Open Source Collective is consistently paying maintainers $1M a month

Open Source Collective has reached a significant milestone by consistently paying open source maintainers over $1 million a month. Since 2017, the organization, along with its platform provider Open Collective Inc., has been dedicated to supporting open source software sustainability. Initially starting with a few projects, they have grown to host around 3,000 projects in 2021. In 2021, they received $12 million on behalf of member projects, but only 40% of the funds were utilized. To address this, they focused on enabling projects to utilize their funds effectively from 2022 to 2025. Recently, they celebrated doubling payments to maintainers, reaching a record-breaking $1 million in April, May, and June 2024, despite a 20% reduction in contributions in 2023. Open Source Collective acknowledges the community's role in this success and highlights projects like ESLint and WebDriverIO for implementing payment policies for contributors. They aim to normalize the use of money as an incentive for open source contributions, particularly in maintenance efforts, and plan to continue supporting projects in utilizing funds effectively.