> There's a big of a 'tragedy of the commons' here with the donations aren't coming in because everyone assumes someone else will donate.
Have you tried the "progress bar to this month's target" strategy? May even be worth it to count your contribution in to that to seed the bar so it's not zero.
Yes.. actually... I'm considering gamifying it like this as you suggest.
I'm planning on hitting a usability milestone first as I have a few big changes planned (new webapp, some important features, new chrome extension, etc).
Then I'm going to make a pitch for this and include a fundraiser bar in the app.
Have you tried the "progress bar to this month's target" strategy? May even be worth it to count your contribution in to that to seed the bar so it's not zero.