Great question Mikey. Currently there is not a program that logs a donation and automatically posts to a user's account to note that on the user's profile. I would like for there to be, I used to do it manually in the early days, its very time consuming, but I could do it back when the workload wasn't so demanding, thus the designation "contributing member" under some of the older member's user names. I have been thinking about this for a long time and will look into ways of doing that by way of an automated custom program.
Most noteworthy forums have long since adopted a paid membership as a way to cover their operational costs. Advertising revenues are declining and unless you have hundreds of major sponsors like HD, insurance companies, Dodge, Chevy, Ford, etc, etc, you will not be generating significant dollars.
Tiny forums are cheap to run, but cheap wont succeed nowadays. Big ones cost a lot because they require expensive platforms, programs, manpower and support because they become targets to hacking. All the majors are being hacked including up and comers like us. Hackers can take out your server and corrupt your data, like ours has been, you are witnessing that right now.
I will share more specifics on that later.
When you get big and are considered a threat to the corporate owned sites, you either sell out to them or build a bunker.
I could tell you all things that would open your eyes. You already know what I am taking about Mikey. This is a rich man's game.