Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Some More Grants for Open Source Work
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2019 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
This is a followup to my 2014 post on grants you could apply for.
Several foundations and funders are seeking applicants who are working on free and open source software projects. I am listing a small sample here to illustrate project eligibility and available funding levels. Any financial amounts are in US dollars unless I say otherwise.
About to open
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Essential Open Source Support for Science. Open source projects that are in some way foundationally useful to biological and medical researchers.
Deadline: Next round opens 17 December (in 2 weeks). Expect it to take a few months to find out whether you've been selected, then finalize and award. (In the first round, we applied by August 1 and then learned of acceptance in October, with the earliest project start date possible being 1 December.)
Amount: between $50,000 and $250,000, for 1-year projects. In the award I just helped pip apply for, they awarded $200,000.
Currently open
Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) Awards. I have some experience successfully applying for the Foundational Tech track ("supports open source projects that Mozilla relies on, either as an embedded part of our products or as part of our everyday work"), but they also fund "open source projects that significantly advance Mozilla's mission" and "security audits for open source software projects, and remedial work to rectify the problems found".
Deadline: monthly, rolling applications. Expect it to take at least a few months to finalize & award.
Amount: historically between $5,000 USD and $150,000 USD; it's going to be pretty hard to ask for more than $250,000 USD. In the award I just helped pip apply for, they awarded $207,000.
Comcast Innovation Fund. Seeks to "Create or advance important open-source projects".
Deadline: rolling; not sure how long notification/payment takes.
Amount: $150,000, one-year.
NLNet. They are particularly interested in projects that improve the Internet (see their themes).
Deadline: frequently rolling; next is February 1, 2020; notification within a few months
Amount: up to 50,000 euros (about $57,000 USD)
Python Software Foundation. The PSF gives out grants especially for outreach and diversity work, but also funds some other open source work.
Deadline: Rolling. Request money at least 6 weeks before you need it.
Amount: "no set maximum, but..." plus more guidance is in the FAQ.
Open Technology Fund. Several different funds , including the "Core Infrastructure Fund" which "supports the 'building block' technologies, infrastructures, and communities relied upon by digital security and circumvention tools strengthening Internet freedom, digital security, and the overall health of the Internet." Also note OTF's Red Team for security audits.
Deadline: Varies. Initial submissions for the next round of CIF are due January 1, 2020.
Amount: Varies. CIF goes from $5,000 to $300,000. The PSF got $80,000 for PyPI improvements from OTF (I helped write the grant proposal).
OpenHumans. "Explore, analyze, and donate your data -- doing research together!" Grants are available if you "have a project that might help grow the Open Humans ecosystem".
Deadline: "No application deadline: This opportunity remains open while funds last."
Amount: Up to $5,000 USD.
America's Seed Fund -- National Science Foundation -- SBIR | STTR. "Since 1977, America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF (also known as the NSF SBIR/STTR program) has helped startups develop their ideas and bring them to market." "Small Business Innovation Research" (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) offers "Seed capital for early stage product development". I only heard of this because their funding supported Kandra Labs, the makers of Zulip.
Deadline: I think there are several different ones depending on the specific solicitation.
Amount: Up to $1.5 million.
Edited 10 December to add: Ruby Together. Thanks, Stephanie Morillo, for the addition! Open source projects that "benefit the Ruby community" are eligible. "We are happy to fund both boring work like triage and bugfixes as well as exciting work like creating new tools that have never existed before."
Deadline: Rolling, reviewed every three months.
Amount: Between $3,000 and $30,000.
Future/further research
The Open Source Center within the Digital Impact Alliance gives out grants. They're interested in helping both projects that specifically target humanitarian/international development needs and upstream software that undergirds that kind of work, funding (in a past round) "Enterprise-Level Quality Improvements", "Multi-stakeholder Collaboration", "Platform Building and Generalization", "Product Consolidation", and "Managing Upstream Dependencies and Downstream Forks". "For as many as 5 grant awards, DIAL anticipates providing up to $900,000 USD total and up to 480 hours total of complementary in-kind technical assistance through participation in the Open Source Center program. This award is expected to span six months of project activity, with an option to extend." They answered some questions in this OSC forum thread.
Maybe Segment will sponsor an Open Fellowship again at some point.
The Open Society Foundation gives out relevant grants.
The Shuttleworth Foundation fellowship applications open on 1 August 2020.
The Ford Foundation is encouraging public interest technology and points to other orgs doing that funding.
Applying does not have to be too scary
Everyone who applies for a grant has to at some point write their first grant proposal. It will often feel tricky for people who haven't done it before! But it is doable. Asking questions on any relevant forum, looking at sample documents and training resources, and talking to someone who's done stuff like this before (I have) will help.
Try translating application requirements into plainer language to help you understand how to answer them. For example:
"Proposal including Concept for project in consideration of grant objectives and merit criteria": what is it you want to do, and why does it suit the criteria we have set out?
"Budget and Budget Narrative": how much money do you need, and how will you go about spending it?
I do grantwriting, and you can ask me for a free 30-minute consultation to help you figure out what to apply for. Hope this helps!
