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OPEN SOURCE FUNDING

Four funky funding foundations formed

GitHub, Fastly and Mozilla are all looking for new projects to back, giving a boost to open source development.

Small open source projects might be created solely by enthusiasts but most make use of outside developers, often paid ones. So, how do you get your project some hired help? You can join a FOSS foundation, a non-profit independent home that brings creators and sponsors together. They can handle legal, IP, fundraising and infrastructure issues, and offer more tangible help. You can also get help more directly from the big players via various schemes and funds, and four such new funding initiatives have been announced.

GitHub started funding projects in 2019 and has put $25 million into open source projects since then. It wants to do more to help, however, and has two new programmes. The GitHub Accelerator programme will directly fund 20 developers who maintain projects, offering mentorship and a $20,000 stipend to ease transition from start-up to business, although you only have until 31st December 2022 to apply – see https://accelerator.github.com. The M12 GitHub Fund aims to fund open source developer tools. Initially, it has $10 million to invest in projects at their seed stage. The first project to receive funding is CodeSee and GitHub is currently inviting other start-ups to apply at fund@github.com.

Fastly has launched its Fast Forward project, though you have to read through lot of waffle in the announcement before you get to the meat. The company is to give out $50 million worth of free services to open source projects because “your work inspires us”. Thanks. Fastly is also inviting people to apply now at www.fastly.com/ fast-forward#apply-now.

Lastly we have Mozilla Ventures, which is due to launch early in 2023. It aims to “push the internet in a better direction” by funding projects in their early stages. It ran a similar scheme a couple of years ago that funded dozens of projects but also showed how much more was needed. This time Mozilla has an initial pot of $35 million. It has already lined up three projects to support: Secure AI Labs, Block Party and Heylogin. When the fund launches for real, it’ll be looking for more, specifically “finding and funding founders who have the odds stacked against them”. Find out more at https://blog. mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-venturesinvesting-in-responsible-tech/.

There wouldn’t be support if open source projects weren’t getting the job done and generating money for somebody. Getting an open source project off the ground is hard work, but these guys have done it and are willing to help with yours. You’ll have to jump through a few hoops and prove your project fits with their ideals and ethics (Mozilla and Fastly are very clear about that) but the help is real enough; some of it can even be used to buy food.