I wish Signal would also sell something, anything, but sell it: t-shirts, plushies/pillows, paid sticker packs, a "PRO" logo next to your name in your contacts list (to satisfy your vanity), a fake "license" that marks you as a supporter (gpg key signature of your name or something like that).
This is a criticism I give to all FOSS projects trying to raise money, sell me stuff, it's easier to justify an expense than a donation, especially if I pay it through my company.
It's often times not worth it. They are like 20 core developers and alot of them have day jobs, they are not a manufacturing company and the price to have this stuff made by a third party often doesn't make it worth the cost after accounting for taxes.
What are you talking about? Merch is where a lot of influencers make the bulk of their money with often putting less then a part-time job of effort into it.
There are tons of third-party services like Cafepress and Redbubble that let you slap your logo on anything and handle all the ordering, payment & shipping logistics for you. (For a hefty commission, of course, but $1 is better than $0.)
This is a criticism I give to all FOSS projects trying to raise money, sell me stuff, it's easier to justify an expense than a donation, especially if I pay it through my company.