Leverage Drupal Innovation Fund on Open Collective

Updated to align with the goal of creating a dedicated innovation fund.

Updating title to reflect primary goal/task of creating a fund on Open Collective

This task was created before the Innovation Fund was announced as a way to fund contributions to Starshot (including the session Dries led on Participation, Funding, and Governance). While we have been talking about creating/leveraging an Open Collective Fund for other use cases, Starshot creates the need and opportunity to do the following:

- Create a Drupal Innovation Fund on Open Collective (see https://blog.opencollective.com/funds-for-open-source/)
- Create a Starshot project on https://opencollective.com/drupal (see #3377002: Leverage top-level Drupal collective (Open Collective))

By doing the following the Drupal Association could continue to leverage their current fundraising and crediting system as funds could be allocated (to the Fund on Open Collective) via bank transfer or some other way. By using Open Source Collective as fiscal host/sponsor, the DA would 'not' be solely responsible for allocating funds to related projects and initiatives (and their contributors). For example, if we set up 'projects' for Starshot, Automatic Updates, Project Browser, Recipes, etc on https://opencollective.com/drupal funds could be allocated from the Drupal Innovation Fund to Starshot and/or any of the related projects via collective to collective transfer.

If we created projects on the Fund for each use case (Starshot, Innovation Funding rounds (see #3376257: Innovation Funding Rounds: Leveraging Democratic Funding), the DA would have even more control and flexibility in terms of allocating funds.

By leveraging, Open Source Collective as the fiscal sponsor for both the Fund and Drupal collective (OSC is currently the fiscal sponsor for https://opencollective.com/drupal), we could augment the DA's current system/capacity by providing a wide range of additional services and benefits for contributors (including potential full-time employment).

I think Starshot is a type of project which requires a lot of time and dedication from a lot of people, more than any theoretical fund could fund, and community is already mobilized for this effort.

A Drupal Innovation Fund isn't theoretical. It's something Dries mentioned multiple times during this Starshot session Participation, Funding, and Governance.

Neither is an Open Collective Fund (https://docs.opencollective.com/help/financial-contributors/organization...). It's a mechanism that Open Collective has provided for several years and something the Drupal Association (specifically @hestenet) has been exploring over the past year.

The Drupal Association partner program webinar (for their partners) earlier this week ran through the new options to (a) fund people at the partners and/or (b) through the DA's innovation fund and/or (c) through DA employing people to work on Starshot. The last two depending on the amount of money the partner can contribute. The last two depending on the amount of money the partner can contribute. I think Dries will cover those tomorrow and the DA may publish more details of that later too.

@gábor-hojtsy provided some additional context (around funding Starshot) a couple weeks ago in Slack but I'm not sure what's been discussed or decided since.

Considering there's a component set up for Funding, it seems like https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/starshot would be a good place to centralize (plans and processes to funding Starshot).

Circling back as we've been discussing how companies in the Drupal ecosystem might benefit from participating in the Open Source Pledge (osspledge.com), an initiative encourages companies to contribute a minimum of $2,000 per full-time developer per year to open-source projects. These contributions could take the form of new or existing donations to the Drupal Association .

With a major promotional campaign in the works (https://github.com/opensourcepledge/osspledge.com/issues/11) this could provide great exposure for Drupal and its supporting companies in the broader open-source ecosystem.

Referencing here as leadership from Open Collective and Open Source Collective (the fiscal sponsor for the Drupal collective) are discussing how they can leverage Funds as a way to aggregate pledges interested in supporting ecosystems (like Drupal).

Considering there's interest from Open Collective and OSS Pledge in including and promoting Drupal (and Drupal companies) in the inaugural campaign, I think a Drupal Innovation Fund on OC could be an entry point for participation.

Following up to address recent concerns regarding the use of an Open Collective Fund for the Drupal Association’s Innovation Fund. The Open Collective Fund model is an efficient and transparent way for the DA to manage and distribute funds without administrative burden, complementing the DA’s current fundraising and crediting systems.

Key benefits include:

• Simplified Contributions: Corporate supporters make a single, large contribution to the Innovation Fund, which Open Source Collective (OSC) then distributes across projects. This reduces procurement complexities and repetitive invoicing.
• Efficient Disbursement: With OSC as the fiscal host, funds can be transferred directly to specific projects like Starshot, Automatic Updates, or Project Browser. This setup enables efficient resource allocation without requiring DA staff to manage each disbursement.
• Flexibility and Transparency: The Innovation Fund supports both on- and off-platform projects, providing flexibility to fund a diverse range of initiatives. Open Collective’s transparency ensures contributors can see fund use, while privacy options protect sensitive information where needed.

Moreover, by inviting knowledgeable community members to help administer the Innovation Fund, we create a collaborative, shared responsibility model that aligns with the DA’s goals and resource needs. This approach allows the DA to support open-source initiatives sustainably, with OSC handling fiscal and logistical details.

If the Drupal Association (DA) isn’t interested in creating the Innovation Fund directly, we could set it up as a “Drupal Innovation”, “Drupal Innovation Fund”, or "Drupal" project within FundOSS on Open Collective, which is itself a Fund with Open Source Collective (OSC) as the fiscal host.

This approach would provide the same operational benefits as a DA-created fund, with OSC handling all fiscal responsibilities and administration. FundOSS would serve as the primary project hub, requiring only approval from the DA and other FundOSS admins to proceed. By partnering with FundOSS and OSC, the Innovation Fund could support Drupal projects with minimal additional demands on the DA.

@hestenet Thanks again for the update and for our continued Slack discussions. I wanted to share a couple more thoughts and ideas after considering all the feedback:

First, I want to clarify (again) that we’re not proposing the DA:

• replace its current tools and processes with Open Collective
• use https://opencollective.com/drupalassoc as the fiscal sponsor
• administer the (Open Collective) fund

If the DA is currently managing an Innovation Fund through its own tools and processes, we could avoid potential confusion by not creating a fund with the same name. Instead, we could enable the community to manage the following:

• Drupal project on FundOSS (see #3412386-23: Leverage Drupal Innovation Fund on Open Collective)
• Top level Drupal collective (see #3377002: Leverage top-level Drupal collective (Open Collective))

In summary, these recommendations present a complementary, community-driven approach that aligns with DA’s mission without conflicting with its core processes. Empowering the community to manage these initiatives through FundOSS or the Drupal collective on Open Collective would broaden Drupal’s funding options, opening new engagement opportunities within Open Collective's extensive open source ecosystem and reinforcing the DA’s long-term strategic goals.

Just a quick update based on recent developments and conversations:

Since @hestenet’s last update, Ecosyste.ms Funds officially launched as a new open source platform for funding software ecosystems. Created by team members behind Open Collective and Open Source Collective, the platform automatically allocates funding to critical projects without requiring each organization to manually administer funds.

Given the Drupal Association’s ongoing deliberations around if and how to manage an Open Collective fund, Ecosyste.ms offers a compelling alternative: a way to collect and distribute funds transparently, without requiring the DA to handle financial operations or directly manage allocations.

Additionally, if the DA is already managing an Innovation Fund through its internal tools and processes, it may make more sense to associate the fund with another community-facing initiative focused on growing contributions and sustaining the ecosystem—such as a "Drupal Contribution Fund" or "Drupal Community Fund."

We would still need input and involvement from the DA and the Innovation Working Group to:

• Determine the naming and positioning of the fund.
• Integrate with Drupal’s Contribution Credit system.
• Credit sponsors transparently on Drupal.org.

Looking forward to input from @hestenet so we can determine the best path forward.