I totally agree with
@Kunda1 and
@sliptonic. My 2 cents:
Although it's thrilling to see FreeCAD enter more seriously the professional world, and therefore it's a good idea to call these companies to contribute, it should always be crystal clear, everywhere, all the time, that FreeCAD is free, no strings attached, and that its future, working, or anything else is NOT depending on money. I'm always a bit worried of open-source projects becoming kind of wikipedias, mozillas, always begging for money and implicitly (my own perception of course) "threatening" to shut down if they don't get enough money.
I find it cool that a person or a community in a poor, remote rural area, for example in some parts of africa or latin america, can take FreeCAD and immediately feel its theirs, no strings attached. To resume, I think we shouldn't nag people with stuff like donation or sponsoring when they are using FreeCAD. FreeCAD itself should be clear of any stuff like that (again, that is my own personal opinion only). I feel we would loose users more than we would gain money.
The place to do that IMHO is on the website. A company interested in FreeCAD should simply think "I like this
. how do I sponsor it" go to freecad.org, find a "how to sponsor" link, and that's what they need. Basically a passive thing. Offering the great opportunity to join an epic journey to build a fantastic software, not beg for money.
To attract sponsor's attention, I think it should be done elsewhere. On other websites, talk about FreeCAD, go to industry events (I'd love if we could start doing that) and showcase FreeCAD, etc... For that, I think we need 1) a list of events where we could go, and people ready to go, 2) printable material, 3) ready-to-show demos and showcase material
Another cool and non-intrusive thing we could do is, after someone clicked one of the download buttons, be redirected to a page that suggests donation or sponsoring.