Sourceware financials 2026/2027
We ended the previous year with the successful completion of our infrastructure hardware refresh cycle. Doubling of individual donations and increased (corporate) "in-kind" support for hosting and networking support.
For the 2026/2027 fiscal year, we would like to shift our budget focus to spend less on "iron" and more on "services and people". We would like to finally provide financial support/compensation to our partner OSUOSL. Hire paid staff/consultants to help with services upgrades and VM migrations. And look into funding upstream Forgejo improvements.
Our budget and funding targets three "layers" of sponsors. Individual sponsors, Corporate sponsors and Grant Makers.
Individual Sponsors: "Empowering the Maintainers"
Independence and a worry-free developer experience
Individual developers and contributors who rely on Sourceware for their daily work. Sourceware is the worry-free home for the tools you build and use every day. Our focus is on making your workflow faster, more secure and something you don't have to think about. It is just there. Thanks to your help we moved to a modern, VM-first infrastructure and are experimenting with a dedicated Forge to streamline collaboration. Your small, monthly contributions are the lifeblood of our independence, ensuring that the core infrastructure remains community-run and developer-focused.
- 2026/2027 target: $4,000-$6,000
- $500 Domain fees, banking, and essential operational overhead
- $1,000 Contribution toward OSUOSL colocation and bandwidth
- $3,000 Forgejo improvements
- $1,500 Emergency hardware replacement fund
Corporate Sponsors: "Securing the Global Supply Chain"
Infrastructure security and accelerating engineering velocity
Sourceware hosts the projects at the very heart of the Free Software supply chain. We are seeking corporate partners to help us professionalize our security posture. By sponsoring Sourceware, you aren’t just donating; you are insuring the integrity of the tools your business is built upon. Our focus is on modernizing, isolating, and automating our services to stay ahead of the evolving cybersecurity landscape. And eliminating administrative tasks so engineers can focus on their projects.
- 2026/2027 target: $4,000-$12,000
- 4x $2,500-$4,000 Consultants to upgrade, VM isolation and automation for bugzilla, public-inbox, patchwork and buildbot.
- In kind donations of builder machines and server hosting
Grant Makers: "Sustainable Infrastructure for the Next 25 Years"
Sustainability, Governance, and Global Impact
Sourceware provides the foundational infrastructure that has anchored the core Free Software toolchain and developer tools for over 25 years. We are seeking institutional partners to help us preserve this deep institutional knowledge and safeguard the digital commons for the next quarter century. As a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy, we pair our historical expertise with professional asset stewardship and independent community governance. Through our collaboration with corporate partners and the Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) we provide Free Infrastructure for Free Software projects. Grant funding will empower us to scale this critical cooperation, formalize our standard operating procedures, and transfer decades of technical expertise to the next generation of admins and developers.
- 2026/207 target $20,000-$40,000
- To hire a part-time Junior System Administrator (potentially in partnership with OSUOSL). This role will document Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), handle daily administrative tasks, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the infrastructure.