I'm working on a new project and thinking about alternative funding paths.

Previously I founded a startup around an open source project, had a corporate sponsor, raised VC funding, etc. But something about that feels misaligned with my values. I really tried to make it work and struggled.

I was wondering if anyone has made sponsorship or crowdfunding from users work? I noticed that Kagi the search engine toots that it's entirely user and crowdfunded after being bootstrapped by it's founder. What made something like this work?