Opening Up Open Source

GitHub’s social impact work is built around a simple premise: the future of software development depends on contributions from people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The company has committed to making that future more equitable by focusing on skills development, aiming to train 5,000 people from underrepresented communities in open source over the next three years.

The strategy pairs education with retention. Bringing new contributors into open source is only half the battle; they also need environments where they want to stay. To that end, GitHub is working on a slate of programs—some new, some expanding—that address both sides of the equation.

Training the Next Cohort of Developers

The skilling push targets students and teachers through existing channels like Global Campus. It also leans on partnerships with corporate sponsors, nonprofits, and universities to bridge gaps in resources and curriculum. The goal is to lower barriers to entry—whether those are financial, infrastructural, or educational—so that tech careers are accessible to people regardless of their starting point.

A key piece of this work is All In for Students, an online program providing open source education, training, and internship pathways for tech students from marginalized communities. Since its pilot in 2021, the program has scaled rapidly: the 2023 cohort now includes over 300 students, up from a graduating class of 30 in 2022. Partner schools have grown from 7 to nearly 90, primarily Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Community Colleges.

With students entering the internship application season, the program’s current focus is on career readiness, including:

  • Interview preparation, detailed resume reviews, and 1:1 mentorship to build confidence during economic uncertainty.
  • Collaborative open source experiences through virtual and regional hackathons with partners such as NASA, Red Hat, and Microsoft.
  • A virtual graduation ceremony in April to celebrate students who complete the curriculum.

A New Program for Maintainers

GitHub’s 2021 Maintainers Listening Tour surfaced a clear theme: maintainers set the tone for inclusion in their communities, but they lack easy-to-use tools to act on that responsibility. Suggestions for advancing diversity and inclusion often land as manual, labor-intensive tasks on already-overloaded maintainers.

The response is All In for Maintainers, launching in February. The program offers freely available tooling to automate key processes such as accessibility audits, code of conduct analysis, inclusive language scans, and community hospitality techniques. The aim is to give maintainers practical, technical assistance for creating welcoming spaces, along with programming to help attract and retain contributors from diverse backgrounds. Further initiatives for this community are planned for later in the year.

Resources

Details on All In for Students and All In for Maintainers are available at the All In website. Broader information about GitHub’s social impact efforts and its work empowering nonprofits can be found on the Social Impact page. For educators and students exploring development tools and curriculum support, GitHub Education offers additional resources and details about Global Campus.