 2010, almost $29,000 USD has been used to pay for 2,010 hours of dedicated development time. That averages to a meager $14 USD per hour! And that brings us to the present.

• $44,000 in available funds
• minus $11,000 for scheduled contracts
• = $33,000 available cash

There have been some quick discussions with contributors to feel out the potentials for additional contracts. At this time, nothing is set in stone. One thing is for certain, it is becoming increasingly challenging to find contributors who are willing and able to adjust their schedules for a short term development contract. There have been several suggestions of pursuing a crowdfunding effort, to enough funding to pay more competitive rates for a longer term contract. This is an exciting prospect, but a contributor needs to express interest in longer term contracts.

Contributors, who are interested in contractual work, should read more information about submitting a request for funds and contact Haiku, Inc.

Now is the time to show your support for HAIKU, take things to the next level and donate today!