2024-09-24 –, Junior Ballroom
The Django Software Foundation's annual budget is roughly US $250,000. This is perhaps large by open source project standards, but it's quite tiny relative to the size and scope of the global Django community. The DSF has lofty ambitions, but is often hamstrung by lack of funds. In this talk, I'll break down how the DSF spends its budget, speculate on what we'd be able to accomplish with a much larger budget, and talk about how we might get from here to there.
This talk comes to you in three parts:
Part 1: the DSF's budget. That (roughly) $250k annual budget: where does it come from and where does it go? I'll break down our various sources of funding and the major ways we spend money. I'll look mostly at the 2024 budget, but will talk a bit about how these numbers fluctuate over time.
Part 2: If We Had $1,000,000. Let's imagine that magically our budget grew by 4x, to $1m a year. What would we be able to do with all that money? What a budget that size mean to Django developers and the global Django community. I'll talk about a all wish list items that I and other DSF members have -- things the DSF could be doing, but isn't, because we don't have the cash.
Part 3: How Do We Get There? Unfortunately, we can't magic a 4x budget increase into existence — we have to do the work. How might we -- people both within and outside the DSF -- move towards increased funding. How can we incrementally move towards a future where the DSF is able to do lots more? This won't just be a "you should donate to the DSF" section. But also it will, just a little bit.