Sustaining FOSS projects continues to pose a challenge. As a funder, we are investigating in our research how combining different funding and resource models might offer viable solutions, and where gaps remain. In this workshop, we want to refine a map we are working on that captures different income and resource streams for FOSS projects.

We want to engage with the question of which (combinations) of those funding models can sustain which projects or project stages. Next to grants, donations, sales, and capital investments, we map, amongst others, models such as tiered licenses, corporate open source contributions, and contributions by students as part of their coursework. The search for a stable funding model is complicated by better or worse fits of different kinds of communities and software. We are further well aware that none of these models is likely to be a standalone solution to sustain a project and that each of them has its own difficulties.
Instead, we want to investigate how combinations of those can balance each other and support different projects and different project stages. In the workshop we want to walk through three tasks in three 10-15min rounds with you:
1. Add models that are missing from the map
2. Specify pros and cons of the models
3. Specify which projects are eligible for which models

The session will be closed by taking stock of what is missing: Which demands are not met by the array of listed approaches to sustain projects in the FOSS ecosystem. We welcome everybody interested and invite specifically people who are active in (F)OSS-projects and their support, to participate in reflecting on these questions with us and to contribute to the map.

We fund innovative FOSS from society and for society, with funds from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. This workshop is part of the research done in our organisation. We intend to make the map openly accessible after the workshop.