I see alot of sites that ask for donations from their members. Sometimes I do think this is useful as I did it once with my first forum. But sometimes I'm just unsure of what the admins motives are.

So what is your take on site donations?

Well, if members wish to donate to the site: why not ?

I don't accept them. My history has been that once people start "paying" for the site, they expect more of it. I am happy with the income I get from google ads, so I don't ask for donations or accept them.

I do, but since my websites just a baby, I use the donation money for ad money

Yes i do and when they donate the will become a Super member wich they can download more things without speed limit ....

Yes, we have a "Fund" setup, we don't ask anyone to donate, but its their, in the USER CP to donate. Just incase we need to pay for something we have it there to use.

Instead of donations, I prefer to offer premium memberships where the user gets some neat perks for spending money with me.

Yes, I accept donations. My site has no advertisements of any kind. Mostly, the site is there to generate paid business for me, and as a project management system.

However, sometimes a potential client's questions and/or needs can be answered by information that's already on my site. So, I direct them there, perhaps answer a few questions via email, and in lieu of invoicing them, I suggest that if the site was helpful, they could make a donation, refer me to an up or downstream vendor, or keep me in mind for future business.

I've received all sorts of differing amounts, from $50.00 at the lowest to $1,500.00.

A site lurker, who has never registered and never posted, recently made a $250.00 donation.

As with all these discussions, I think the answer is "it depends", on the type of site you run, the reason why you run it, and the type of members you have.