Frequently Asked Questions

Open Source Wishlist is the bridge between knowing what makes projects sustainable and actually getting there. Based on exsiting ecosystem standards, we provide the missing vocabulary for maintainers to request specific help, the validated pathways to deliver it, and the metrics to prove it worked.

The platform works in three simple steps:

1. Maintainers create wishlists describing their project needs (governance, security, funding, community building, etc.)
2. Wishlist Sponsors (companies, foundations, sponsors) browse public wishlists and commit to fulfilling specific needs
3. Open Source Practitioners provide the expertise and services to complete the work

Open Source Wishlist maintainers onboard and offboard the wish, and evaluate success according to rubrics in each service playbook.

This program is completely free. Pracitioners are compensated for their work through sponsorships and if requested maintainers may also recieve a honorarium. The platform itself is run by volunteers and accepts sponsorship through Open Collective and GitHub Sponsors.

Open Source Wishlist is an indpendant open source, open content, community project created by Emma Irwin, in partnership open source collaborator Christos Bacharakis and with feedback from many of our peers, maintainers and potential funders (thanks to everyone who has chatted with us so far!) .

We hope more people will get involved, and join the community.

Yes. Contributing to an open source project is very important, and more than likely sponsor organizations are already contributors. Open Source Wishlist services are are also a type of contribution, but scoped to specific operational outcomes like security and leadership.

Kind of. We maintain set prices for each service to ensure fair compensation and prevent practitioners from undercutting each other (this is not Upwork). However, we expect to adjust pricing as we learn from practitioners’ experiences and better understand what properly honors their time and expertise.

Our approach:

• Set prices by project size (small, medium, large) to provide clear expectations
• Fair baseline rates based on industry standards and practitioner input
• Periodic adjustments as we gather feedback from practitioners about scope and effort
• No negotiation or bidding to protect practitioner compensation

We will likely adjust prices as we go, but we’ll maintain the set-price structure overall. This ensures practitioners are compensated fairly while giving sponsors predictable costs.

If you have questions about pricing for a specific service, please contact us.

Services and resources are focused on those things that have proven to be most challenging for maintainers and which have high likelihood to improve the sustainability of projects.

See the service catalogue for a full list.

Simply visit our maintainers page and click “Create Wishlist.” You’ll be guided through a form to describe your project, its current challenges, and the specific type of help you need.

When picking a size for your wishlist, choose the option that best reflects the scope and complexity of your project today. This helps us show the most accurate price estimate for each service.

• Small:
  • Few active contributors, low to moderate activity
  • Single repository or a simple structure
  • Straightforward architecture and governance
• Medium:
  • Growing contributor base and more regular activity
  • Multiple repositories or a moderately complex codebase
  • Multi-stakeholder needs emerging (users, maintainers, partners)
• Large:
  • Complex ecosystem or broad adoption
  • Many repositories or a large/complex codebase
  • High downstream dependencies or community impact

Notes:

• These sizes are a starting point - not a gate. Practitioners will confirm fit during scoping.
• If you’re unsure, choose Medium. We’ll help calibrate together.
• See the Catalogue Pricing page for example deliverables and outcomes by tier.

Related:

• Catalogue Pricing

Yes, and they absolutely should be! This platform is designed to help provide critical human support that many maintainers need - such as governance advice, security audits, funding strategy, and community moderation - not to replace the need to pay maintainers for their work.

Open source maintainers deserve fair compensation for the incredible value they create. The services offered through OSS Wishlist are complementary needs that help make projects more sustainable, secure, and professionally managed.

One-Time Sponsorship (Honorarium)

To further support maintainers, wish sponsors (companies or organizations fulfilling wishes) are offered the option to provide a one-time honorarium to the maintainer as part of wish fulfillment. This is entirely optional but encouraged as a way to:

• Show appreciation for the maintainer’s work and time
• Recognize the effort maintainers put into collaborating with practitioners
• Provide a token of gratitude for their contributions to open source
• Strengthen the relationship between sponsors and maintainers

Important: This honorarium is not payment for the maintainer’s services, nor does it create any obligation beyond working with the practitioner. It’s simply a gesture of appreciation for the maintainer’s time and collaboration during the wish fulfillment process.

