James Routley

The world's first

Truly sustainable funding sustainable funding for critical OSS through a community‑driven endowment

$693Kendowment fund

61total donors

44members ($1K+ donors)

A leaf-shaped squiggle

Sustainable

Provides a stable, long-term funding model, independent of volatile corporate and personal budgets.

A building block

Systemic

Supports the critical but underfunded open source projects that conventional models miss.

A performance gauge

Efficient

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

Trusted by open source creators, founders, executives, and investors

A portrait of Konstantin Vinogradov — Konstantin Vinogradov

*ex-General Partner at Runa Capital*

A portrait of Mitchell Hashimoto — Mitchell Hashimoto

*Co-founder, HashiCorp*

A portrait of Chad Whitacre — Chad Whitacre

*Head of Open Source, Sentry*

A portrait of Kailash Nadh — Kailash Nadh

*CTO, Zerodha*

A portrait of Maxim Konovalov — Maxim Konovalov

*Co-founder, Nginx*

A portrait of Jan Oberhauser — 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.

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".

>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.

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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,

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

Fundraising

Individuals, companies, and foundations donate to the Open Source Endowment, forming its permanent principal, which is preserved in perpetuity.

Individuals, companies and foundations donate money

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

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.

Grants are distributed

Impact Tracking

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

The progress of grant-funded work is monitored