CleverCrow lets backers pool money against the GitHub issues they actually care about, and pays the maintainer when a fix merges. Small backings add up: like the crow and the pitcher, enough pebbles raise the water. If no fix ever merges, you get your money back; you never pay for work that didn't ship.
Backing is one screen: pick an issue, choose an amount, and pay. Your card is charged through Stripe, and card processing fees are added on top of the charge (shown before you pay) so your full chosen amount lands on the issue. The issue is the unit of funding; each backing names one issue and one amount, so every pool has a precise total and a precise payout.
Behind the scenes your money lives in a CleverCrow wallet, and a backing earmarks part of it for the issue. That's why one card charge can fund many backings: top up once, back several issues, and pay Stripe's per-transaction fee once instead of per backing.
A backing is withdrawable in full at any time before the issue settles: un-backing returns the money to your wallet instantly, and your wallet balance can be sent back to your original card from the wallet page, no email needed. CleverCrow deducts nothing on withdrawal; the only amount that doesn't come back is the card processing fee paid at the original charge.
Backing an issue is an offer, not an order. Nothing happens until the repository's maintainer acts. They fix the issue on their own terms, in their own editor, with whatever tools they like, and merge a pull request that closes it. The pool pays them when that merge lands.
On merge, everything the issue's pool collected settles in one pass: CleverCrow takes a flat 10% fee, and the remainder accrues to the maintainer. Maintainers who join during the launch window are enrolled in the founding-maintainer rate and settle at 5% instead, for a year.
pool − 10% fee (5% founding) = what the maintainer receives
Every settled issue shows this receipt, line by line, on its issue page, naming the rate it settled at. The settlement fee is CleverCrow's only fee; it is charged only when a fix actually merges. Maintainer earnings are paid out monthly in one batched transfer via Stripe, with balances under $10 rolling forward to the next month. The monthly payout deducts Stripe's payout costs at cost, with no markup: $2.25 plus 0.25% of the amount sent, plus 0.25% for payout accounts outside the US. CleverCrow passes these through exactly as Stripe charges them; letting a small balance roll forward spreads the cost over a larger payout. Payouts are sent in USD; banks in another currency receive funds converted at Stripe's exchange rate at the time of payout.
The maintainer stays in control at every step: which issues are eligible, what gets built, and whether any PR merges. The pool pays the maintainer, never an outside contributor, so backing an issue never invites a flood of drive-by pull requests on the repo. You're funding the maintainer's work, not bypassing them.
Backing an issue funds the fix and pays the maintainer, nothing more. It does not grant you any ownership, equity, intellectual-property, licensing, or control right in the repository, the maintainer's project, the fix itself, or CleverCrow itself. Any code that ships lands in the maintainer's repository under that repository's existing license; you receive the benefit of the fix landing there and nothing else. Backings are not donations, not investments, and not tax-deductible.
CleverCrow is operated by Clever Crow, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. For support, billing questions, or anything else, see Contact.