Maintainers can opt-in to receive these honorariums when creating their wishlist. If they do, sponsors will be asked during the fulfillment process if they’d like to include a one-time honorarium alongside the professional service they’re providing.

This approach recognizes that sustainable open source requires both professional services and direct maintainer compensation.

We are focused on building the capabilities for the services and resources currently listed in our catalog. However, we understand that every project has unique needs.

If you need something that isn’t currently listed, you can email us at [email protected] to request another service or resource.

Important notes:

• We cannot promise we’ll be able to add your requested service
• We will look into all requests and consider them for future expansion
• Building new service capabilities takes time and requires finding qualified practitioners

We appreciate your feedback - it helps us understand what the open source community needs most!

After your wishlist is approved (when we add the approved-wishlist label to your GitHub issue). We need two days to review wishes, at which point you will get an email notification that your wish has been approved for sponsorsip (selection for sponsorship is a different email).

Yes. If a service is shown as “Not currently available,” you can still select it when creating or editing your wishlist. We’ll add your request to our waitlist and notify you as soon as a qualified practitioner becomes available.

Why does this happen?

• Practitioner capacity varies over time
• Some services require specific expertise and may be temporarily full
• New practitioners are continually being onboarded

What should I do?

• Select all services you need, even if some are “Not currently available”
• We’ll track your interest and prioritize onboarding for high-demand services
• You’ll receive an email update when the service becomes available

Tip: If timing is flexible, include that in your notes so we can better match your needs.

Practitioner Preferences and Nominations

There are three ways preferences and nominations can be expressed on the platform today:

1) Preferred Practitioner (Maintainer)

You can select 1 preferred practitioner from our verified directory. This indicates your preference for working with this specific practitioner.

Important notes:

• Preferences are considered but not guaranteed
• Final matching depends on practitioner availability, capacity, and expertise alignment
• We aim to honor preferences whenever possible while ensuring quality matches

2) Your Nominee (Employee) (Sponsor)

When fulfilling a wishlist, sponsors can propose an internal employee (or contractor under your organization) to do the work.

What we check:

• Expertise fit with the requested service(s)
• Any conflicts of interest
• Availability and ability to meet scope and timelines

If the nominee is a strong fit, they can be approved to fulfill the wish.

3) Maintainer Nominee (Community Member)

If a maintainer knows someone from their community who they’d like to work with (and who isn’t in our directory), they can nominate them by providing:

• Their name
• Email address
• GitHub username

Nominee vetting process:

• All nominees must meet OSS Wishlist’s practitioner criteria
• We evaluate against our practitioner rubric
• Nominees who qualify will be invited to create a practitioner profile
• Once verified, they can be matched with wishlists

What happens next:

1. We review the nominee’s background and expertise
2. If qualified, we reach out to invite them to apply
3. After they complete the application and are approved, they can fulfill wishes
4. We’ll notify you of their status

No Guaranteed Assignment

Neither preferences nor nominations guarantee assignment. Our goal is to make the best match for your project’s needs while respecting your input and ensuring practitioner quality standards.

Have questions? Contact us for more information.

For our first pilot we will only select up to 10 practitioners. We are SUPER mindful that there are many qualified people. The approval process is not intended to gatekeep but rather to keep things small at first, to get to know people, and expand from there. We will have our own leadership and governance strategies to ensure that this project represents the best in sustainability as well.

Our practitioner selection process looks like this:

1. Application Review: We evaluate experience, expertise areas, and past work in open source
2. Matching Assessment: We learn more about you, what you want to focus on, preferences, limitations, timezone (etc.), potential conflicts of interest — and finally your goals around being matched with a wish.
3. Ongoing Evaluation: We will provide maintainers, sponsors, and practitioners with ways to evaluate their experiences.

Once approved, practitioners will be asked to attend an onboarding, and will have a profile added to our practitioners page.

