The GPF Tip Jar

For several years, one of the biggest online fads appears to be online donations and "tips." Everywhere you look, online cartoonists, bloggers, FLOSS developers, and other Web site owners are flashing up PayPal buttons, begging you for donations. I've always been against this trend, mostly due to my own personal reasons. I don't like handouts, whether it means I'm giving them or asking for them. Especially the latter. So I won't ask you to donate money to me. However, many of you have asked me to make this available. So who am I to turn you down?

Using this page, you can choose to send money to me in appreciation of GPF. This service is made available by popular demand... it's not a plea for you to give me money because <sarcasm> I'm so broke and I can't afford to buy toothpaste. </sarcasm> However, for those of you who think GPF is worth a little more than what you pay for it (i.e., free), and you feel compelled to dip into your wallet, here's your chance. We now accept tips through PayPal as well as snail-mail tips. There's no limit set on how much you want to give (or how often). Just don't go without eating for a whole month, because you gave me your entire paycheck, OK? ;)

Please note that THERE IS NO OBLIGATION STATED NOR IMPLIED by this service. GPF will always be free to read online, for as long as I am capable of making it. This service is available strictly for those who wish to make use of it, and you get nothing in return besides a warm, fuzzy feeling. I prefer to look at it as grateful, loyal fans giving a gift of appreciation to someone they feel as a deserving artist. If you don't want to give (or just can't for whatever reason), then don't feel bad. It's strictly voluntary.

For those of you tempted to drop recurring tips: May we humbly suggest a GPF Premium subscription instead? Not only will you be financially supporting the strip, but you'll get tons of nifty perks in return, like exclusive content, ad-free surfing of the site, and discounts in the Store.

You can use this little JavaScript form to see exactly how much I'll be getting of your tip, minus each service provider's fees. To use it, type in a dollar amount in the first box, and the other box shows my share of the transaction. (The input box will have to "lose focus," so you'll have to tab out of the box, or click outside it using your mouse, before the calculation takes place.) It works the other way around, too; if you want to give me a specific amount, put that in the provider of your choice, and it will calculate how much you need to specify on their form. All values are in US dollars.

We now accept various forms of cryptocurrency via Coinbase. Cryptocurrencies provide a means transferring digital currency via electronic means and across international borders, independent of central banks and fiat currency. Technically, we can accept any cryptocurrency Coinbase supports, although our primary experience and focus has been on Bitcoin and Stellar Lumens. If you are also a Coinbase user and want to look us up there, Jeff's user ID is the same as his e-mail address: jeff@gpf-comics.com.

Cryptocurrency tips go directly to GPF and will not be used for anything else. Coinbase may charge a nominal transaction fee, and some cryptocurrencies allow you to add additional fees to speed up the transfer. You can find several of our cryptocurrency addresses below, along with QR codes you can scan with a compatible cryptocurrency smartphone app. (Be sure you scan the correct code for the cryptocurrency you wish to use! Otherwise, you may send your money to the wrong address or it may be completely lost!)

Many of you have written me in the past to tell me, "You know, I really love GPF, but I won't donate to your site because I will not use an online transaction service like PayPal." Your reasons often vary, but usually it has to do with not trusting these services with your bank accounts and credit card numbers, or because of fraudulent uses of these services by others, or because they are difficult or impossible to use in your own country. And on those grounds, I certainly don't mind and I certainly wouldn't ask you to disagree with your own principles. I haven't had any problems with these services in the past, but I know others can't say the same with their experiences.

As such, quite a few of you have asked for a "snail mail" or postal address where you can send checks or money orders. I'm happy to say that GPF has its very own post office box just waiting for your tips. As stated above, tips are entirely voluntary and no obligation is stated or implied as a return service, other than hopefully many more years of comics for you to enjoy.

If you would like to donate via "snail mail," please send your tips to:

Please only send checks, money orders, or similar forms of safely transmitting money through the mail (Western Union, etc.); do not send cash, as it is not secure. Please make checks payable to Jeffrey T. Darlington (not GPF Comics) and in United States currency if at all possible. International donors are strongly encouraged to use the electronic online tip methods above if at all possible, since you'll probably lose less to fees and exchange rates than you would sending something via postal mail.

If cold, hard cash isn't what you'd prefer to send, you can always help expand my collection of useless junk. Here is a link to my current Amazon Wish List. Items purchased from this list will shipped directly to me by default. These items likely won't do anything to help support the comic per se, but they'll help make a certain cartoonist happy, and a happy cartoonist generally makes for more comics.