{"thread":{"id":"64215","subject":"Git / Software Freedom Conservancy status report (2025)","startedAt":"2025-09-26T19:12:00Z","lastAt":"2025-10-01T15:32:16Z","messageCount":2,"participants":["Taylor Blau","Christian Couder"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"527443","messageId":"aNblfuTDdtxLdImC@nand.local","threadId":"64215","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"Git / Software Freedom Conservancy status report (2025)","fromName":"Taylor Blau","fromEmail":"me@ttaylorr.com","sentAt":"2025-09-26T19:11:58Z","receivedAt":"2025-09-26T19:12:00Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"me@ttaylorr.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/301000140?v=4"},"body":"As we get close to Git Merge next week, I wanted to refresh the annual\n\"Git at SFC\" status report. This report reflects changes in project's\nfinancials and our other activities at SFC.\n\nThis email will serve as that report for the year 2025.\n\nThe previous report (from last year, whose format I have been trying to\nstick to) may be found at:\n\n  https://lore.kernel.org/git/Zusxcweod1O88h7j@nand.local/\n\n# Background\n\nGit is a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. The Git\nproject joined Conservancy in 2010 so Conservancy could help us manage\nour money and other assets, and provide legal representation for\ntrademark matters. Conservancy doesn't hold any copyright on any of the\nproject's code. Similarly, being a member project at Conservancy does\nnot grant Conservancy any influence in the project's development. The\ntechnical direction that Git takes is up to us.\n\nInterested readers can take a look at a more full picture of what\nConservancy does for the Git project at:\n\n  https://sfconservancy.org/projects/services/\n\nA \"Project Leadership Committee\" (PLC) represents the Git project at\nConservancy. The PLC currently consists of Junio C Hamano, Christian\nCouder, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, and myself.\n\n# Financials\n\nSince we don't have real time access to our financials, we rely on\nConservancy to send us snapshots of our ledger as we request them. This\nreport will share the financials from a snapshot taken on 2025-09-24,\nwhich should be fairly close to where we are at the time of the\nContributor's Summit and Git Merge next week.\n\nThe Git project currently has ~$99k USD in our accounts, which is a ~$6k\nUSD increase from where we were around this time last year. Last year we\nreported a increase of ~$4k USD over the previous year, so this year's\nfinancials around in line with what we've seen in the past.\n\nHere are the project's ledger numbers as they have changed since when I\nlast shared them as of 2024-09-18. Note that there is some back-dating\ngoing on here for ledger entries that did not clear until after the last\nreport.\n\n            $-8,466.35 Income:Git\n            $-8,210.10   Donations\n              $-256.25   Royalties\n             $3,409.06 Expenses:Git\n               $152.69   General (Bank Fees)\n             $1,846.90   Conferences:Travel\n             $1,250.00   Filing Fees\n               $154.23   Hosting\n               $112.50   Promotional Items\n                 $5.24   Tax:Sales\n                $-5.90 Assets:Receivable:Accounts\n               $723.53 Liabilities:Payable:Accounts\n  --------------------\n\t\t\t\t\t\t$-4,339.66\n\n(As usual, this is double-entry, so negative numbers are good.)\n\nOur balance as of 2024-09-17 was $-93,836.27 (not accounting for\nbackdated entries). Our balance as of 2025-09-24 is $-98,781.05. That\nis a net change of $-4,944.78, which is better than what is reported\nabove. Despite my best efforts, I can't seem to account for where the\nextra $605.12 is coming from.\n\nLike last time, most of our money comes from donations. This year,\n~3.02% of it comes from royalties, which is a little better than the\nproportion from last year (which was closer to 1.8%). All of the\nroyalties come from Amazon affiliate links. 10% of all incoming money\ngoes to Conservancy's general fund (the above numbers are after that 10%\nhas been deducted).\n\n## Expenses\n\nMore interesting is where we spent money. Like last year, the biggest\nchunk of our expenses went towards conference travel. We spent more in\nthat category than last year (where we spent only $675.96).\n\nThis year we have a new pair of expenditures totalling $1,250 USD for\ntrademark filing fees, handled through Conservancy's legal counsel. $650\nof that came from our Section(s) 8 & 9 renewal[1], and the remainder was\nused to file a Petition for Cancellation against a third-party[2]. We\ncontinue to receive requests to use the Mark in various ways.\n\nWe are no longer paying Heroku to host git-scm.com. The $153.23 we did\nspend in the \"Hosting\" category was for one final month of Heroku, and\ndomain renewals for git-scm.com and git-scm.org. Hosting the git-scm.com\nsite on GitHub Pages is free, and saves the project ~$721.32 USD per\nyear.\n\n## Future expenses?\n\nThe project continues to take in a modest but quite healthy amount of\nmoney, and has very few expenses.\n\nI continue to wonder if there are other ways that we should be spending\nour money. If others have thoughts about what the project should do with\nits money, please feel free to share them.\n\n### Outreachy\n\nThe Git project participates in Outreachy, which is a program that\nprovides internships in open-source to anyone from any background who\nfaces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the\ntechnical industry where they are living.\n\nOutreachy suggests that companies to donate $10k USD per internship they\nwant to sponsor (previously this was $8k USD). The Git project has\nhistorically benefited from GitHub and/or GitLab covering these costs\nfor us. We may want to consider budgeting for this in the future\nourselves, in case we want to take on more interns than those companies\nare willing to sponsor.