PSF Grants: Program & Charter Updates (TLDR)

The PSF Board and Staff have recently undertaken a review and update of our Grants Program to ensure its sustainability and alignment with the evolving needs of the global Python community. To share the outcome of our review, we are publishing a three-part series that outlines:

• Context and our process (Part 1)
• The program’s newly established Guiding Principles (Part 2)
• Upcoming changes to the Grants Work Group Charter & Program (Part 3)

Context and our process (Part 1)

At their recent retreat, the PSF Board outlined updated priorities for the Grants Program, which PSF Staff translated into guiding principles. Staff conducted extensive scenario analysis using grant data, and after careful consideration, the PSF Board unanimously approved changes to the Grants Work Group Charter on December 11, 2024.

To help the community understand the changes and ensure we keep our two-way communication strong, we are going to hold two supplementary PSF Grants Program Office Hours on the PSF Discord. The office hours will be at varying times through January and February on top of our regularly scheduled office hours:

• January 7th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• January 21st, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)
  
• February 4th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• February 18th, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)

Learn more about the context and our process in Part 1 of the blog series.

The program's newly established Guiding Principles (Part 2)

The PSF Board, with support from PSF Staff, developed a set of Guiding Principles to provide clear direction for our Grants Program. The principles for the program are:

• Impactful
• Reliable
• Equitable
• Transparent
• Sustainable

The process involved discussions at the Board retreat, refinement by Staff, and final approval by the Board. These principles informed the recent updates to the Grants Work Group Charter.
 

Learn more about the Guiding Principles for the Grants Program in Part 2 of the blog series.

Upcoming changes to the Grants Work Group Charter & Program (Part 3)

The PSF Board has approved updates to the Grants Work Group Charter, effective March 1, 2025, to ensure the program's sustainability. To implement the changes across our documentation, application form, and grant report form, we will be pausing incoming Grants requests for the entire month of February 2025. While there are a handful of changes, we want to highlight two updates that will be most impactful.

To align with the guiding principles, the PSF is pausing funding for certain grant types. Paused categories include:

• Development work
• Kids Coding Camps
• Sprints
• Training Programs
• Workshops requiring equipment
• Other

To maintain financial sustainability, caps will apply to grant types:

• Conferences: $8,000 USD
• Workshops without equipment: $1,500 USD
• PyLadies/DjangoGirls Workshops: $1,500 USD
• Consolidated requests will be capped accordingly, with a maximum of $15,000 USD per year for any organization or event organizer.

Learn more about all of the updates to the Grants Program & Workgroup Charter in Part 3 of this series.

Supporting the community

We recognize the challenges these changes may pose and we’re committed to supporting the community through:

• Aggregating a library of event organizing materials and resources
• Additional Grants Program Office Hours will be held in January and February 2025, alongside regular sessions, to discuss changes and community feedback.
• Monitoring the impact of these updates through quarterly reviews and community feedback.

We have kicked off a thread on Discuss.python.org for those who prefer asynchronous discussion. Additionally, we welcome you to join the PSF Board Office Hours on the PSF Discord in the upcoming months to discuss these changes. You are also welcome to email psf@python.org to contact the PSF Board, or grants@pyfound.org to reach the Staff who administer the PSF Grants program.

PSF Grants: Program & Charter Updates (Part 3)

The PSF Board has approved a new Grants Work Group Charter, effective March 1, 2025.  To implement the changes across our documentation, application form, and grant report form, we will be pausing incoming Grants requests for the entire month of February 2025. Any applications already in the system will be processed normally.

As described in Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog post series, these updates are being made to ensure the sustainability of the PSF and our Grants Program. They are informed by the program's newly established Guiding Principles, which have also been added to the charter. If you want to get a better understanding of why and how these changes have been made, please read the preceding parts of this series.

The last update we made to the Grants Work Group Charter focused on process improvements based on grantee feedback, such as increasing the process time frame, clarifying the purpose and expectations around schedule review, and establishing participation requirements for the Work Group members. Due to the increasing popularity of the PSF Grants Program, the current update is focused on moderating spending. While we wish we could support every Python-related initiative for exactly what they need to be a smashing success, we need to ensure that the program continues supporting Python and Pythonistas for years to come and is balanced with all of the other initiatives and programs the PSF supports.

What’s changing?

