My Thoughts on the PSF Grant Funding Changes

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:35:58 -0000

IMPORTANT Missing Data Added
It appears that in trying to search for data in the resolutions page. I missed 4 events in 2024 and 4 in 2023.

One of the events missing was in the United States.

I also noticed that grants were issued to other US events that were near the capped amount. This brings the 4% saved closer to 10% which is an understandable amount to want to save. Only $1000 would be removed from the US with the rest coming primarily from some major events in Europe and Africa. It also sheds light as to why the number $8000 made sense. It was a target that seems to work for so many events.

That said, I hope the sentiment of this post has not changed. I readers read this as a call to action for supporting your local communities over and not condemning one the PSF.

That said my initial frustations with the disparity of the announcement prevented me from seeing my mistakes. I take sole responsibility on the missed data points.

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) announced updates to the Grants Work Group Charter, effective March 1, 2025, to ensure the program's sustainability:

Pausing funding for certain grant types. Paused categories include Development Work, Kids Coding Camps, Sprints, Training Programs, Workshops requiring equipment, and Other.

Implementation of funding caps by grant type. The caps are as follows:

Conferences: $8,000 USD

Workshops without equipment: $1,500 USD

PyLadies/DjangoGirls Workshops: $1,500 USD

Consolidated requests will be capped accordingly, with a maximum of $15,000 USD per year for any organization or event organizer.

There are still a lot of things we don't know about this decision and the PSF's money saving efforts

That said their decisions affect the community severely. I can't be mad at the PSF for trying to stretch their dollars. But I do have questions and concerns.

We don't know how these decisions will affect supporting the 20 fiscal sponsorees of the PSF, but we have been told that other organizations that received large support grants have seen their support numbers from the PSF greatly reduced.

We don't know what other savings the PSF is taking or if they have imposed caps on other programs in the organization.

We don't know how the Grants Working Group's new Guiding Principles will be used to approve new events and stop supporting others.

If you know where we can find this information, please let me know on social media

I spent a lot of time asking questions to people in the PSF and around it and what I have been left with two thoughts.

The Grants Working Group worked hard to get to this decision and did it in hopes that it would make a long-term positive difference to the community

There are a lot of questions of who will have to bear the burden of these decisions but, in most cases, it is the people that have been excluded historically that will feel the biggest pain.

The latter goes against the new working group funding policy of "prioritizing underserved communities" but, as I mentioned in my 2024 PyCon Keynote, the perception is more important in many cases than the reality.

I feel this decision impacts the global community more than the US

If you are in the United States, you may not notice a difference in your local events but the impact will be felt abroad.

I wanted to see how many events would be impacted by this amount so I checked the PSF Decision Record for conference approvals of over $8000 and found the following information.

2024:

Event | Location | Amount
PyCon Africa 2024 | Accra, Ghana | $22,200
PyCon Latam | Mazatlan, Mexico | $9,810
PyCon Taiwan 2024 | Kaohsiung, Taiwan | $12,000
Plone Conference 2024 and Python Cerrado 2024 | Brasilia, Brazil | $10,050 (events were combined)
PyCon Uganda 2024 | Kampala, Uganda | $11,000
Kiwi PyCon XIII 2024 | Wellington, New Zealand | $12,000
PyCascades 2024 | Seattle, Washington, USA | $9,000
PyCon DE and PyData Berlin | Berlin, Germany | $16,500
PuCon Lithuania | Vilnius, Lithuania | $13,500
EuroPython Prague | Prage, Czech Republic | $15,000

2023:

Event | Location | Amount
DjangoCon Africa 2023 | Zanzibar, Tanzania | $9,000
Python Brasil 2023 | Caxias do Sul, Brazil | $15,000
PyCon CZ 2023 | Prague, Czech Republic | $10,000
PyCon APAC 2023 | Tokyo, Japan | $15,000
PyCon Korea 2023 | Seoul, South Korea | $11,160
PyCon AU 2023 | Adelaide, Australia | $10,000
PyCon Uganda 2023 | Kampala, Uganda | $15,000
Kiwi PyCon XII 2023 | Wellington, New Zealand | $10,000
PyCon Italia 2023 | Florence, Italy | $8,500
PyCascades 2023 | Vancouver, BC, Canada | $9,000
PyCon DE and PyData Berlin | Berlin, Germany | $11,000

Notice that one US event was awarded at this amount event requested at this amount.

