- Updated: February 26, 2026
- 5 min read
Open Source Endowment Introduces Sustainable Funding Model for Critical Projects
Open Source Endowment Introduces Sustainable Funding Model for Critical Projects
Endowment Community Docs Funding FAQ Donate The world’s first Open SourceEndowment Truly sustainable funding sustainable funding for critical OSS through a community‑driven endowment Donate Learn More $693Kendowment fund 61total donors 44members ($1K+ donors) Sustainable Provides a stable, long-term funding model, independent of volatile corporate and personal budgets. Systemic Supports the critical but underfunded open source projects that conventional models miss.Efficient A lean, digital-first, community-led organization designed for maximum impact and transparency. Trusted by open source creators, founders, executives, and investors The global open-source community shares many parallels with how the best universities work, and we are thrilled to adopt their private endowment model to sustainably fund OSS maintainers.Konstantin Vinogradov ex-General Partner at Runa Capital Open source underpins the critical infrastructure of the global tech ecosystem, and the community-driven Endowment is a wonderful initiative to pursue its long-term sustainability. Mitchell Hashimoto Co-founder, HashiCorp The Open Source Endowment is so obvious in hindsight, it’s high time we brought this model to bear on the Open Source sustainability crisis.Chad Whitacre Head of Open Source, Sentry The Endowment is a very promising project. I am happy to join and pretty excited to see how it contributes to the FOSS funding ecosystem. Kailash Nadh CTO, Zerodha I’ve been part of the OSS community for 20+ years, consistently reflecting on the huge and unfair imbalance between the value open source creates and its sustainability. The Endowment is an efficient way to give back and address this issue.Maxim Konovalov Co-founder, Nginx Keeping open source sustainable is a global challenge, and the Open Source Endowment provides a very promising long-term way to fund essential yet non-commercializable OSS. I’m excited to support it as a founding donor. Jan Oberhauser Founder & CEO, n8n Solving Open Source Sustainability Together Our world runs on open source software that is mostly built and maintained by unpaid volunteers. Unstable funding of critical OSS poses serious risks for all of us.>95% software depends on OSS 500+ OSS dependencies in an average app Problem Critical but Fragile Infrastructure Maintainer burnout and lack of funding often lead to bugs and serious security incidents, as seen with Log4Shell, the XZ Utils backdoor, and Heartbleed. The unsustainable state of OSS financing makes critical infrastructure more fragile and puts our world at ever-growing risk.↓ Solution OSS Community Endowment Successfully used by leading universities for centuries, endowments spend only investment returns from donations to advance their causes, weathering economic and political volatility. We are building a community-led endowment fund that leverages “open source alumni” to sustainably fund the most critical OSS projects. It is an open nonprofit, and everybody is welcome to join — every contribution matters.Next-gen Nonprofit,Based on Principles Data-Driven & SMART Goals Employs a data-driven, goal-based strategy, ensuring every donation makes a measurable difference. Global Outlook Supports the long-term health of the global open source supply chain, not of specific countries, companies, or ecosystems. Maximum Transparency Provides open data, public governance processes, and clear accountability in all funding decisions and operations.Inclusive & Diverse Governance Empowers the community to shape key strategic decisions with a focus on individuals over companies. Decentralized Funding A broad funding base from diverse sources makes every contribution meaningful and fosters community governance. 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 preserved in perpetuity. 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.3 Grantmaking We distribute grants based on open, data-driven inputs, and our model is co-developed with the Endowment’s Members and the open source community. 4 Impact Tracking Supported projects are tracked for accountability, refining strategy, and maximizing OSE’s positive impact. The grantmaking model is continuously refined. Backed by the tech community Meet some of the generous donors helping make open source sustainable. Everybody is welcome — join them today!Mitchell Hashimoto Co-founder, HashiCorp Shay Banon Founder & CTO, Elastic Jan Oberhauser Founder & CEO, n8n Konstantin Vinogradov ex General Partner, Runa Capital Chad Whitacre Head of Open Source, Sentry Maxim Konovalov Co-founder, Nginx Daniel Stenberg Founder, cURL Kailash Nadh CTO, Zerodha Thomas Dohmke ex CEO, GitHub Alexey Milovidov Co-founder & CTO, ClickHouse Evan You Creator, Vue.js & Vite Tracy Hinds Chair, Open Source Initiative Sam Bhagwat Co-founder & CEO, Mastra Chris Aniszczyk CTO, Linux Foundation Paul Copplestone Co-founder & CEO, Supabase See all 61 donors → Fund the Future of Open Source Make an everlasting impact on the open source ecosystem. People donating $1K+ become OSE Members, who help govern the Endowment. Donate
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Andrii Bidochko
CTO UBOS
Andrii Bidochko is an AI entrepreneur and researcher focused on AI agents, reinforcement learning, and autonomous systems. He writes about the technologies shaping the future of machine intelligence, from frontier models and agent architectures to real-world AI applications.