Sponsors expands reach through Patreon and new regions
GitHub Sponsors is growing beyond its original scope with a partnership with Patreon, support for 35 new regions, and new features aimed at easing funding for organizations. The announcement comes less than six months after organization-funded sponsorships became generally available, with organization participation in the program up 20% since April to 4,200 organizations.
Patreon collaboration opens new funding pathways
Recognizing that funding remains a challenge for many open source developers, GitHub is partnering with Patreon to offer another route for receiving sponsorships. Maintaining creative freedom and giving creators control over their communities are central to Patreon’s work, making it a natural fit for the Sponsors ecosystem.
We’re excited to offer Patreon creators and fans GitHub benefits through this new integration. We’re committed to providing creators with more ways to build lasting businesses, and this partnership will further enable developers to pursue open source careers and broaden their communities.
With the integration, sponsors can connect their GitHub and Patreon accounts, allowing sponsorships to be processed through Patreon while still receiving recognition on their GitHub profile. Both individual and organization accounts can link the two services. Instructions for getting started are available in the documentation.
Broader regional support
The program now covers 103 regions worldwide, adding 35 new ones and admitting more than 3,400 developers from the waitlist. Maintainers in the following locations can now join GitHub Sponsors:
Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macao SAR China, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Namibia, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Qatar, Rwanda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Developers in these regions can set up a profile at GitHub Sponsors; those already on the waitlist are automatically able to participate.
Enterprise and billing enhancements
Self-serve enterprise customers can now grant member organizations permission to create sponsorships. Additionally, an improved invoice process lets organizations request invoicing as a sponsorship payment method with fewer steps. Given that more than nine in 10 companies use open source software in some form, these changes are aimed at lowering friction for organizations that want to support the ecosystem. Feedback on Sponsors can be shared in the Communities Discussions Repository.
