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The world's first

Open Source
Endowment

Truly sustainable funding for critical OSS through a community‑driven endowment.
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curl
mpld3
pandas
cpython
openssl
imagemagick
tokio
numpy
log4j
joda-time
matplotlib
requests
iced
git
zlib
xz
2.8Bdonated
1.3Kdonors
3.5Kprojects supported
A leaf-shaped squiggle

Sustainable

Provides a stable, long-term funding model, independent of the volatility of traditional support.

A building block

Systemic

Supports the critical but underfunded projects that conventional models miss.

A performance gauge

Efficient

A lean, digital-first, community-led organization designed for maximum impact and transparency.

Trusted by Fast-Growing Companies Worldwide

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A portrait of Alina Adorno

Alina Adorno

Co-Founder, Enorma

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A portrait of Bob Brooks

Bob Brooks

CTO, Flimflam

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A portrait of Charlie Cai

Charlie Cai

Tech Journalist

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A portrait of Daniel Dover

Daniel Dover

CEO, Blooper

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A portrait of Erin Enoch

Erin Enoch

Research Lead, Foofax

Solving Open Source Sustainability

The modern world runs on software, and more than 95% of its code depends on open source software. This critical infrastructure is built and maintained by mostly unpaid volunteers contributing in whatever spare time they have.

Maintainer burnout and lack of funding often lead to catastrophic security incidents, as seen with Log4Shell, the XZ Utils backdoor and Heartbleed. The unsustainable state of OSS financing makes the global software supply chain fragile and puts our world at ever-growing risk.

Our solution: the endowment model

Successfully implemented by the world's leading universities and nonprofit institutions, endowments aggregate donations in a permanent fund and spend only investment returns to advance their causes. This creates a stable financial foundation designed to weather economic and political volatility across decades.

We are building the first implementation of this model for open source software, and invite you to join this mission.

This xkcd comic shows a Jenga-like tower of blocks, illustrating “all modern digital infrastructure”. The structure precariously rests on a small load-bearing block, titled “a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003”.
xkcd “Dependency”
“The Open Source Sustainability Crisis”
by Chad Whitacre “What Open Source can learn from universities to fix its funding”
by Konstantin Vinogradov “2025 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis”
by Synopsis

Short-Term Roadmap

Q1 2025

  • Incorporated a US nonprofit corporation
  • Applied for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status
  • Secured the first co-founding donors

Q2 2025

  • Set up financial infrastructure
  • Introduce Members' Club

Q3 2025

  • Develop initial grantmaking model
  • Finalize co-founding donor community

Q4 2025

  • 501(c)(3) status (expected, not guaranteed)
  • Public launch and community expansion

Q1 2026

  • Finalize grantmaking model
  • Perform first distributions of grants

Next-gen Nonprofit,
Based on Principles

An academy

Data-Driven & SMART Goals

Data guides our goal-based strategy, ensuring every donation makes a measurable difference.

A globe

Global Outlook

Supports the long-term health of the global open source supply chain, not of specific countries or ecosystems.

An open door

Maximum Transparency

Provides open data, public governance processes, and clear accountability in all funding decisions and operations.

Two people

Inclusive and Diverse Governance

Empowers the community to shape key strategic decisions with a focus on individuals over companies.

A global network

Decentralized Funding

A broad funding base from diverse sources makes every contribution meaningful and fosters community governance.

An umbrella

Neutrality

Remains independent from political or corporate influence, ensuring unbiased, mission-driven funding for the public good.

How It Works

1

Fundraising

Individuals, companies, and foundations donate to the Open Source Endowment, forming its permanent principal, which is not spent.

Individuals, companies and foundations donate money
2

Investing

The endowment principal is invested in a low-risk portfolio that generates sustainable annual returns. We target a ~5% spend rate, typical for U.S. universities.

The donated money is invested
3

Grantmaking

We distribute grants based on open, data-driven inputs and our model, co-developed with the Endowment's Members and in consultation with the open source community.

Grants are distributed
4

Monitoring

Supported projects are tracked for accountability, refining strategy, and maximizing OSE's positive impact. The grantmaking model is iteratively improved.

The progress of grant-funded work is monitored

Our Team

A portrait of Konstantin

Konstantin Vinogradov
Board Director, Chairman

General Partner at Runa Capital ($0.5B+ AUM), who focuses on early-stage OSS investments. Previously co‑founded an endowment which grew from $50K to $600K+ in 12 months. Publishes the ROSS Index, a quarterly data-driven rating of top open source startups.

A portrait of Chad

Chad Whitacre Board Director, Secretary

Head of Open Source at application monitoring platform Sentry (used by 4M+ developers) and the leader of the Open Source Pledge, a cultural initiative to get companies to pay open source maintainers. Founded OSS funding pioneer Gratipay (2012–2018).

A portrait of Maxim

Maxim Konovalov Board Director, Treasurer

Co-founder and ex VP Engineering at Nginx, the world's leading web server, used by 400M+ websites, acquired for ~$0.7B in 2019. Former VP Engineering at F5. Seasoned supporter of FreeBSD.

A portrait of Jonathan

Jonathan Starr
Executive Director

Program Manager at NumFOCUS, a nonprofit foundation supporting scientific OSS such as Pandas. Co-Founder of SciOS and the The Institute of Open Science Practices, focusing on sustainable open science.

A portrait of Amy

Amy Parker Advisor

Chief Fundraising Officer at the OpenSSL Foundation and former Director of the Wikipedia Endowment. Served as Director of Individual Giving at the Smithsonian and the New York Public Library

A portrait of Vlad

Vlad-Stefan Harbuz Advisor

Maintainer of the Open Source Pledge. Core developer of OSS funding service thanks.dev. Helped build software used by the Gates Foundation to allocate $1B in healthcare funding.

Looking to contribute to the Open Source Endowment? We'd love to chat. Contact us!

Sustainable, systemic, efficient

Donate now to make an ever-lasting impact on the open source ecosystem

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