Open Source Pledge aims to fund software maintainers

Sentry has launched the Open Source Pledge—a programme designed to provide direct financial support to open-source software maintainers. The initiative stems from a long-standing aspiration to give back to the open-source community on behalf of every Sentry employee.

The concept of the Open Source Pledge emerged years ago with two primary objectives: to compensate maintainers directly and to establish a sustainable model that scales with Sentry’s growth.

David Cramer, Co-Founder of Sentry, initially considered a donation-matching scheme – akin to GitHub Sponsors – but participation posed a substantial risk, as not everyone feels invested in open-source projects. Consequently, the focus shifted to providing direct funding based on inputs such as Sentry’s dependency graph, employee votes, and guidance from engineering leadership.

Sentry has been running this programme for three consecutive years, increasing the funding amount annually in line with the company’s financial success. The initiative has garnered strong support from Sentry’s leadership, resulting in funding exceeding initial targets. Inspired by this success, Sentry aims to expand the programme to other companies, encouraging a broader impact.

Cramer reflects on conversations with fellow founders at various events where open source is often debated. While many acknowledge the challenges surrounding sustainability in the sector, “not a single one of those founders did anything more than talk about the problem,” Cramer notes. Despite acknowledging the importance of open source, these founders often only make token contributions to large foundations or investments beneficial to their commercial interests.

The Open Source Pledge seeks to address this by providing direct financial support to maintainers. “We don’t think it’s the only solution, nor do we think it’s the only way to give back,” Cramer explains, but it is a significant step towards recognising the hard work of maintainers.

Supporting open-source software maintainers

Participating in the Open Source Pledge requires companies to commit to donating $2,000 to their dependencies per engineer annually. With approximately 135 engineers on staff, Sentry’s commitment for the year is $270,000—a modest fraction of its over $100 million recurring revenue, yet substantial enough to make a meaningful impact.

The benefits to participating companies include enhanced brand marketing and improved supply chain support. By funding open-source maintainers, companies signal their appreciation and encourage continued contributions, thereby increasing the efficiency of their R&D investments.

Moreover, companies stand to bolster their brand reputation. As Cramer says, “You buy products from brands that you connect with,” and if a company’s customers value open source, this commitment is an additional reason to favour them over competitors.

While the success of the Open Source Pledge remains to be seen, Cramer is encouraged by the support received from individuals within the community and those working tirelessly to launch the programme. He offers particular thanks to Chad Whitacre, Michael Selvidge, Vlad-Stefan Harbuz, and Ethan Arrowood for their dedication.

Sentry hopes that by funding the programme’s initial stages, it will inspire long-term involvement across the tech industry—encouraging those who can afford to support open-source software projects, and their maintainers, to do so meaningfully.

For more information and to view the list of initial partners, visit opensourcepledge.com.

(Image Credit: Sentry)

See also: GitHub begins offering data residency to EU developers

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Tags: coding, development, open source, open-source, programming, software maintainers