Pausing several grant categories

As of March 1, 2025, we are pausing certain categories of grant types, listed below. We want to share that the number of grants we award in these categories is significantly smaller than the number of conference requests we award (e.g. 3 development grants versus the 50+ conferences grants in 2024). Even still, based on the Guiding Principles we outline in Part 2 of this blog post series, we want to:

• Ensure that we evaluate and fund in our areas of expertise, and
• Prioritize high returns on investment in terms of community impact.

This means prioritizing grant categories that fall squarely within our expertise and which we know have a high community impact.

The grant types that will be paused are:

• Development work
• Kids Coding Camps
• Sprints
• Training Programs
• Workshop with equipment
• Other

You might be thinking, “wait, why pause development work grants? Aren't those squarely in the PSF Grants Program scope?” The PSF already directs both earmarked and general funds to five wonderful full-time Developers-in-Residence to work on things we can confidently say are making a significant impact on the Python programming language in critical areas. While we would love to fund many small Python-related development projects, we feel that we aren’t positioned to adequately measure the impact of these grants. The same applies to sprint-related grants, which are often co-located at Python-related conferences that we fund separately.

Evaluating kids' coding camps and training programs poses different challenges, and we also have a similar issue around understanding the impact of these initiatives. We also feel that our current grants process is not well suited to these requests, and would fit better in a quarterly or yearly review process overseen by educational experts. 

The hope long term is to “unpause” these categories with the proper amount of funding and expertise available to the Grants Program and Work Group.

Grant caps by type

As of March 1, 2025, each category of eligible grant type has a maximum amount, or “cap” that can be awarded. The caps were developed by running scenarios on 2024's grant data to attain a sustainable budget that fits the PSF’s financial guidelines. This approach, instead of limiting awards based on types of spending like travel assistance or catering, reinforces trust in our applicants and community to use grant funds to best serve their respective needs.

The per-event caps are as follows:

• Conferences: $8,000 USD
• Workshop Without Equipment: $1,500 USD
• PyLadies Workshop: $1,500 USD
• DjangoGirls Workshop: $1,500 USD
• Consolidated grant requests will be capped according to the figures above.
• Example: Python Neptune is organizing one PyCon Conference and 3 workshops in 2025. They would be eligible to receive up to $12,500 USD.
• Any organization, event, or individual organizing multiple activities will be granted a maximum of $15,000 USD per year.
• This does not include individuals who participate and submit applications on behalf of multiple organizing committees.

We understand that for some applicants, this won’t make a big difference and for others, this could make a big difference. The thought process for this change is that larger more mature conferences and organizations that take on ambitious efforts should put a significant effort towards fundraising from multiple sources. As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, we intend to aggregate a library of resources for event organizers to help develop skills such as fundraising and negotiating with vendors.

Add guidelines for number of days funded

As of March 1, 2025, we will only consider funding for a maximum of 4 days of conferences and 2 days for workshops. For context, the Grants Work Group uses a “per person/day” guideline to help determine how much funding to award. Those amounts are $15 per person/day for conferences, and $25 USD per person/day for workshops. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Python Neptune is organizing a 5-day event with conference, tutorial, and sprint days, and they anticipate 125 attendees.
• Under the current guidelines, the Grants Work Group would consider awarding a maximum of $9,375 USD.
• Moving forward, with the 4-day funding limit, the figure the Grants Work Group could consider awarding a maximum of $7,500 USD.

The idea here echoes the reasoning for the grant caps– larger and more ambitious events are typically more mature and should have multiple sources of sponsorship. Additionally, attendance typically isn’t steady across events that include more than just conference days (most people show up for talks, only some stay to sprint). Instead of analyzing attendance forecasts for each day of an event (more work for applicants, administration, and the Grants Work Group), we are establishing caps by number of days.

Administrative updates

If you’ve applied for multiple grants through the PSF Grants Program, you are aware that we require reports for prior awards before we consider any subsequent requests, which is stated in the Grants Program documentation. Previously, this was not stated in the Grants Work Group Charter and has now been added to the ‘Grant Application Guideline’ section of the charter.

Under the last update to the Grants Work Group Charter, the threshold for PSF Board review increased to $15K. Now that we have capped our grant awards to $15K, this no longer applies. After rethinking this aspect of our Grants Program, the Board will now review consolidated grant requests, as these are usually comprehensive applications that have region-wide implications.

