Thank you note and pep talk
Dear anonymous people who gave me hearts: Thanks!! They are the only hearts I will get all year! (although I intend to give some chocolate to my dentist's staff next week, as I will be there on Valentine's Day.)
Pep talk: This year, after reading EarlG's letter to us, I became a monthly donor. But I only donated what I can afford, so EarlG will not be able to start a retirement fund from my donation. Earl has not been paying himself! And Elad may be next. This is a first class emergency. We need reliable streams of money coming in to protect our estimable moderators. How can we do that? By harassing ourselves until we have accomplished our goal. We could have a "Buy Hearts" week every month, or every other month, until we have an endowment in place. (Of course, we'd need the help of the mods to actually do that, but they keep everything else running, so maybe they'll do what we ask.)
In March, we could give each other four leaf clovers for luck. In April, we could give each other little daffodils to celebrate the beginning of spring, or umbrellas to protect ourselves from the showers. In May, flower bouquets to celebrate the leafing out of the trees and the budding of the blooms. We can give each other one giftable icon per dollar for one-time contributions, but five extra gifts for each monthly subscription. October is brightly colored leaves, and November is little turkeys, with mac and cheese alternatives for the vegetarians. December is wrapped gifts, with presents inside: since it's all cyber stuff, we can put BMWs in our gift packages, or anything else we want to give people.
Think of this as the DU version of a pledge drive. My local public radio station has become a public/private station with business advertisers taking up the slack left by the local population who have moved elsewhere or can't afford to give much. Times is hard for local journalists, editorial cartoonists, public news sources, and every one of us. I cannot afford to make a one-time donation of $1M, but I can make a commitment to a smaller sum. Let's find out how much money we can put where our mouths are when we talk about how much we rely on DU.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I was drafting a suggestion. Since the code is already there, a gift a month. Here's what I came up with late night. There are ones I obviously missed that are important.
January snowball
February groundhog valentine
March shamrock
April rain
May flower
June bell flag
July flag
August ear of corn
September hammer ( for Labor Day)
October pumpkin
November turkey or ...
December tree or stocking
I do not use PayPal, spawn of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. (And others). I use Apple Pay so that PayPal never sees my card number as it crosses their circuits. 
