I was reading this thread and I got rather angered by the amount of people that don't get the logic behind donating. So here ye go.

Also, blog section pop reel :D
http://i.imgur.com/PUegZBy.png
And home page pop reel :D :D
http://i.imgur.com/hoEnolG.png

What's the purpose?

Simply the reason is that you are giving life to your favourite server. To the people that communicate with and have fun with. Minecraft exists so that you can play and have fun. Servers exist to take that fun and excitement to a new level. To a level where you want to come back the server, not because you have to. To a level where you create bonds with others and build new relationships with people halfway across the world. What if that server where you made so many good memories was suddenly gone? Would you feel guilty that you never ended up donating? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't.

When you donate, you are actively giving back to the community. A good community will do this and will want to do this. When you donate, you should not be looking at the perks, but at how much you will be appreciated if you do donate. Remember that you are donating and NOT expecting anything in return. The perks are a server owner's way of saying "thank you". It is a donation, not a service.

If you want to be technical, you are giving people the chance to play on a great server that might not have the funds to do so themselves. I had one person on my server that donated to the best, dedicated players he could find. He was actively giving back to the community and thanking them for their support to a random server. That is dedication to your community.

If you are having a hard time choosing which server to donate for, find a server where the owner doesn't make money off of its donations. Find a server that takes those donations and puts it into improving the website or improving the server in the interest of the community. I get that sometimes, server owners want to have some type of reward for their efforts, but to abuse that privilege is a sign of server owners not caring. You want a server that cares about the community, not about the potential profits to be made. If you ever find a server that has the "pay-to-win" kind of ideology, I wouldn't even bother staying on the sever. They tend to only be in it for the profits and will offer greater perks for people wanting to donate more, thus getting more profits and making it unfair to the guy that didn't pay. So then the guy that didn't donate, goes and donates so the server makes even more money. It just goes around and around and I don't find those servers to be fun.

I still don't get it

Well fine. If you don't see a reason to donate other than getting perks, then just don't do it. At the end of the day, its all up to you I guess. Now not having funds to donate is a different story. If you want to donate to a server because it has such a great community, but you lack the required funds to do so, at least you can think to yourself "Wow, I was able to see past the perks of donating and was able to see the actual benefit to giving to the community".

Final thoughts

Didn't care to read all that? Don't worry I wouldn't have either. Here's the TL;DR version

When you are donating to a Minecraft server you are not donating for the perks, you are donating for the community to keep enjoying the server. Remember, its a donation, not a service so you should not expect anything in return, luckily server owners are nice enough to give you something anyways. When looking to donate to a server, find one that with a server owner that takes the donation money and puts it back the community, by upgrading the forums or the server in the interest of the community.

Now my thoughts generated in this post are primarily opinion based. If you have another opinion, great, it doesn't mean that you are 100% right. I take criticisms and opinions but not hatred. With that being said, if you have an opinion or story on why you donate or donated to a Minecraft server, comment below. I shall enjoy reading them :)