Set up donation infrastructure for mybinder.org

[choldgraf]

Context

In #430 (comment) we agreed that it is worth experimenting with a donation and "supporters" system to help boost the sustainability of mybinder.org. This is an issue for tracking the work that should be done to make this happen as a first-step.

Actions

Here are the major things that we need to do to set this up:

• Set up donation buttons and supporters sections on mybinder.org mybinder.org-deploy#2156
• Connect our NumFocus donation account with GCP #509
• Add page on our "supporters" and donation infrastructure mybinder.org-user-guide#257
• Reach out to a few supporters and ask them for support
• Advertise and announce this new setup (along with the new credits from [URGENT] Our GCP credits have run out again mybinder.org-deploy#2138)

Overview

Here's the gist of what we discussed:

1. Add a "support mybinder.org" call-to-action button to mybinder.org as well as the loading screen. It would point to https://numfocus.salsalabs.org/donate-to-binder
2. Add a "supporters of mybinder.org" section below the fold on mybinder.org. This would be modeled after the jupyter.org sponsors page. It would have two sections:
   • mybinder.org federation members - these are institutions that deploy, fund, and staff their own BinderHub in the federation.
   • mybinder.org partner institutions - these are institutions that employ individuals that operate any hubs in the mybinder.org federation (if not full federation members).
   • mybinder.org supporters - these are institutions that provide significant financial resources or credits for any hubs in the mybinder.org federation ("significant" is defined as anything greater than $10,000 annually).
3. Add a "Donate to Binder" page at donate.mybinder.org that describes the above, has the same CTA button, and also lists the kinds of things we'd do with donations as we get them.

Then when people say that they are interested in supporting Binder, we can point them to the Call to Action button and tell them that they'll get a logo on the website if they donate above $10K.

Finally, we agreed that there is some missing detail in here - namely, what decision making process do we follow in spending whatever money comes in via donations? In the short-term, we agreed that we should use this funding just for building a reserve fund for mybinder.org. If we have funds that go beyond this, we can discuss as a team the best way to use the funding.

[choldgraf]

Note: I don't believe I know how to implement jupyterhub/mybinder.org-deploy#2156 and it would be great if somebody could give this a shot! I will try and focus my efforts on figuring out the NumFocus side of things, and documenting this in our about/ page.

[manics]

I've made a start, any feedback on what should/shouldn't be customisable, and which pages, appreciated!
jupyterhub/binderhub#1471

[choldgraf]

I've got a PR to describe some of this support / donation infrastructure at the link below. Would love feedback and comments:

• Add support binder page mybinder.org-user-guide#258

[choldgraf]

Update

• We now have a NumFocus donation button set up, we can use this by reimbursing our expenses
• We now have a "Donate" link to mybinder.org on the home page (thanks @manics !)
• We've now got a "Support the project" link on docs.mybinder.org
• I've proposed that we add a "supporters of the project" to docs.mybinder.org as well (Add page on our "supporters" and donation infrastructure mybinder.org-user-guide#257)