I’ve thought about how to monetize open source projects for awhile, but have yet to successfully do so.

Although there are common answers:

Patreon, Github sponsers, a paid version that’s a few versions ahead, etc., there’s one option I’ve only seen done ad hoc on message boards, but it also seems the most likely to actually work, yet I’ve never seen it professionally implemented:

A bounty system. When people want bugs fixed or features added, let them toss up a bounty. Fix what’s most in demand, let side-contributors pick up the less in demand bounties and submit pull requests. At that point you start seeing bugs compete not base on time in queue, but based on who wants them fixed most. You’ll get big corps shelling out big bucks to make sure their bug is addressed before the competitor’s bug.