= FOSDEM 2024 “The State of Funding Free & Open Source Software” by Kara Sowles

• https://fossfunders.com/
• https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/
• https://nlnet.nl/funding.html

== stats

• “companies in the EU invested around 1€ bio in open source software in 2018 which brought a positive impact on the european economy of €65 to €95 billion” (EU commission study, 2021)
• “90% of companies use open source” (OpenUK, 2021)
• “FOSS constitutes 70–90% of any given piece of modern software solutions” (The Linux Foundation)
• 13% professional maintainer, 23% semi-professional maintainer, 46% unpaid hobbyist who prefers to get paid, 14% unpaid hobbyist who does not want to get paid (2023, Tidelift State of the Open Source Maintainer Report)
• “Among critical open source projects, the majority of maintainers and core contributors enjoy full-time employment” (LF Research, Open Source Maintainer Report, 2023)

== Funding platforms specialties

• dependency funding: {thanks.dev, stackaid}
  one-time crowdfunding: {Kickstarter}
  ongoing crowdfunding: {Patreon}
  tipping platform: {Buy me a coffee}
  recurring income: {Liberapay}
  direct tips: {paypal, venmo}
• overarching platforms (excl. direct tips): {Github Sponsors, OpenCollective}
  transfers since 2019: ~$ 40 mio. each
• subscription model: {Tidelift}
  service marketplace: {OpenTeams}
  quadratic funding: {GitCoin}

== FOSS Contributor Fund

“a framework for selecting open source projects that a company supports financially”
• usually not a sustainable single model for the ecosystem
• do not expect companies to speak publicly about FOSS contributions
• particularly vulnerable to real/imaginary macroeconomic conditions (inflation? let us cut FOSS spendings!)
• not a focus of OSPOS
• “large sums to a few projects” or “spreading over dependencies”

e.g. NGI Zero Entrust https://www.ngi.eu/ngi-projects/ngi-zero-entrust/

== Strategies to find funders

“the factor that affects sponsorship is the developer's social status in the community”
• improve data to identify company's dependencies
• improve data on the benefits the funder receives from sponsoring projects
• lower administrative cost of bulk funding

== Software foundations

“The most common method of funding open source projects is joining (or starting) a foundation, an organization that can take care of fundraising, legal needs, corporate relationships, and more”
• Most foundations do not directly pay for project maintenance
• Foundations focus on removing the overhead of operating a project
• Foundations have a tight loop with the companies
• Foundations make donating to open source easy for companies

== Terminology

grant::
  1-time funding agreement based on a proposal to do a specific piece of work, usually via a governmental agency or a philanthropy
  e.g. Sovereign Tech Fund
venture capital::
  VC is private financing provided to new or unproven companies in exchange for an ownership stake or equity, hoping to make their money back many-fold on a high-growth business

== Barriers independent FOSS maintainers face (via Github Accelerator 2023)

• understanding of business models / information on procs & cons of different funding paths are limited
• many projects are solo-maintained. Limited resources and high demand leads to maintainer burnout
• community perception: the expectation that maintainers work on their projects full-time, while sometimes shaming maintainers for needing money, is painful
• legal guidance
• sustainability mentorship
• measuring impact: maintainers needs ways to measure the impact of their software, find what companies are using it, and identify who to reach out to about sponsorships
• financial advice: fiscal management and accounting require industry-specific expertise and advice