As part of my day gig I've worked with companies about their social media and crowdfunding efforts, and Patreon is a great blend of the two ideas. A very interesting potential revenue stream for your friend and other authors.
And a chance to become a Patron in real life
With Patreon, typically the author creates and gets paid either per creation ( chapter, article, story, whatever ) or per month. Like other crowdfunding solutions such as Kickstarter there are "tiers" that confer different "gifts" per level of giving ( or in this case, patronage ) but what I like about Patreon in particular is how it's set up to accept ongoing payment-per-event.
For creators, this really means that the regular production of quality content is a must. It seems like a tasty way to fund your creativity, but mostly it only works when 1. you have a comunity of followers to begin with 2. your rewards are structured well and of course 3. you deliver quality on an alarmingly regular basis. If any of the above is not true, not only will a creator probably not get funded, but they can do serious harm to their reputation. News about a creator who asks for funding and doesn't deliver travels fast and lasts long, as the Traveller community well knows.
With Patreon you can choose to publicly display how much you're making per thingy; this is the default, but it can be switched off. Interesting factors affect which is best, here. For authors in particular. Your friend also allows people to become Patrons of hers - that is, getting access to exclusive content - simply by signing in with Facebook and not putting up any money. This is also an interesting feature, and lets people who'd rather give info than money be counted as fans.
There's a great article by Kevin Kelly called "1000 True Fans" that anyone interested in Patreon as a potential author should Google.
Your friend has a very well-put-together presence and Patreon set-up; I hope she's wildly successful.
