"There is no source of sustainable funding for open-source maintainers. And that's a really big problem. Maintainer refers to the developers who work on open-source projects, such as debugging, choosing and verifying features submitted by the community, or programming new features themselves."
"The endowment will support projects based on criteria such as its number of users, or how many other projects rely on that specific software to operate. It will also choose projects that are not already well-supported by grants, donations or umbrella organizations such as Linux's Alpha-Omega."
"Vinogradov is a venture investor specializing in open-source, AI and infrastructure software, and was previously a general partner at Runa Capital. As such, he has some experience with university endowments, which are some of the largest investors in venture capital funds."
The Open Source Endowment, a newly formed 501(c)(3) nonprofit, addresses the chronic funding shortage facing open-source software developers. Founded by venture investor Konstantin Vinogradov, the initiative has attracted over 50 donors including former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, HashiCorp founder Mitchell Hashimoto, and creators of Vue.js and cURL. Currently holding $750,000 in commitments, the endowment plans to reach $100 million in assets within seven years. The organization will distribute funds to open-source projects based on user adoption, dependency by other software, and lack of existing support from grants or umbrella organizations. This endowment model, inspired by university investment structures, seeks to create permanent, sustainable revenue streams for maintainers who currently struggle with inadequate funding.
#open-source-funding #nonprofit-endowment #software-sustainability #developer-support #venture-capital
Read at TechCrunch
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]