In this video, I’m talking about something Ton brought up at Blender Con that he basically never leads with: money. Not because Blender is “going bankrupt” or about to shut down—it’s not—but because sustaining Blender’s growth and the kind of development we all want requires real funding. If you love Blender and you’re building your skills, your portfolio, or even your career on it, this is the part of the conversation we can’t keep skipping. I break down why the timing matters: Blender is pushing big, professional-grade goals—things like Vulkan integration for performance, major Grease Pencil improvements, and more features meant to help Blender slot into serious production pipelines and compete with giants like Autodesk. The wild part is the scale mismatch: Blender sees around 20 million downloads a year and 2–4 million active users, yet only 10,200 people donated in 2023 (less than 0.05%). With roughly $24K/month from monthly contributors and corporate patrons, Blender is still operating on a shoestring compared to commercial competitors. My takeaway is simple: if donating is possible, do it—if not, spreading the word still moves the needle.