Moving forward

We want to recognize and note a few things:

• These are not small changes
• They will have a varying degree of impact on Python initiatives and events across the globe
• For those who are not familiar with the ins and outs of how we award grants, parts of these updates may be confusing
• We believe some folks will want to discuss these changes, ask questions, and point out where we can continue to improve
• We plan to monitor the impact these changes have on the Grants Program and will consider additional updates if required

To help the community understand the changes and ensure we keep our two-way communication strong, we are going to hold two supplementary PSF Grants Program Office Hours on the PSF Discord. The office hours will be at varying times through January and February on top of our regularly scheduled office hours:

• January 7th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• January 21st, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)
  
• February 4th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• February 18th, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)
  

Additionally, we have kicked off a thread on Discuss.python.org for those who prefer asynchronous discussion. Last but not least, you are welcome to email psf@python.org to contact the PSF Board, or grants@pyfound.org to reach the Staff who administer the PSF Grants program.

PSF Grants: Program & Charter Updates (Part 2)

The PSF Board, with the support of PSF Staff, has outlined a set of Guiding Principles for the PSF Grants Program, as mentioned in Part 1 of this series of blog posts on updates to the program. The Board has a duty to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. The Board is comprised of Python-related founders, developers, organizers, and contributors of all stripes, from all over the globe. Not only does the PSF Board have a duty to uphold the mission of the PSF, but any updates made to the PSF Grants Program (or any PSF program) are founded on their diverse, real-life experiences.

As the Grants Program has continued to grow in popularity and we went past the ceiling of its budget, it became clear that it needed strategic guidance. The PSF Board discussed the program and its priorities at their recent retreat. The notes from that discussion were passed to PSF Staff, who translated the priorities into Guiding Principles for the Grants Program. From there, the PSF Board and PSF Staff collaborated on refining the principles, which the Board approved with a vote. The outcome of these exercises that now reside in the Grants Work Group Charter is copied directly below.

Guiding Principles

The PSF Grants Program supports hundreds of Python-related projects, events, and initiatives globally. To facilitate a sustainable grant program, the PSF Board established guiding principles for the program and funding.

Program Guiding Principles

The guiding principles of the PSF Grants Program are:

• Impactful
• Reliable
• Equitable
• Transparent
• Sustainable

Funding Guiding Principles

The guiding principles behind the PSF Grants Program funding are:

• Strive for geographic equity
• Prioritize underserved communities
• Prioritize high returns on investment in terms of community impact
• Invest in both new and existing communities
• Evaluate and fund in our areas of expertise
• Ensure Python and Pythonistas are supported

So, what does this all mean?

These Guiding Principles give the program a well-defined direction and a grounding in where we can commit to being accountable, in a plainly stated manner. This does a couple of things:

• Inform updates to the Grants Work Group Charter
• Serves as a point of reference for the Grants Work Group and PSF Board to consistently make decisions regarding grant requests and the program overall
• Helps the Grants Work Group Chair (currently Marie Nordin, PSF Staff), steward the program and guide the Work Group
• Provides transparency to applicants about why their request may or may not be funded
• Directly answers the community's call for transparency about how decisions are made
• Informs the PSF and its Staff about future improvements to the program

We hope that establishing these Guiding Principles will bring a better understanding to the community about the PSF Grants Program. We welcome you to join either the PSF Board or PSF Grants Program Office Hours on the PSF Discord to discuss these updates, ask questions, and point out where we can continue to improve. Additionally, we have kicked off a thread on Discuss.python.org for those who prefer asynchronous discussion. You are also welcome to email psf@python.org to contact the PSF Board, or grants@pyfound.org to reach the Staff who administer the PSF Grants program.

PSF Grants: Program & Charter Updates (Part 1)

The PSF Board and Staff have continued to work over the past couple of months to improve and steward the PSF Grants Program to fit the changing needs of the Python community. As we mentioned in our November 2024 updates (part 1, part 2), our Grants Program is more popular than ever as grant requests arrive in record numbers. The PSF is thrilled that the program positively impacts so many Pythonistas across the globe (approximately 30,000 in 2024 so far!). That’s what our work at the PSF is all about.