Practitioners are compensated directly by the Wishlist Sponsors via one of two platforms (Open Collective of GitHub Sponsors):

• Direct Payment: Sponsors pay practitioners directly, not through Open Source Wishlist
• Fair Rates: We provide guidance on market rates to ensure fair compensation based on USD, sponsors may pay more, but not less
• Milestone-Based: Wish match obligations are considered met on successful rubric scoring.

Please see Terms and COnditions for more on obligations.

Practitioners are expected to maintain high standards of professionalism and quality:

Professional Standards:

• Deliver work on time and within agreed scope
• Communicate regularly with all stakeholders
• Maintain confidentiality and respect project governance
• Follow industry best practices and security protocols

Open Source Values:

• Understand and respect open source culture and practices
• Consider long-term project sustainability in recommendations
• Foster inclusive and welcoming project environments
• Share knowledge and document work for future maintainers

Reporting Requirements:

• Provide regular progress updates to sponsors and maintainers
• Document all work performed and outcomes achieved
• Submit completion reports with recommendations for ongoing sustainability
• Be available for follow-up questions and clarifications

Continuous Improvement:

• Stay current with best practices in their expertise areas
• Seek feedback and incorporate lessons learned
• Contribute to platform improvement through insights and recommendations

Wishlist Sponsors can be companies, foundations, government agencies, individuals and others that depend on open source software and want to contribute to its sustainability. They sponsor the fulfillment of maintainer wishes to strengthen their supply chain and the broader ecosystem.

We provide transparency and accountability measures for Sponsor investments:

• Wish Onboarding: Kickoff with maintainer, sponsor and practioner to set and manage expectations
• Milestone Reports: Bi-weely reporting
• Impact Metrics: Quantifiable outcomes and improvements achieved (rubrics in every playbook)

Practitioner Matching with Multiple Preferences

When fulfilling a wishlist, we often receive practitioner preferences from both the maintainer (who created the wishlist) and the sponsor (who is funding the work). Our goal is to consider both perspectives and work collaboratively to find the best solution.

How It Works

Each fulfillment is unique, and we take a flexible, collaborative approach:

1. Maintainer Preferences: When creating a wishlist, maintainers can:

   • Select 1 preferred practitioner from our directory
   • Nominate someone from their community (subject to vetting)

2. Sponsor Preferences: When fulfilling a wishlist, sponsors can:

   • Choose specific practitioners from available options
   • Use their own employee as the practitioner
   • Request we select the best match

3. Collaborative Matching: We review:

   • Maintainer’s preferences and any nominees
   • Sponsor’s selection or preferences
   • Practitioner availability and expertise fit
   • Project requirements and timeline

Common Scenarios

Both parties prefer the same practitioner

• Perfect alignment! We proceed with that practitioner.

Different preferences

• We facilitate a discussion between maintainer, sponsor, and practitioners
• We may propose alternative solutions (e.g., co-delivery, split responsibilities)
• Final decision considers expertise alignment and all parties’ input

Sponsor using employee practitioner + Maintainer has nominee

• We explore collaboration opportunities (mentorship, co-delivery)
• Nominee can participate if approved and sponsor agrees
• We ensure the arrangement serves the project’s best interests

No preferences from one party

• We prioritize the stated preference from the other party
• We validate the match meets quality and expertise standards

Our Commitment

• Transparency: All parties know about expressed preferences
• Flexibility: Every situation is unique; we adapt our approach
• Quality first: Expertise and project fit are always paramount
• Collaboration: We work with everyone to reach the right solution
• No guarantees: Neither maintainer nor sponsor preferences are binding, but both are seriously considered

Vetting and Approval

All practitioners (preferred, nominated, or employee-based) must:

• Meet OSS Wishlist quality standards
• Have appropriate expertise for the service
• Be available for the project timeline
• Align with our practitioner criteria

Questions or Concerns?

If you have questions about practitioner matching for your specific wishlist, please contact us. We’re here to facilitate the best possible outcomes for both maintainers and sponsors.