Black Python Devs sponsored two of these events in 2024 and would have considered sponsoring two additional events in 2024 and at least 4 events in 2023 (we did not have a non-profit status at that time). Our sponsorships were between $500-600. It is clear we and other small orgs cannot makeup the difference.

While it's safe to assume that these events would still receive funding, we don't know what the difference those thousands of dollars would make. The PSF would have saved $44,060 in 2024 had this gone in effect last year. That amount is about 9% of their estimated $600k they gave last year. It is not known what workshops and other types of events will have been impacted, but I assume that larger grants supporting other important communities have also received funding cuts1.

Communities of all sizes are hurting and it's not your (as an individual) fault

The PSF feels these moves are necessary for the long-term sustainability of the organization. In 2024 we saw many organizations close their doors and communities often funded majorly by community DEI efforts are struggling to stay afloat. The PSF mentioned that, as community efforts continue to increase, their funding decreases.

I have advocated at every company I work with to support the PSF (among other orgs) financially as these funds make their way around the world to make the Python Community truly amazing and a massive resource for them. The pitch has turned from hard to seemingly impossible as the years go by as many companies slash community funding and involvement around the globe. In fact, my current employer, completely disbanded our community team and has let the DevRel Team reduce through layoffs and attrition down to 25% of where it was when I joined in February of last year.

Companies see sponsoring community as an investment and they want a return on that investment. That being said many of those companies don't consider, a global talent pool, and affordable opportunities to learn and develop through the community, as good ROI. If you want to build your ROI you have to do more than write the check... BUT YOU SHOULD STILL WRITE THE CHECK.

If we can't conference, let's try harder to support workshops and user groups

Conferences are an important part of the community but I wouldn't call them the communities' homes. For that we need to look at user groups.

Many Pythonistas will never attend a conference like PyCon US which costs usually $1-2 thousand dollars to attend when including travel and lodging. But they will know the Python Community from their local user group.

As we continue to invest where we can in large gatherings for developers in Black Communities, Black Python Devs intends to explore increasing our support for smaller groups, organizations and communities. This is shown with our partnership with Prelude.tech to bring training events to multiple Women in Tech groups in Ghana, as well as our support of Workshops in Harare, Zimbabwe. We also hope to support organizations bringing user groups to communities all over the world. Finally, we hope to fill the gaps with our own user groups where smaller groups do not exist but local developers eager to build community.

These local user groups need support to help cover costs like food, and venue rentals, and equipment. These events are often monthly and their total cost is a fraction of what is often needed to put together a conference and can even be funded by a small group of individuals in many cases (their current funders are often the organizers and this adds a pressure to them leading to more and more burnout).

Black Python Devs hosts a monthly meetup out side the weekly coffee and code chats on Fridays. The cost of hosting our virtual events is nothing and our in person user group events cost about $100 per event and $1700 (currently) per year to for meetup.com.

There are also other groups like the PyTexas Foundation, ConferenceChats.org and even individuals like Jeff Triplett that host online office hours that have been a great, free way to connect with folks in the community on a really small scale. I would encourage you to consider donating a few dollars to keep their Discord and Zoom bills free to them so they can continue to serve you.

We need to make sure these communities are cared for. Most of these orgs can be supported in some way and if it's not financially it can be with a little bit of volunteer time and asking a mod or organizer "How can I be of help".

Your direct support goes a long way

You as an individual can directly sponsor an event or community. In fact 99% of Black Python Devs funding is from individual's donations. If there is a community or conference you care about, consider donating directly to them.

The PSF does a lot for Python as a language. I hope over time more smaller community orgs can work to do more for one another and not push much of that burden onto the PSF. THAT SAID, I hope the PSF can continue to push itself out of its comfort zone and find new and exciting ways to build a strong sustainable community worth sticking around to enjoy.

1. I noticed incredibly large donations for several events at one time so I now understand how the cap limitations could save over 10% of there total donation amount. That is several more events they would be able to support at that smaller level. ↩