Then they should call it what it is: A fee (to cover operational expenses). It's still not honest to call it a tip.

(And now I'm realizing that American tipping culture may be playing in to differing expectations here...)

EDIT: I see they have now updated their wording.

> half of that $25 goes to the payment provider (Stripe etc.)

Surely they are not making a transaction for every patron/maintainer combination, but rather batching the payments.

Otherwise yes this is a Stripe charity :)

Why on earth would you think that a payment provider is taking 50%? They take ~3% + 30 cents

It's literally public information

Please take more time to read the context. If you read the post that I replied to instead of jumping to conclusions, you will find that you are incorrect

$25 refers to the 5% fee of the total amount ($500) that the site takes. I said that more than half of that fee is used to pay Stripe.