Unfortunately, this puts us in one of those “great problems to have” situations. In 2022, the Grants Program awarded $215K USD and increased to about $400K USD in 2023. In 2024, we estimate grants spending to be around $600K USD. While we were delighted to provide that level of support to the Python community in 2024 and that our community is so active, the PSF has to return grants funding to a more sustainable level that fits with all of the other Foundation programs. The PSF maintains critical community infrastructure, hosts PyPI, produces PyCon US, administers the fiscal sponsoree program, manages several Developers-in-Residence, and much more. Balancing the Grants Program with everything else the Foundation does is critical to both the sustainability of the PSF and the community.

Updates process

Grants funding requests increased dramatically in 2024, which led the PSF to take a step back and re-evaluate the grants program’s goals and priorities. With this in mind, the PSF Board took time at their recent retreat to outline priorities for the PSF Grants Program. PSF Staff translated the outcome of that discussion into guiding principles for the program, which you can read more about in Part 2 of this series of posts.

The guiding principles for the program informed the most recent updates to the Grants Work Group Charter, which we go into further in Part 3 of this update. PSF Staff devoted many hours running different scenarios based on grant data to understand what impact different changes will have on our community and on our financial sustainability. The PSF Board worked with Staff over the past couple of months weighing the pros and cons of each change, taking extra meetings, reviewing documents, figures, and more. PSF Staff translated the outcome of all this work into proposed changes to the Grants Work Group Charter.

The PSF Board approved updates to the Grants Work Group Charter during the December 11, 2024, PSF Board meeting. Our newly established Grants Program guiding principles commit to transparency and communication. Along those lines, the changes to the Grants Program will take effect on March 1, 2025. To implement the corresponding updates across our documentation, application form, and grant report form, we will be pausing incoming Grants requests for the entire month of February 2025. Any applications already in the system will be processed normally. Make sure to read Part 3 in this series to understand if the changes impact any events or initiatives you organize.

After February, we will regularly monitor how Program changes impact spending, the program overall, and the community, including formal quarterly reviews.

We’re in this together

We understand that changes to the PSF Grants Program will have an impact on the Python community, and we do not make these or any workgroup charter updates lightly. We are also experiencing the tech budget crunch alongside you– and we are working to ensure sustainability across all of our work. For example, we are making significant adjustments to how we are producing PyCon US to help cut costs. We are a relatively small Foundation and rely on our members, donors, and sponsors (opportunities can be found in our sponsorship application form!)

Ultimately, the updates are meant to continue to provide support to the area where we see the most impact: conferences and workshops. Bringing all levels of Python folks together to connect, learn, and grow together. Providing Pythonistas the opportunity to have those life-changing experiences and strengthen lifelong friendships at PyCons all over the world. Sparking the love for tech, programming, and Python at workshops where folks code their first website, or meet the mentor that changes the trajectory of their life. The changes are also meant to provide support to new or smaller events- those that need financial support more than mature conferences that can attract sponsorships.

Support for the community

To support the Python community and help work to fill gaps, the PSF Board & Staff intend to aggregate a library of event resources to support our grant applicants and community. Fundraising, negotiating, and organizing are learned skills we can all continue developing together. 

To help the community understand the changes and ensure we keep our two-way communication strong, we are going to hold two supplementary PSF Grants Program Office Hours on the PSF Discord. The office hours will be at varying times through January and February on top of our regularly scheduled office hours:

• January 7th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• January 21st, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)
  
• February 4th, 4PM Eastern, 9PM UTC (supplementary)
  
• February 18th, 9AM Eastern, 1PM UTC (regular)
  

Additionally, we have kicked off a thread on Discuss.python.org for those who prefer asynchronous discussion. Last but not least, you are welcome to email psf@python.org to contact the PSF Board, or grants@pyfound.org to reach the Staff who administer the PSF Grants program.

Announcing Python Software Foundation Fellow Members for Q3 2024! 🎉

The PSF is pleased to announce its third batch of PSF Fellows for 2024! Let us welcome the new PSF Fellows for Q3! The following people continue to do amazing things for the Python community:

Artur Czepiel

GitHub, LinkedIn

Jay Miller

Website, GitHub, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Bluesky

Kojo Idrissa 

GitHub

Trey Hunner 

Website, GitHub, Bluesky  

Thank you for your continued contributions. We have added you to our Fellows Roster.

