Tags:                                  Open Source,                                  Fundraising                               Open source sustainabil

How to talk to your company about sponsoring an open source project - Human Who Codes

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2021-05-27 19:30:04

Tags: Open Source, Fundraising

Open source sustainability is a topic that is just starting to get the attention that it deserves. So much of the technology sector is run on software that can be used for free without any further obligation. However, as companies profit from using this software for free, the maintainers of the software often struggle to find enough time to work on the software while making enough money to survive. Many are forced to work full-time jobs to subsidize the development of these open source projects, or else try to work full-time on the project while making less than they would in the industry. While donations from individuals help, the only real way to make open source sustainable for maintainers is for the companies who reap the outsize benefits of the software to donate towards their maintenance.

This post contains everything I know about convincing a company to support open source projects. I’ve worked with many companies to donate to ESLint, the open source project that I’ve founded, and in doing so, I’ve learned a lot about how these efforts are organized. My hope is that this post will serve as a guide to help others convince their companies to donate to the open source projects that support their businesses.

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