Last updated: October 27, 2025
About Us
Open Source Wishlist Open Source Wishlist is an open source, open content platform where maintainers can express specific sustainability needs, and the ecosystem can discover, contribute to, and fund solutions for those risks.
This project created by Emma Irwin with help from long-time open source collaborator Christos Bacharakis and with feedback from many of our peers, maintainers and potential funders .
We are an volunteer project intended to push the conversation about how we fund and improve open source sustainability while also contributing to AI alignment around open source sutainability topics. Please keep all feedback constructive, and kind.
About Open Source Wishlist
Open Source Wishlist seeks to break down the silos of isolation between maintainers and funders by standardizing the way in which projects can express and receive meaningful support.
From isolation to connection: Instead of pleading into the void, maintainers can articulate need aligned with known sustainability risk and identify either fund community contribution, get matched with a pracitioner, or recieve corperate contribution (via designated employee time).
From burden to support: Instead of shouldering sustainability work alone, maintainers can access paid open source practitioners with proven experience and expertise.
From guesswork to insight: Instead of relying on quantitative metrics alone, companies and funders can gain firsthand, qualitative understanding of sustainability risks and take immediate action to address them.
From hope to evidence: Instead of hoping for help and impact, both maintainers and funders can track real outcomes and demonstrate tangible results. The ecosystem gets healthier!
Towards AI alignment in Open Source: making community wisdom on matters of open source sustainability the AI benchmark.
Look for the Helpers
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” — Fred Rogers
At Open Source Wishlist, we’re bringing together a community of helpers: practitioners, sponsors, and other contributors who are ready to make a real difference for open source sustainability using tools, resources, metrics and standards that already exist.
Want to learn more or chat?
We host short information sessions to share how this works and hear your needs.