\n\n# Trademark matters\n\nAs above, we filed two petitions related to the \"GIT\" trademark this\nyear[1,2]. The PLC continues to receive a steady trickle of requests to\nuse the \"GIT\" mark in various ways that are not compliant with our\npolicy[3].\n\nI cannot recall us approving any requests outside of ones that did not\nviolate our policy to begin with. Over the years there has been some\nlight discussion on if we want to change how we treat our trademark\nand/or if we want to alter the policy.\n\nNothing substantial has happened in those discussions, though others\nshould feel free to resurrect them if they wish.\n\n# Conclusion\n\nThat's all for this year. I'm happy to answer any questions on the list,\nand I'll propose a session on it at the Contributor's Summit in a couple\nof days, in case folks want to discuss this further in person.\n\nI'm looking forward to seeing folks next who are able to attend Git\nMerge either in person or remotely. See you then!\n\nThanks,\nTaylor\n\n[1]: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn85961336&docId=S8920250131165809&linkId=3#docIndex=2&page=1\n[2]: https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/ttabvue-92089369-CAN-1.pdf\n[3]: https://git-scm.com/about/trademark\n"},{"id":"527683","messageId":"CAP8UFD1jCRyhN3XH_-WxtCz7sixt+Js_XDFZxkxH9zX2-vZVNw@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"64215","inReplyTo":"aNblfuTDdtxLdImC@nand.local","subject":"Re: Git / Software Freedom Conservancy status report (2025)","fromName":"Christian Couder","fromEmail":"christian.couder@gmail.com","sentAt":"2025-10-01T15:32:02Z","receivedAt":"2025-10-01T15:32:16Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"christian.couder@gmail.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/208954?v=4"},"body":"On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 9:12 PM Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> wrote:\n\n> ## Expenses\n>\n> More interesting is where we spent money. Like last year, the biggest\n> chunk of our expenses went towards conference travel. We spent more in\n> that category than last year (where we spent only $675.96).\n\nI think the $1,846.90 we spent towards conference travel was likely\ncompensated by Google giving to the project for mentors travelling to\nthe GSoC mentor Summit. It looks like what Google gives likely goes\ninto the \"Donations\" account, so it's not easy to match to the\ncorresponding expenses.\n\nOutside of the GSoC Mentor Summit, I must say that we have tried to\nsponsor people to come to the Git Merge 2025, but the effort we have\nmade, and we made significantly more effort than previous years on\nthis, have all failed due to visa issues.\n\n> ## Future expenses?\n>\n> The project continues to take in a modest but quite healthy amount of\n> money, and has very few expenses.\n>\n> I continue to wonder if there are other ways that we should be spending\n> our money. If others have thoughts about what the project should do with\n> its money, please feel free to share them.\n\nIt has been suggested several times (including last year and this year\nduring the Contributor's Summit) that we give a good chunk of what we\nhave (for example 50%) on our bank account to Outreachy's general\nfund. This will soon fund contributions to other open source projects\n(and perhaps one day to Git if the companies that are currently\ndonating for the Outreachy interns working on Git stop donating).\n\nIn https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAP8UFD2OcOaSsumKGZ-oVVWzttc48CvmQZD8tQaWTGQR7wR1EA@mail.gmail.com/\nI have mentioned that Outreachy is navigating significant financial\nchallenges these days. Here are related links (again):\n\nhttps://www.outreachy.org/blog/2025-08-14/december-2025-call-for-mentoring-organizations/\nhttps://www.outreachy.org/blog/2024-08-14/outreachy-needs-your-help/\n\nOutreachy is part of the Conservancy (https://sfconservancy.org/) like\nGit, so I think we should help them as we have no need in the\nforeseeable future for the $100k USD we have on our account.\n\n> ### Outreachy\n>\n> The Git project participates in Outreachy, which is a program that\n> provides internships in open-source to anyone from any background who\n> faces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the\n> technical industry where they are living.\n>\n> Outreachy suggests that companies to donate $10k USD per internship they\n> want to sponsor (previously this was $8k USD).\n\nOn https://www.outreachy.org/docs/community/#funding-requirements they\nsay it's between $8k and $10k USD per internship:\n\n- $7,000 USD donation towards the Outreachy internship stipend\n- $1,000 to $3,000 USD donation towards the Outreachy program activities fund\n\n> The Git project has\n> historically benefited from GitHub and/or GitLab covering these costs\n> for us. We may want to consider budgeting for this in the future\n> ourselves, in case we want to take on more interns than those companies\n> are willing to sponsor.\n\nLet's try again to ask GitLab and GitHub. It has always worked in the\npast, so it makes sense to try again. But yeah, if it doesn't work,\nthe Git project can then donate for the internships. And if we have\ndonated to the general fund, then we can always ask to benefit from it\ninstead of donating again.\n\nNote that this year we are likely to have only at most one intern, as\nit looks like few people are willing to mentor. This means the average\nnumber of interns we mentor per year is likely to stay close to 1. So\nthe risk of Git running out of money in the long run due to Outreachy\ninterns is very low.\n\nThanks for your hard work on this report!\n"}]}