Snowdrift.coop aims to fund public goods through sustainable community patronage. Like clearing snow from a public road, funding of free/libre/open projects benefits everyone. To coordinate support, patrons at Snowdrift.coop pledge to donate to their chosen projects a tiny amount monthly, multiplied by the number of patrons who donate together. As a non-profit cooperative, the whole platform will be run democratically, providing a holistic system to support freely-licensed projects of all sorts including software, art, research, journalism, educational resources, and more.

An ambitious work-in-progress, Snowdrift.coop has worked for a few years to solidify plans, legal issues, and grapple with the challenges of using 100% free/libre/open resources in our own development. As of late 2015, our research and development work is supported by the Open Source Initiative as a formal affiliate and incubator project.