What are Minecraft Server Donations? Beginners Guide

June 10, 2024 | Minecraft Donations | 4 minutes read

So you have started out in Minecraft, and wonder how to monetize your Minecraft server?

To help out, we have created a detailed article on what are Minecraft player donations, and how you can get money by selling donor perks.

What are Minecraft donations?

Minecraft donations are monetary contributions made by players to help support the costs of running a Minecraft server. To encourage donations, servers offer in-game rewards to donors, such as exclusive items, donator ranks, or case keys. 

Receiving donations from players is an often-used way to help the further development of the server, and release new content.

Nonetheless, it helps handle the costs of powering the server and funding future server upgrades.

For example, popular servers like Hypixel have introduced donation packages, to increase server profits and raise money for new game modes. 

Does Mojang allow Minecraft donations?

Mojang allows donations, but with specific guidelines to ensure fairness with their End User License Agreement (EULA). The Mojang EULA rules have been designed and released to create fair and legal donation perks for the paying and non-paying community.

The most important points of their EULA are as follows:

• Server owners can accept donations, but cannot provide items or abilities that give players a competitive advantage over non-donators.
• Any perks offered must not create a pay-to-win environment, where only paying players can excel in the game.
• In-game content, which gives access to players who make a shop purchase, or charitable donation.
• Commands, which could seriously disrupt the normal gameplay between paying, and non-paying players.

You can report servers that violate the EULA, which will get them blacklisted. Blacklisting prevents players from connecting to them. To find out if a server has been blacklisted you can use a service like Is My Server Blocked.

While Mojang’s EULA can be limiting to some server owners, there are hundreds of EULA-friendly donator perks that can be offered, and many profitable donation items to sell.

How do you receive donations on a Minecraft server?

Receiving donations on a Minecraft server requires setting up a donation system that allows players to make purchases. The easiest way to do this is by purchasing a subscription to use a donations store.

For example, MineLabz offers donation stores, and comes with a premade website, to get you started.

Alternatively, you can get donations without paying for donation stores. Ko-Fi and Patreon are perfect examples of websites, which allow monetary contributions for servers.

However, the most secure and automated way is through a donations plugins.

What are the benefits of donations on Minecraft servers?

Donating on Minecraft servers offers multiple benefits to both players and server owners. 

From the perspective of a donating player, the benefits are:

• You receive ranks, which distinguish you from others
• Special chat colors
• Skipping queue waiting time
• Special in-game add-ons such as cosmetics
• Creates loyalty between the player and the server

For server owners, a donation gives them the following:

• Helps pay for server costs
• Allows future server upgrades 
• Pushes developers to add extra content
• Long-term growth and sustainability for the server

Frequently Asked Questions about Minecraft Server Donations

Rad Ivanov

Rad is the lead writer for the MineLabz team, dedicated to writing content for Minecraft enthusiasts. Combining Minecraft and Marketing, Rad creates all kinds of articles for the server development community.