Choosing a path into GitHub Sponsors

GitHub Sponsors can fund open source work whether you're an individual maintainer, a team with a bank account, or a group that relies on a fiscal host. The right setup depends on how you operate and where the money needs to land.

Individual developers

Anyone with a GitHub account who contributes to open source can apply to become a sponsored developer. The application collects details about your open source work, which also determines eligibility for the GitHub Sponsors Matching Fund. If your bank account is in a supported country, you'll get an email with next steps within two weeks.

Once that welcome email arrives, you can build your sponsorship profile. This is where you describe your work and what sponsorships would enable. After you submit the profile, GitHub reviews it before it goes live.

An example of a sponsored developer’s sponsorship profile.

Taxes are your responsibility. GitHub does not withhold tax from Sponsors payments, so you'll need to evaluate and pay what you owe on your own. See the tax information guide for specifics.

Organizations with a bank account

Teams can receive funds directly if the organization has a bank account in a supported country. In that case, sign up as an organization.

Select your organization from the sign up dropdown.

Refer to the organization setup documentation for the full process.

Organizations without a bank account

If your organization is ready to accept funding but has no bank account, you can work through a fiscal host such as Open Source Collective. When signing up for GitHub Sponsors, select "This organization is using a fiscal host" during the registration flow.

Adding sponsor buttons to repositories

Once your profile is live, you can encourage support directly from your repositories. The steps are the same regardless of whether you're an individual or an organization:

  1. Add a FUNDING.yml file to the target repository. 
    # repo:     your_github_handle/project_name
# filename: FUNDING.YML

github: your_github_handle 
  2. Enable Sponsorships in the repository's Settings page. Check the “Sponsorships” option in the Settings page.
  3. Return to the repository — the Sponsor button will now appear for visitors.

Your sponsor button will appear in the top right of your project’s page.

Full instructions are in the sponsor button documentation.

Linking external funding platforms

Sponsor buttons aren't limited to GitHub Sponsors. You can surface Patreon, Open Collective, or other funding links by listing them in the repository's FUNDING.yml file.

patreon:            patreon_username
open_collective:    open_collective_username
ko_fi:              ko_fi_username
tidelift:           tidelift_package_name
community_bridge:   community_bridge_username
liberapay:          liberapay_username
issuehunt:          issuehunt_username
otechie:            otechie_username
custom:             ["custom_url.com", “another_custom_url.com”]

The sponsor modal shows external funding sources if listed.

See the repository documentation for supported platforms and syntax.

Setting a default for all projects

Creating a FUNDING.yml for every repository gets tedious. Instead, add a default FUNDING.yml to your personal .github repository — GitHub will apply it to all your projects. Individual repositories can still override it with their own file.

# repo:     your_github_handle/.github
# filename: FUNDING.YML

github: your_name

The same approach works for organizations: put a default FUNDING.yml in the organization's .github repository. Details are in the community health file guide.

Crediting other contributors

If you bring on another developer, you can surface their sponsorship profile alongside yours. Edit the project's FUNDING.yml so their profile appears in the sponsor button modal.

# repo:     your_github_handle/foobar
# filename: FUNDING.YML

github: [your_github_handle, friend]

The sponsor modal shows up to four developers listed in the FUNDING.yml file.