Open Source Summit North America 2025

Open source software has become ubiquitous and can be found in almost every codebase, but sustaining those open source projects and communities over the long-term can be a challenge. Much of the critical infrastructure that we all rely on is made up of open source projects that lack the resources to be properly maintained over the long term. Companies, public institutions, and philanthropic organizations are beginning to fill this gap, but measuring the impact of this funding is an ongoing challenge. Funders need to be able to understand the impacts to justify future rounds of funding as well as to optimize funding approaches whilst mitigating ineffective or even harmful approaches.

In this panel, we’ll talk about what we’ve learned from public funding programs in Europe and corporate FOSS funds along with measuring the impact of those funding initiatives. We’ll discuss the challenges that funders have to understand how their funding can have positive or negative impacts on open source projects with different characteristics. The audience will gain an appreciation for funding initiatives for open source projects and how to understand and maximize the impact of those initiatives.