Who funds them, what they fund and how to apply.
The FreeBSD Foundation's standing grant process. EuroBSDCon 2026 travel applications closed 7 July 2026. A general travel form remains for conferences not on the dated list, due seven weeks before the event. Community Grants for software, equipment, and sponsorship are a separate rolling program.
A GitHub program investing in the security of critical open source projects: each accepted project receives $10,000 ($6,000 during the program, $2,000 at the 6-month check-in, $2,000 at the 12-month check-in) paired with a 3-week security education program and expert support. Open to current maintainers (individual or teams of up to 3) of projects with a valid open source license, community adoption, and established governance; applications are rolling and considered for upcoming sessions.
The Open Technology Fund's flagship fund for internet freedom worldwide — censorship circumvention, privacy and secure communications, digital-security capacity building, and applied research. Concept notes are accepted on a rolling basis; most requests fall between $50,000 and $200,000 (range $10,000-$900,000), open to individuals and organizations of any nationality except those under OFAC sanctions, with priority for those working in repressive environments.
NIH ITCR RFA-CA-27-019 funds early-stage open-source informatics tools for cancer research via the U01 mechanism. The solicitation has four receipt dates: 1 Jul 2026, 19 Oct 2026, 11 Jun 2027, and 19 Oct 2027.
Event registration scholarships that award a complimentary pass to people who could not otherwise attend Linux Foundation events. Reviewers select from two tracks: applicants from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized groups, and active open-source community members who cannot get employer funding. Recipients may receive up to two scholarships per calendar year; travel is a separate Travel Fund application.
Standing travel fund for open-source developers and community members who could not otherwise attend Linux Foundation events, with emphasis on historically underrepresented groups and people of lower socioeconomic status. Approved support covers coach airfare, ground transport to and from the airport, and lodging for the event dates plus one prior night. Applications are submitted from the LF Individual Dashboard; each event sets its own deadline.
NLnet provides grants of €5,000 to €50,000 for free and open-source software, hardware, data, and standards. Open calls are paused through the Open Internet Stack transition. New calls open 3 September 2026 and close 3 November 2026 at 12:00 CEST. Later deadlines fall on the third day of every odd month.
Nominet's DNS Fund funds open-source DNS projects and maintainers to improve security, sustainability, and resilience of critical internet infrastructure. The 2026 call closed on August 17, 2026. Nominet is taking alerts for the next invitation.
The Open Source Endowment is billed as the first endowment fund dedicated to sustainably funding open source projects, investing donations in a low-risk portfolio and disbursing only investment income as grants, starting with roughly $5,000 microgrants.
The funding channel through which OpenSSF allocates resources for audits, technical writers, interns, and other needs across its technical initiatives, working groups, and projects. Its defined request process includes tiers up to $70,000–$150,000. A separate $12.5 million coalition investment announced in March 2026 supplies OpenSSF and Alpha-Omega with capital for sustainable open source security work; it is not a standalone public application round.
A donation-funded grant initiative of The Perl & Raku Foundation supporting development of the Perl core language. Proposals are reviewed on a bi-monthly cycle (call opens every two months, two-week public feedback window before committee vote).
A donation-funded grant initiative of The Perl & Raku Foundation supporting development of the Raku language. Proposals are reviewed on a bi-monthly cycle (call opens every two months, two-week public feedback window before committee vote).
The Open Technology Fund's Rapid Response Fund provides short-term, urgent digital security support for at-risk users facing clear, time-sensitive, state-sponsored digital emergencies. Applications are rolling.
The Sovereign Tech Agency's core investment program for open digital base technologies that are widely used and benefit society or critical sectors: libraries, package managers, communication protocols, developer tooling, and encryption. Applicants must demonstrate the knowledge and technical skills to do the proposed work; prototype development and user-facing applications are not funded. Applications go through a multistep review of up to ~10 weeks, with published investments ranging from ~EUR 99,060 (coreutils) to ~EUR 1,436,729 (Prossimo/Rustls).
Annual fund (established at €100,000 in 2022) paying maintainers of critical independent open-source projects Spotify depends on. No external application: Spotify's internal engineers nominate projects, informed by internal dependency data, and a fund committee selects recipients.
Umbrella grantmaking program for the Wikimedia movement, comprising the Rapid Fund (avg. $500-$5,000, short-term projects), the General Support Fund (flexible multi-year operating support up to 3 years), and the Hub Fund (multiple rounds per year), open to individuals and organizations advancing knowledge equity.
The Confidential Computing Consortium's 2026 Research Fund supported practical academic research in confidential computing. Applications closed June 1 and the two recipients were announced July 1.
A Google Chrome-run fund, fiscally hosted by Open Source Collective, that paid out to 10 open-source projects in the "advanced apps" space (progressive web apps and related web-platform capabilities) in a single distribution window in October 2022.
Status describes whether a program is running. Application methods are recorded separately. Read the funder’s terms before applying.