A group of renowned programmers, along with a venture capital investor, have launched the Open Source Endowment, a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing the persistent issue of funding that has long plagued the open source community.
The endowment has garnered support from key figures such as Thomas Dohmke, Mitchell Hashimoto, and Paul Copplestone, with over 50 donors already backing the project. With a current commitment exceeding $750,000 and plans to amass $100 million in assets within seven years, the initiative is poised to provide crucial financial support to developers working on open source projects.
Founder Konstantin Vinogradov, an experienced venture investor, identified a crucial gap in sustainable funding for open source maintainers, prompting the creation of the endowment. The endowment will prioritize projects based on user base and interdependence with other software, aiming to support those lacking substantial backing from existing funding sources.
With a dedicated board already in place, the Open Source Endowment is set to bring much-needed stability and resources to the open source software landscape.
Source: TechCrunch