I wasn't going to say, but since you did, I, too, thought moving the proverbial goal posts was bit...odd.

I also thought that perhaps offer free access to old SMF template area or other 'give-aways' from RT for a "chip-in."

I really liked the bubble tool-tip thing-a-ma-jing and other extensions once advertised on RokWerx...would gladly chip-in a little more for a few downloads, too!  ...so many ways to raise money with the outstanding products RT has offered in the past, outside of their core revenue stream of monthly templates.

...food for thought, perhaps.

Thanks for the insight, Andy; coming from the DNN world, I was surprised to find out the struggles of the Joomla mothership in raising much-needed funds. Over on the other side of the asp.net fence, DNN has different levels of sponsorship - ranging from bronze to platinum (which is an amazing $15K/year) - each offering a host of benefits to each potential donor.

Perhaps Joomla could/should borrow from their model and start offering perks that incentivize (that's a Bush word ) the whole support structure and make in each developer/commercial user's interest to give to the cause....the DNN corp is surely not hurting for funding/support.

...lots of ad placement, a marketplace, booth space at conferences, PR/traffic, access to upcoming core code changes before it hits the streets, et al...

Nonetheless, so long as I "Joomla," I will be supporting the RT cause on a yearly basis. Once I am a "pro" with this platform and actually produce my 3 sites, I'll up my ante.

Good stuff, sir; thanks for the insight.

I tried the 'Contact Image,' but that puts the image up top in the contact area.

...but no other way to do this? Perhaps there's a content wrapper that allows side-by-side stuff placed in the content area at the page level? I'd like to put my sitemap graphic next to the sitemap, etc, etc...

I 'chiped-in' more so because I like the widget and plan to use it on a site of mine, given I have been struggling to find a meter-type of donation extension that shows a nice sliding scale.

...think I am going to go with PHPBB3, so I'll chip-in more on payday.

So has the ETA been halved with double the amount originally soliicited being doubled?  Are we there yet? Are we there yet? 

Money is tight for me at the moment.  Look for my donation in about two weeks.