Open Source Adoption for Nonprofits
GitHub has published a new guide aimed at helping nonprofits and social sector organizations adopt open source software. The company's stated goal is to lower barriers to entry for any organization — from multinational corporations to regional nonprofits — looking to implement, configure, or customize open source projects.
The guide was developed as part of GitHub Social Impact's Skills-Based Volunteering program and is adapted from an open source training originally created for the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT). GitHub staff members developed and led that training, and the new guide extends similar material to the broader social sector.
Why Open Source Matters for Social Impact
For organizations operating with constrained resources, open source offers three key advantages: improved collaboration, increased efficiency, and reduced costs. Beyond helping a single organization meet its own objectives, open source also enables work to be distributed, adapted, and reused by other groups working toward similar goals.
This sharing model can accelerate progress across the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Real-world examples from GitHub's social impact work include:
- Identifying drug candidates for neglected diseases in low- and middle-income countries through skills-based volunteering with Ersilia.
- Building a platform to support human rights groups with country-specific public demographic data, in collaboration with the UNDP.
- Creating data visualizations with Mobile Pathways that help ensure beneficiaries are properly resourced.
What the Guide Covers
Drawing on experience working with nonprofits across various causes, sizes, and geographies, GitHub noticed an increasing number of social sector organizations moving to open source their projects. The guide is designed to ease that transition for teams who may be new to the model.
Content covers the full lifecycle of open source engagement:
- How open source can benefit your organization.
- How to implement, contribute to, and maintain an open source project.
- How to build an engaged community around your work.
The guide is intended to be useful whether an organization is still evaluating open source or already ready to begin a project.
Contributors and Credits
The guide was adapted from the OICT training developed and led by Belinda Vennam (@bvennam), SKi Sankhe (@megamanics), and Joshua Ku (@therealkujo).
The training effort was part of a GitHub Social Impact Skills-Based Volunteering project with OICT; a case study is available documenting that work.
Next Steps for Nonprofits
Organizations ready to move forward with open source can save the guide and also check eligibility for a free GitHub Team account. The nonprofit account offering is designed for official nonprofit organizations that are non-government, non-academic, non-commercial, and non-political, with no religious affiliation. Qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations or their equivalents receive a GitHub Team account with unlimited private repositories and unlimited users.
