Today the Firefox Add-ons team announces the pilot release of its “Contributions” program. Contributions will give developers the opportunity to request an optional dollar amount for their Firefox Add-on. Along with requesting this amount, Mozilla is helping developers tell their stories with its new “About the Developer” pages, which explain to prospective contributors the motivations for creating an add-on and its future road map. Since contributions are completely optional, users will have ample time to evaluate an add-on to determine whether or not they want to help a developer.

Mozilla will be working with PayPal on this initial pilot to provide a secure and international solution for facilitating payments. Developers can optionally create a PayPal ID for each of their Firefox Add-ons. Users will be presented with a “Contribute” button that gives them the option of paying the suggested amount or a different amount.

Add-ons Director Nick Nguyen explains more in his blog post, excerpted below:

Our aim with this pilot is to help support a growing ecosystem by providing our users with the opportunity to support their favorite add-on developers. We’re asking for feedback from our community to drive the future of this pilot and we look forward to learning as much as we can.

For more details on Contributions, please see the blog post FAQ. The Add-ons team will be evaluating this pilot as they receive feedback to incorporate into future revisions. To share your thoughts and ideas, please contribute via the AMO newsgroup.