Why do we ask for donations so often? Because it’s important! As KDE becomes more successful and an increasing number of people use our software, our costs grow as well:
This prompted me to make my first donation, despite the fact I’m actually using Gnome again (because KDE is flat out unusable on my touch-based tablet when not docked). It would be cool to have an official bug bounty style system where users could donate money targeting specific bugs (hello Bug 466948) which pays out to a dev who eventually fixes it 
I always wonder about the text. ‘KDE needs your help!’ It sounds like this month’s bill can not be paid unless you donate. Is the situation that dire? And if not, is it beneficial in the long term to ask repeatedly in a tone that calls for immediate help? At least for me, it sounds wrong, and even though I agree that the text probably has the highest conversion rate in the short term, I very much dislike it.
Other options would be:
They don’t sound like an emergency and speak to different positive aspects.
There was no real testing of different text options. I’m open to changing it.
I think it would be cool if it could somehow show in the “About this System” or somewhere else that you have donated to the project or something.
Something like “Certified KDE Donator!” 
The,
I feel is over all true, while depending on how you look at it it could be taken as forceful. I feel it’s absolutely needed. Perhaps after the first donation the text changes.
“Do you want to help KDE continue to grow? like you did in (Year)”
Or something. At the vary least I feel it should be a bit more assertive at the start.
An yeah a badge somewhere with maybe Konqi or a more simple icon would be quite nice. Maybe make it a community event like is done with the wallpapers, where people can design or maybe vote on the upcoming top 5. Then the devs could pick a winner overall.
Just my two cents.
I like the concept, however I imagine that folks would be livid at the idea that their Plasma installation is being matched/tracked to personally-identifiable donation records somewhere. The internet drama-stirrers would start in with comparisons to Microsoft Windows Activation, things like that, and Nate and folks would have to spend more cycles explaining how that’s not the case and fewer cycles actually getting new donations and using the donations that are coming in.
Might I suggest perhaps screenshotting the thank you for donating message after your donation, and maybe tastefully adding that to a corner of your wallpaper? 
Is it true that KDE “operates at loss” purposefully because of some kind of taxation legalese? Something else? Or is this totally false? (https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-2023-Report)
It appears someone noted that KDE spends more money than what’s coming in?
KDE saved some money up? And were forced by “non-profit rules” to spend it? The “loss” is entirely planned?
Is there a tax liability as a registered charity? If that’s how the registration is? Many charity registered instances pay zero taxes.
That all said, does Valve participate as they utilize KDE Plasma on the Steam Deck?
Just to be clear.
KDE eV is non-profit, as any other, each year either it made more money than its operating costs or not.
This is normal business.
The title is sensationalist, but accurate. Yet KDE eV is in good financial state.
This spending was planned, not forced (KDE eV is under Germany Law). KDE eV benefited from a big donation years ago that wasn’t fully spent and has still some reserve. Yet income increased in 2023.
Read the actual report, to have more context.
Quoting the report:
In conclusion, 2023 was a year of measured growth and careful planning for KDE e.V.
Valve contracts Blue Systems company to improve Plasma. This company is the biggest paid contributor company to Plasma and has been for years. It employs many prominent KDE contributors Nate Graham for starter.
This is in the blog post linked.
How about a simple DONATE button on the About screen? People go there often enough and it would not be like pan handling.
To be fair, the Help menu in each KDE app that I can see does already include a Donate menu item directly in there…
…so I would worry about it being a bit heavy-handed if there’s the Donate link in the menu you take to get to About, then another Donate button in the About box itself, and then if you click on the web link, likely a Donate link at the top of the KDE page you arrive at?
(Basically, if it’s presented too many times to you in non-actionable situations - like when you just need info now and will think about donations later - then will it have the unintended folks of conditioning folks to ignore it?)