I assume they're just being used as ads? The page does say you get a logo and a non-follow link for donating.

Then again, I checked a random company, Fire Stick Tricks, and they donate to a bunch[1] of open-source projects. So maybe they're just companies that have extra money to give back?

1: https://opencollective.com/fire-stick-tricks

Probably the same reason the WNBA sponsors are all hard liquor. You take what you can get.

Seems like they just want the back link from an important site. A lot of popular projects have some pretty sketchy sponsors, [0]

[0] https://www.android-x86.org/ [1] https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html

There's a large number of e-gaming companies sponsoring OSS as a means of CSR and advertising. For smaller OSS, it is the majority of corporate donations as other types of companies don't bother. It's not likely that Mastodon encouraged those donations, but other companies aren't likely to reach out.

Doing further research, Mastodon's sold out on those tiers of sponsors[0], so they're likely in the lucky position that they could pick and choose.

[0] https://sponsor.joinmastodon.org/

ESG Investing is one of the hottest trends in investment management that aims to eliminate investments in companies that don't adhere to Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance standards. Most investment management firms are scrambling to come up with product offerings to meet the substantial demand.

So you're not alone in your feelings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social_and_corp...

Oof, so those companies were donating to OSS solely to adhere to a weird metric that only investors use? That explains everything…

Lol. Another sponsor is Mark Mitchell from https://www.bestblowjobmachines.com/