The above members help support the Python ecosystem by being phenomenal leaders, sustaining the growth of the Python scientific community, maintaining virtual Python communities, maintaining Python libraries, creating educational material, organizing Python events and conferences, starting Python communities in local regions, and overall being great mentors in our community. Each of them continues to help make Python more accessible around the world. To learn more about the new Fellow members, check out their links above.

Let's continue recognizing Pythonistas all over the world for their impact on our community. The criteria for Fellow members is available online: https://www.python.org/psf/fellows/. If you would like to nominate someone to be a PSF Fellow, please send a description of their Python accomplishments and their email address to psf-fellow at python.org. Quarter 4 nominations are currently in review. We are accepting nominations for Quarter 1 of 2025 through February 20th, 2025.

Are you a PSF Fellow and want to help the Work Group review nominations? Contact us at psf-fellow at python.org.

Do you know the PSF's next sponsor?

 

TLDR; the Python Software Foundation needs the support of companies that use and rely on Python and our sponsorship applications are open! Read on for more details:

The PSF is the charity behind the Python programming language, supporting the health, security, and growth of the language and its community. We rely on sponsorships, memberships, and donations to keep our foundation and the Python ecosystem running strong, and we need your help to connect with potential supporters. Here are just some of the ways we support the Python community:

• Run a Developer-in-Residence program of 5 individuals focused on vital areas of work like CPython, PyPI, and security.
• Maintain critical services like python.org, PyPI, Python documentation, and more.
• Produce PyCon US, an event that brings both the community and organizations together to build, learn, grow together, and make connections.
• Award grants to regional PyCons, workshops, and Python initiatives across the globe, that have impacted approximately 30,000 Pythonistas in 2024 so far.
• Support 20 Fiscal Sponsoree organizations like PyLadies and PyPA with back office administration so that they can focus on what they do best: building Python and its community.

If you want to learn more about what we do, check out our 2022 and 2023 Annual Impact Reports. With additional sponsors, we can sustain these efforts and do even more!

So, what can you do to help us gain sponsors?
Step 1) If your company is using Python to build its products and services, check to see if they sponsor the PSF on our Sponsors page.
Step 2) If not, reach out to your organization's internal decision-makers and impress on them just how important it is for us to power the future of Python together, and send them our sponsor prospectus. (Or, just send them this post!)
Step 3) Point out the various benefits they will receive from sponsoring the PSF. Mention that PyCon US 2025 is coming up, where they can connect with the community, recruit, and understand the current direction of the Python language!
Step 4) Remind them to reach out to sponsors@python.org if they have any questions, or would like a walk-through of our sponsorship program.

The PSF sends a huge thanks to every organization that already sponsors us; we couldn’t do this without you. We are also so grateful for the individuals who serve and volunteer with the Board, workgroups, and PyCon US. And for those community members who advocate for what we do, and for all the reposts, the likes, the shares in your #chatplatformofchoice channels, and the shout outs at your regional events. (We are running our end-of-year fundraiser to #PowerPython, so consider a donation or PSF membership, and keep hitting those like and repost buttons on our social posts!)

We all depend on this wonderful language and the people who comprise it, and we all need to pitch in to continue building, growing, and doing amazing things with Python. We’re so incredibly grateful to be in community with you!

PSF Board Retreat 2024

The PSF Board came together September 12th-15th, 2024, for our annual board retreat. This year we met in Lisbon, Portugal. We used the opportunity to work together in person to discuss high-level strategic planning for the future of the PSF. This year, we moved the retreat from January to September. We aimed to meet as a new board in person as soon as possible to build our trust and communication earlier- which has been working well!

Our retreat

After traveling in on 12th September, we shared a meal together and it was a great chance for some board members to meet our newly elected board member Cristián Maureira-Fredes. There was no “ice-breaking” needed– the ice already melted immediately (maybe due to the heat in Lisbon) that evening! We were sure that it would be a productive weekend going ahead.

In the following two days, the board sat together (except for a “walk and talk” session which we will explain in a bit) to go through all the topics on our agenda and lay down some strategies that the board will follow up in the coming year. On the first day before we jumped into strategies, we agreed on our values and behavioral norms for the meetings. We adopted a “jazz hands” gesture to show agreement and it turned out to be a very effective communication method.

