The PHP Foundation is proud to announce our support for the Open Source Pledge initiative, launched by Sentry and its partners. This step addresses the sustainability challenges within the Open Source Software (OSS) community, particularly affecting PHP and its ecosystem.

The Open Source Pledge: A Commitment to Sustainability

The Open Source Pledge represents a commitment from member companies to provide meaningful financial support to Open Source maintainers. This initiative aims to prevent maintainer burnout and reduce the risk of high-profile security incidents that can impact the broader tech ecosystem.

The OSS community, including PHP, faces significant challenges:

• Security risks: High-profile incidents like Log4shell, XZ, and Heartbleed have highlighted the potential consequences of under-resourced projects.
• Developer burnout: Many maintainers, often volunteers, are feeling exhausted and leaving the very projects you might be using.
• Losing maintainers: The demanding nature of maintaining open-source software means we’re seeing fewer contributors over time.

The PHP Foundation's Role

As the main funder and steward of the PHP language, we’ve seen firsthand how a lack of funding impacts crucial projects. For example:

• Core language development: Keeping PHP up to date and improving it takes a lot of time and expertise.
• Security support: Without enough funding, PHP can’t address vulnerabilities quickly.
• Extension maintenance: Many essential PHP extensions are struggling to find people to maintain them.
• Documentation efforts: Keeping PHP’s extensive documentation current is always a big challenge.

How to Join the Pledge

The Open Source Pledge offers a structured approach to supporting OSS with the following requirements:

• Minimum contribution: $2,000 per year, per developer on staff.
• Transparency: Companies should publish annual reports detailing their payments.
• Direct impact: Funds go directly to maintainers, supporting their crucial work.

Thanks to supporting the PHP Foundation, our major sponsors Private Packagist and Tideways are already part of the Open Source Pledge.

[Action Required] Join the Pledge!

We urge PHP-based companies, developers, and organizations to join the Open Source Pledge and sponsor The PHP Foundation.

To learn more about the Open Source Pledge and how you can participate, visit https://opensourcepledge.com/.

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