Details on My Candidate Statement for the DSF
The Django Software Foundation Board of Directors elections are scheduled for November 2025 and I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring. My hope specifically, if elected, is to be selected as the Treasurer. I have 4 main objectives over my two year term.
- Getting an Executive Director (ED) to help run the day-to-day operations of the DSF
- Identifying small to midsized companies for sponsorships
- Implementing a formal strategic planning process
- Setting up a fiscal sponsorship program to allow support of initiatives like Django Commons
These are outlined in my candidate statement, but I want to provide a bit more detail why I think they’re important, and some high level details on a plan to get them to completion.
These four goals are interconnected. We need an ED to scale operations, but funding an ED requires increased revenue through corporate sponsorships. Both benefit from having a strategic plan that guides priorities. And fiscal sponsorship potentially creates a new revenue stream while strengthening the ecosystem. This isn't four separate initiatives - it's a coherent plan for sustainable growth.
Getting an Executive Director (ED) to help run the day-to-day operations of the DSF
An ED provides day-to-day operational capacity that volunteer boards simply cannot match. While board members juggle DSF work with full-time jobs, an ED could:
- Call potential corporate sponsors every week, not just when someone has spare time
- Coordinate directly with Django Fellows on priorities and deliverables
- Support DjangoCon organizers across North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia with logistics and continuity
- Respond to the steady stream of trademark, licensing, and community inquiries
- Write grant applications to foundations that fund open source
- Prepare board materials so directors can focus on governance, not research
As Jacob Kaplan-Moss says in his 2024 DjangoCon US talk
We’re already at the limit of what a volunteer board can accomplish
Right now we're missing opportunities because volunteer bandwidth is maxed out. We can't pursue major corporate sponsors that need regular touchpoints. We can't support ecosystem projects that need fiscal sponsorship. We can't scale the Fellows program even though there's clearly more work than the current Fellows can handle.
As Treasurer, hiring an ED would be my top priority. Based on comparable nonprofit ED salaries, a part-time ED (20 hours/week) would cost approximately $60,000-$75,000 annually including benefits and overhead. A full-time ED would be $120,000-$150,000.
The DSF's current annual budget is roughly $300,000. Adding even a part-time ED would require increasing revenue by 25-30%. This is exactly why my second priority focuses on corporate sponsorships - we need sustainable revenue growth to support professional operations.
The path forward is phased: board members initiate corporate outreach to fund a part-time ED, who then scales up fundraising efforts to eventually become full-time and bring us toward that $1M budget Jacob outlined. We bootstrap professional operations through volunteer effort, then let the professional accelerate what volunteers started.
Identifying small to midsized companies for sponsorships
In Jacob Kaplan-Moss' 2024 DjangoCon US Talk, he outlines what the DSF could do with a $1M budget. I believe this is achievable, but it requires a systematic approach to corporate sponsorships.
Currently, the DSF focuses primarily on major sponsors. This makes sense - volunteer boards have limited bandwidth, so targeting "whales" is efficient. But we're leaving significant revenue on the table.
Consider the numbers: US Census data shows roughly 80,000-400,000 small to mid-sized tech companies (depending on definitions). Stack Overflow's 2024 survey indicates 46.9% of professional developers use Python, and 38% of Python web developers use Django. Even capturing a small fraction of companies using Django in production at a modest sponsorship tier ($500-$2,500/year) could significantly increase DSF revenue.
The challenge isn't identifying companies - it's having capacity to reach them. This is where an Executive Director becomes critical.
What an Executive Director Would Enable
A part-time Executive Director (ED) could:
- Dedicate 10+ hours weekly to corporate outreach instead of the 1-2 hours volunteer board members can spare
- Maintain a CRM system tracking sponsor relationships, touchpoints, and renewal cycles
- Create targeted outreach campaigns to Django-using companies in specific sectors (healthcare tech, fintech, e-commerce, etc.)
- Develop case studies showing Django's business value to help companies justify sponsorship
- Provide consistent follow-up and relationship management that volunteer boards cannot maintain
My First 90 Days as Treasurer
If elected, here's my concrete plan:
Month 1:
- Audit current sponsors and revenue sources
- Identify 20 target companies (mix of sizes) currently using Django
- Work with current board to draft outreach templates and sponsorship value propositions
Month 2:
- Begin systematic outreach to target companies
- Track response rates and refine approach
- Engage with Django community leaders to identify additional prospects
Month 3:
- Report results to board
- If we've secured commitments for additional $30K-$50K in annual recurring revenue, propose budget to hire part-time ED
- Continue to push forward the ED recruitment process
This is realistic volunteer-level effort (5-8 hours/week) that proves the concept before committing to an ED hire. Once we have an ED, they can scale this 5-10x.
