GitHub announced that its Sponsors program has now directed more than 10 million took nearly two years to reach, while the most recent $10 million was raised in just five months.
How the Program Grew
GitHub Sponsors began with individual developers funding maintainers directly. In 2023, organization-funded sponsorships became generally available, and companies like Shopify began funding dependencies at scale. The program now spans 103 regions, partners with Patreon, and supports over 70,000 maintainers and organizations with more than 280,000 sponsors ranging from individual developers to Fortune 500 companies.
What Maintainers Say
The impact is concrete. One maintainer said Sponsors "changed how I think about open source" by providing a direct, sustainable funding path that allowed full-time project work. Another noted it enabled them to quit their job and focus on open source entirely. Shopify described its sponsorship as "both practical and values-driven," helping sustain the software it depends on while strengthening connections to the people building it. Mercedes-Benz highlighted its goal of supporting developers who "drive innovation, collaboration, and the advancement of open source."
The Funding Gap Remains
Despite the milestone, GitHub emphasizes that the open source funding gap is still enormous. Many critical projects remain underfunded, and maintainer burnout continues to threaten the software supply chain. The $100 million figure is proof the community can change how open source is sustained, but the work is not done. GitHub urges developers to sponsor the projects they depend on and encourages organizations to do the same.
For maintainers who have not yet set up a Sponsors profile, GitHub points to github.com/sponsors to get started.