Sourceware budget and funding 2026/2027, Fri 12, 15:00 UTC

[Mark Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>]

Hi all,

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month, so it is time for the
Sourceware Open Office again.

Based on last months budget discussions and last years financial
overview the Sourceware Project Leadership Committee wrote up an
ambitious budget and funding proposal for 2026/2027, see below. Lets
discuss if this matches community expectations and what the most
effective way is to drive this fundraising campaign.

Friday June 12, from 15:00 UTC to 16:00 UTC
At #overseers on irc.libera.chat

$ date -d "Fri Jun 12 15:00 UTC 2026"

We ended the previous year with the successful completion of our
infrastructure hardware refresh cycle
https://sourceware.org/sourceware-wiki/servers-and-services-2026/
Doubling of individual donations and increased (corporate) "in-kind"
support for hosting and networking support.

For the 2026/2027 fiscal year, we would like to shift our budget focus
to spend less on "iron" and more on "services and people". We would
like to finally provide financial support/compensation to our partner
OSUOSL. Hire payed staff/consultants to help with services upgrades
and VM migrations. And look into funding upstream Forgejo
improvements.

Our budget and funding targets three "layers" of sponsors. Individual
sponsors, Corporate sponsors and Grant Makers.

* Individual Sponsors: "Empowering the Maintainers"
  Independence and a worry-free developer experience

  Individual developers and contributors who rely on Sourceware for
  their daily work. Sourceware is the worry-free home for the tools
  you build and use every day. Our focus is on making your workflow
  faster, more secure and something you don't have to think about. It
  is just there. Thanks to your help we moved to a modern, VM-first
  infrastructure and are experimenting with a dedicated Forge to
  streamline collaboration. Your small, monthly contributions are the
  lifeblood of our independence, ensuring that the core infrastructure
  remains community-run and developer-focused.

- Target $4,000-$6,000
  $500 Domain fees, banking, and essential operational overhead.
  $1,000 Contribution toward OSUOSL colocation and bandwidth.
  $3,000 Forgejo improvements
  $1,500 Emergency hardware replacement fund.

* Corporate Sponsors: "Securing the Global Supply Chain"
  Infrastructure security and accelerating engineering velocity

  Sourceware hosts the projects at the very heart of the Free Software
  supply chain. We are seeking corporate partners to help us
  professionalize our security posture. By sponsoring Sourceware, you
  aren’t just donating; you are insuring the integrity of the tools
  your business is built upon. Our focus is on modernizing, isolating,
  and automating our services to stay ahead of the evolving
  cybersecurity landscape. And eliminating administrative tasks so
  engineers can focus on their projects.

- Target $4,000-$12,000
  4x $2,500-$4,000 Consultants to upgrade, VM isolation and automation
                   for bugzilla, public-inbox, patchwork and buildbot.
- In kind donations of builder machines and server hosting

* Grant Makers: "Sustainable Infrastructure for the Next 25 Years"
  Sustainability, Governance, and Global Impact

  Sourceware provides the foundational infrastructure that has
  anchored the core Free Software toolchain and developer tools for
  over 25 years. We are seeking institutional partners to help us
  preserve this deep institutional knowledge and safeguard the digital
  commons for the next quarter century. As a member project of the
  Software Freedom Conservancy, we pair our historical expertise with
  professional asset stewardship and independent community
  governance. Through our collaboration with corporate partners and
  the Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) we provide Free Infrastructure for Free
  Software projects. Grant funding will empower us to scale this
  critical cooperation, formalize our standard operating procedures,
  and transfer decades of technical expertise to the next generation
  of admins and developers.

- Target $20,000-$40,000 To hire a part-time Junior System
  Administrator (potentially in partnership with OSUOSL). This role
  will document Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), handle daily
  administrative tasks, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the
  infrastructure.

Our Mission https://sourceware.org/mission.html
Security Vision https://sourceware.org/sourceware-security-vision.html
25-Year Roadmap https://sourceware.org/sourceware-25-roadmap.html

Sourceware looking backward, looking forward:
https://inbox.sourceware.org/overseers/20260510223754.GR1219@gnu.wildebeest.org
And the yearly (financial) overview:
https://inbox.sourceware.org/overseers/20260516203206.GR1219@gnu.wildebeest.org

Sourceware relies on cooperation among a broad diversity of core
toolchain and developer tool projects, hackers, organizations,
ideas, and communication styles. The monthly Sourceware Open Office
meetings are one way of coming together as a community and discuss
our shared development infrastructure. For other ways to participate
see https://sourceware.org/mission.html#organization

Keep Sourceware worry-free, friendly and independent by donating
https://sourceware.org/donate.html support our fiscal sponser SFC
https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer and/or support OSUOSL for
hosting Free Software projects https://osuosl.org/donate/

Do you or your company want to sponsor Sourceware plans financially
https://sourceware.org/sourceware-security-vision.html#plans
donate hardware or services then contact us at sponsor@sourceware.org