Implementing a formal strategic planning process
The DSF needs a strategic plan - not as a bureaucratic exercise, but as a practical tool for making decisions and measuring progress.
Right now, we operate somewhat reactively. The Fellows program exists because it was created years ago. DjangoCons happen because organizers step up. Corporate sponsorships come in when companies reach out to us. This isn't necessarily bad, but it means we're not proactively asking: What should Django's ecosystem look like in 5 years? How do we get there?
A strategic plan would give us:
Clear priorities: When opportunities arise (a major donor, a new initiative, a partnership proposal), we can evaluate them against stated goals rather than deciding ad-hoc.
Accountability: We can measure whether we're making progress on what we said mattered. Did we grow the Fellows program like we planned? Did sponsorship revenue increase as projected?
Communication: Community members and potential sponsors can understand where the DSF is headed and how they can contribute.
As someone who's been in healthcare management since 2012, I've seen how strategic planning drives organizational effectiveness. The best plans aren't 50-page documents that sit on a shelf - they're living documents that inform quarterly board discussions and annual budget decisions.
For the DSF, I envision a strategic planning process that:
Year 1:
- Conduct stakeholder interviews with Fellows, corporate sponsors, community leaders, and DjangoCon organizers
- Identify 3-5 strategic priorities for the next 3 years (e.g., "double sponsorship revenue," "launch fiscal sponsorship program," "expand geographic diversity of Django community")
- Develop measurable outcomes for each priority
- Share draft plan with community for feedback
Ongoing:
- Review progress quarterly at board meetings
- Publish annual progress reports
- Revise plan every 3 years based on outcomes and changing needs
This connects directly to my other goals: we need a strategic plan to guide ED hiring, fundraising priorities, and fiscal sponsorship criteria. Without it, we're making isolated decisions rather than building toward a coherent vision.
Setting up a fiscal sponsorship program to allow support of initiatives like Django Commons
Django's success isn't just about the framework itself. It's about the ecosystem of packages, tools, and community organizations that have grown around it. Projects like Django Commons, Django Packages, regional Django user groups, and specialized packages serve thousands of developers daily. Yet these projects face a common challenge: they lack the legal and financial infrastructure to accept donations, pay for infrastructure, or compensate maintainers.
A fiscal sponsorship program would allow the DSF to serve as the legal and financial home for vetted Django ecosystem projects. Think of it as the DSF saying: "We'll handle the paperwork, taxes, and compliance; you focus on serving the community."
Who This Helps
- Community maintainers who need to accept donations but shouldn't have to become nonprofit experts
- Django Commons and similar initiatives that need to pay for infrastructure, security audits, or maintainer stipends
- Regional Django organizations that want to organize events or workshops but lack financial infrastructure
- Critical packages in the Django ecosystem that need sustainable funding models
- Corporate sponsors who want to support the broader ecosystem but need a tax-deductible vehicle
Why This Matters
Right now, valuable Django ecosystem projects are essentially flying without a net. If Django Commons needs to accept a $10,000 corporate donation to fund security audits, there's no clear path to doing so. If a critical package needs to pay for CI/CD infrastructure or compensate a maintainer for urgent security fixes, they're stuck. Some projects, such as Djangonaut Space, have tried to solve this individually by creating their own 501(c)(3)s or using platforms like Open Collective, but this fragments the community and creates overhead.
The Python Software Foundation already does this successfully for PyPI, PyLadies, and regional Python conferences. NumFOCUS sponsors dozens of scientific Python projects. There's no reason Django's ecosystem shouldn't have similar support.
For the DSF, this is also about long-term sustainability. A healthy Django depends on a healthy ecosystem. When popular packages go unmaintained or community initiatives shut down due to funding constraints, Django suffers. By providing fiscal sponsorship, we strengthen the entire Django community while also creating a new (modest) revenue stream through administrative fees that can fund DSF operations.
Moving Forward Together
These four initiatives - (1) hiring an Executive Director, (2) growing corporate sponsorships, (3) implementing strategic planning, and (4) launching fiscal sponsorship - represent an ambitious but achievable vision for the DSF's next two years. They're not just ideas; they're a roadmap for taking Django from a volunteer-run project to a professionally-supported ecosystem that can serve millions of developers for decades to come.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and regardless of the election outcome, I'm committed to supporting Django's continued success.