Frankly, he shouldn't whine about it though. If he just had a donate button hoping for spare change, and wasn't getting it, he should reevaluate his business model. As with all models, it is about offering value for the cost. Did he try advertising or Amazon accounts? Did he run a fund raising drive? Did he offer products or services for donations? Up until he went under, did he even mention the desperate need for donations to stay open?
Sorry, I don't like it when businesses (even not for profit) blame the customers for not buying the product.
He didn’t whine. He just gave an explanation for why he shut it down.
If anyone is whining, it’s you. Sounds like you’re angry that he didn’t develop a perfect business model so he could keep it running.
Well, good grief, if he’s spending 8 hours a day to offer a service to people free of charge, why should he now spend another umpteen hours a day making it into a business? He’s 70, likely retired, and doesn’t need to be developing a business at this stage in his life.
If the site is of value to his visitors, they can help to pay for it, period. If not, he obviously has found better things to do than spend all day every day working on a site for people who can’t be bothered to help with the financial costs of it.
I wish him all the best.