May 2024 – GNOME Foundation

Exciting Updates on the GNOME Development Initiative and Sovereign Tech Fund

GNOME Foundation Executive Director Holly Million had a call this week with Tara Tarakiyee, our program manager at Sovereign Tech Fund (STF), providing him with an update on the project work taking place under the Foundation’s current contract with STF and the Foundation’s plans to continue and expand the work. We’re thrilled to share those updates with the greater community here!

Key Updates

The contracted work continues to progress, and the Sovereign Tech Fund is very encouraged by what has been accomplished to date.
The areas of work currently being funded by STF are planned to continue and to be strengthened and expanded as part of our new, permanent GNOME Development Initiative, as described in our draft strategic plan: foundation.gnome.org/strategicplan
The Foundation is reorganizing the project and hiring an additional program manager to work with current managers on the new Initiative. We are finalizing a contract for transitional work with the new manager and will make a formal announcement next week.
We hope to significantly increase the amount of development work happening through the Initiative with a process that allows community suggestions for needed work and an application process for grants for proposed work.
The Foundation recently applied to the Open Tech Fund to strengthen the Initiative, including proposing to hire a permanent full-time program manager and to invest in other important work to support our community
The Foundation will apply for a new round of contract funding when the Sovereign Tech Fund reopens for applications in mid-June.
We have launched the GNOME Development Fund, which will raise additional support from the community to fuel the development work possible through the Initiative. Starting immediately, all donations made through the Fund will build the Initiative. This Fund page will continue to develop, with counters, a backer list, tiered benefits for backers at differing levels, and badges coming next. Donate today to support the future of GNOME. gnome.org/donate

In other exciting news, the Foundation has new professional bookkeeping systems in place, completed a financial review in preparation for a required financial audit next year, and at the completion of the second quarter of this fiscal year, the Foundation is performing under budget and is on track in our commitment to having a non-deficit year. We will share more details, including graphs and financial details in a separate update soon.

Learn More about the GNOME Development Fund

Introducing the GNOME Foundation’s Five-Year Strategic Plan Draft

We are thrilled to share the GNOME Foundation’s Draft Five-Year Strategic Plan proposal, a roadmap that sets the stage for our collective journey towards a brighter, more sustainable future. This comprehensive plan encompasses our goals, priorities, and strategies aimed at propelling the GNOME ecosystem forward in an exciting new direction. This draft was created over a six-month period through a process that involved research, individual interviews, and group discussions with staff, board, and members. This draft has been reviewed by the Board and is now ready to share with the greater community.

We invite all members of our community to review this strategic plan, which outlines our vision for the next five years. Your insights, perspectives, and expertise are crucial as we move forward together. Your feedback will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of GNOME, ensuring that our work continues to empower our users worldwide and drive open-source innovation.

Please take the time to review the strategic plan and share your thoughts with us. Whether you’re a developer, designer, user, or advocate, your voice matters. Your input will be collected ahead of GUADEC, where we will provide additional opportunities to ask questions, give feedback, and offer ideas. Together we can create a stronger open source ecosystem that meets the diverse needs of our global community.

Read the Strategic Plan

Black Python Devs Join the GNOME Foundation Nonprofit Umbrella

The GNOME Foundation and Black Python Devs are proud to announce that our organizations have entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement for the mutual benefit of our communities and the greater open source world. We are thrilled to share that the GNOME Foundation will now serve as the nonprofit umbrella for Black Python Devs (BDP). The GNOME Foundation will hold BPD’s assets, accept and process donations, and perform administrative functions on behalf of BPDs, in exchange for a fee that supports the GNOME Foundation.

The GNOME Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, envisions a world where everyone is empowered by technology they can trust. Since its inception as a project in August 1997 and its establishment as a foundation in August 2000, GNOME has been dedicated to creating a diverse and sustainable free software personal computing ecosystem. Our open source software guarantees certain freedoms for end users, ensuring they have control over their computing environments. With two annual releases, the GNOME desktop is the default environment for many major Linux distributions.

Black Python Devs(BPDs) is a global community hoping to increase the participation of Black and Colo(u)red Pythonistas in the greater Python Developer Community. Our goal is to become the largest community of Black Python Developers in the world and establish our community as a source for diverse leaders in local, regional, and global Python communities. The organization works to establish guidance, mentorship, and career support for Black Pythonistas around the world, and it also creates opportunities for the Python community to invest in local communities of Black Python Devs members. The organization aims to increase the participation of Black Python Devs members in existing Python community programs, events, and initiatives, and it also continues the development and growth of Black Python Devs members by establishing open-source programs.  

This new partnership will support Black Python Devs in their fundraising efforts, membership growth, and program development while also providing fiscal support to the GNOME Foundation. By joining forces, we aim to foster a more inclusive tech community and empower more individuals through open source software.

“I saw a post on the FOSS Foundation email list sharing that Black Python Devs was seeking a fiscal sponsor for their important work. I immediately reached out to Jay Miller to offer the GNOME Foundation as a place where BPDs could find a welcoming home. I was impressed with Jay’s leadership and his vision for BPDs. One of my key goals for the GNOME Foundation is to create more channels to nurture and include diverse groups in the GNOME community and in the OS world, in general, to create a more inclusive, more representative, more empowered community for our shared work. I am very enthusiastic about this fiscal sponsorship and look forward to seeing BPDs continue to grow and have a positive impact,” said Holly Million, executive director of the GNOME Foundation.

“We were pleasantly shocked when the GNOME foundation reached out to us!” said Jay Miller, Founder of Black Python Devs. “Our community leaders were excited and strongly supported our partnership plans. It’s Important that we push beyond our comfort in order to regularly make an impact. The guidance we’ve received in this process already has better prepared Black Python Devs for the journey ahead.”

This partnership allows Black Python Devs to accept donations as a US nonprofit. Those who want to help financially support the BPDs can now do so at https://blackpythondevs.com. For more information about Black Python Devs, contact leadership@blackpythondevs.com.

2023 Annual Report

2023 brought many updates to the GNOME Foundation! We’re excited to share our progress and journey over the last year along with some of our best moments and achievements in our 2022-2023 annual report.

Highlights

The GNOME project had two new releases, GNOME 44 and 45
GUADEC returned to Europe with a conference in Riga, Latvia
GNOME Asia returned to in-person events in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We co-host another Linux App Summit with KDE in Brno, Czech Republic
We hosted 11 interns through Google Summer of Code and Outreachy
We brought on a new Executive Director, Holly Million

For more details please see our annual report.

2023 was a success thanks to all of you! Your contributions and donations support GNOME and allow us to continue working towards a world where everyone is empowered by technology they can trust. We look forward to continuing this work with you in the coming years.