Community-led development "The Apache Way"
The ASF Sponsorship Program is the way that corporations and individuals can contribute substantially to the ongoing support of the Foundation. (As distinct from one-time donations.)
In return, the ASF will officially acknowledge your donation via various methods appropriate to your sponsorship level. We will display your logo and link on the ASF Thanks page and provide an official sponsor image to place on your website. (Logo and link subject to ASF approval.)
There are four sponsorship levels, defined by donation amount and in-return benefits of sponsorship. No more than 25% of value can be based on in-kind services
You must coordinate with the ASF Public Relations and Fundraising Team (fundraising@apache.org) on all donations you make.
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The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the Apache community of open-source software projects. Apache projects use a collaborative, consensus-based development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software that leads the way in its field. We consider ourselves not simply a group of projects sharing a server, but rather a community of developers and users.
The ASF provides the infrastructure for the projects - the mailing lists, code repositories, bug tracking systems, etc. A few paid contractors, plus large amounts of volunteer effort, maintain these resources. This, in addition to the large costs of bandwidth and server hardware, constitutes the bulk of the expense of running the Foundation.
By sponsoring the ASF you show your support for our mission and help sustain a vibrant organization. Sponsorship also shows your support for Open Source and gives you the opportunity to "give back" to the community. Finally, since the ASF is non-profit organization, sponsorship provides attractive tax benefits.
The Apache Software Foundation comprises 200+ top level projects, more than 800 active members, over 8,200 committers and countless contributors and users. We oversee hundreds of millions of lines of code, supported by an extensive infrastructure comprising ~200 individual machines, 1,400+ repositories, 5-6 petabytes in annual traffic, ~75M downloads per month, and 2-3M daily emails on 2,000+ lists.
We also have the normal business operating expenses which go with any organization. These include:
Your sponsorship helps the ASF meet these expenses and expand our capability to maintain our leadership in the developer and Open Source communities. Funding lets us perform pro-active hardware procurement, enhance our community outreach, sponsor developer hackathons and user groups, and perform non-code related improvements to projects such as better documentation and more comprehensive websites
From time to time there is confusion about who can sponsor the Apache Software Foundation. Additionally, there are often inquiries from potential sponsors who are not committed to the mission of the ASF or open source software.
Because The Apache Software Foundation Sponsorship Program needs to apply its policies quickly, fairly and equally, without the need for exceptions or board votes, we have tried to maintain this document at the most basic level. However, the Foundation reserves the right to decline any sponsor without providing a reason and at our sole discretion.
In short, sponsors must be:
Landing pages for sponsor links cannot be advertisements or redirectors and must be “PG Rated” and safe for work environments. All links should go to a home page or a page with relevant, editorial content about open source software. Any sites with content unsuitable for minors must use a landing page that is completely kid-safe, with appropriate warnings, and that meets US legal requirements such as the FTC’s COPPA requirements.
Our sponsors demonstrate their commitment to Open Source Software by supporting us in our mission of providing software for the public good. We do this by providing services and support for many like-minded software project communities consisting of individuals who choose to participate in ASF activities. In the past, some sponsors have been primarily interested in the SEO benefits of being listed on the sponsors page. To address this issue, all sponsor thank-you listings include a rel="sponsored" tag as suggested by popular webmaster policies.
The Apache Software Foundation is a private operating foundation that is registered as a non-profit, charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. This means that, for individuals within the U.S., donations to the ASF should be tax-deductible. We are not accountants, so this cannot be trusted as financial advice of any kind, but we hope this description will be useful to those who advise you in these matters. You may view our ruling letter from the IRS acknowledging our 501(c)3 status.
You may review the latest financial filings and non-profit exemption application of The Apache Software Foundation in our public records section. You may find other helpful information through GuideStar (requires free registration for full access).
You can find more information about non-profits and related issues at the Internet Nonprofit Center.
If you would like more information about supporting the ASF, please contact fundraising@apache.org. We handle sponsorship donations differently from standard non-directed donations, so if you want your donations to be part of the Sponsorship program (and thus obtain the benefits of the program), coordinate the donation with the Fundraising team (fundraising@apache.org).
We keep all information in strictest confidence.
Your sponsorship runs for one year after the date of receipt of payment. During this period, we display your logo on our thanks page.
Two months before the end of your sponsorship, we will contact you (via the same mechanism we used to arrange the initial sponsorship) requesting renewal. If renewal does not take place by the renewal date of the sponsorship, the ASF may remove your logo from the thanks page.
The ASF appreciates donations of any size and, as we are a US registered 501(c)(3) corporation, your donation may be tax deductible. If you are interested in donating to the ASF at a different level than sponsorship, see our donation page.
Thanks for your support!