We identified our relationships with various parts of the community and documented some of our long-term goals. We also identified our relationships with other entities and our grant program strategies (more on that later!).

On the second day, as we had been sitting down for most of the time during our meeting (there was no time to waste as the discussion was very intense), we got to do a “walk and talk” session. We broke into two groups to discuss some of the strategies regarding supporting PSF  workgroups and mentoring future board members.

The last day was a travel day home, and everyone left Lisbon safely. It was an intense but productive weekend!

What we discussed

There are a multitude of things that we discussed- and many more that we would love to discuss but ran out of time to do so. Here are summaries of some of the topics.

Long term goals

Regarding our vision for where we want to be in 5 years, it can be summarized as:

1. financially sustainable
2. more support for the community, and
3. amplifying Python’s impact around the world

Workings within PSF

We reviewed our meetings structure and process, as well as our relationships with different working groups within the PSF. We also looked at what challenges we may have in our grants program, PyPI, fundraising, and the developer-in-residence program.

Relationship with other organizations

We identified some non-profit organizations that align with our values and which we feel we could benefit from more communication. Those also include some of the local communities that we would like to work closer with.

Fundraising

We explored new fundraising opportunities and brainstormed some ways to diversify the income source of funds.

Grants Program

The board members also reviewed the current PSF grant strategies. We brainstormed ways to make the PSF grants program more efficient and to prioritize where it makes the most impact.

Communication

We talked about continuing to improve communication with our community.

Sustainability

One of the topics that we spent a lot of time talking about was how to help future board members, provide more information about the work of PSF in advance, and how to mentor the next generation of board members.

Continue to support us

The work of the PSF Board and Staff does not stop here. We have another year ahead to keep on supporting Python and the community! If you have any feedback or suggestions to give us, we welcome you to drop by our PSF Board Office Hours or write to us at psf@python.org. We also encourage you to join in our end-of-year fundraiser, and consider becoming a PSF member or making a donation. Check out the 2024 fundraiser landing page to learn about how you can help power Python and the PSF!

Help power Python and join in the PSF year-end fundraiser & membership drive!

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is the charitable organization behind Python, dedicated to advancing, supporting, and protecting the Python programming language and the community that sustains it. That mission and cause are more than just words we believe in. Our tiny but mighty team works hard to deliver the projects and services that allow Python to be the thriving, independent, community-driven language it is today. Some of what the PSF does includes producing PyCon US, hosting the Python Packaging Index (PyPI), awarding grants to Python initiatives worldwide, maintaining critical community infrastructure, and more.

To build the future of Python and sustain the thriving community that its users deserve, we need your help. By backing the PSF, you’re investing in Python’s growth and health, and your contributions directly impact the language's future. Is your community, work, or hobby powered by Python? Join this year’s drive and power Python’s future with us by donating or becoming a Supporting Member today.

There are two ways to join in:

Donate to the PSF! Your donation is a direct way to support and power the future of the Python programming language and community you love. Every dollar makes a difference.

Become a Supporting member! When you sign up as a Supporting Member of the PSF, you become a part of the PSF, are eligible to vote in PSF elections and help us sustain what we do with your annual support. You can sign up as a Supporting Member at the usual annual rate($99 USD), or you can take advantage of our sliding scale option (starting at $25 USD)! We don't want cost to be a barrier to you being a part of the PSF or to your voice helping direct our future. Every PSF member makes the Python community stronger!

Your donations:

• Keep Python thriving 
• Support CPython and PyPI progress 
• Increase security across the Python ecosystem 
• Bring the global Python community together 
• Make our community more diverse and robust every year

Highlights from 2024:

• A record-making PyCon US - We produced the 21st PyCon US, in Pittsburgh, US, and online, and it was a huge success! For the first time post-2020, PyCon US 2024 sold out with over 2,500 in-person attendees.
• Advances in our Grants Program - 2024 has been a year of change and reflection for the Grants Program, starting with the addition of Marie Nordin to the grants administration team who has supported the PSF in launching several new grants initiatives. We set up Grants Program Office Hours, published a Grants Program Transparency Report for 2022 and 2024, invested in a third-party retrospective, launched a major refresh of all areas of our Grants program and updated our Grants Workgroup Charter. With more changes to come, we are thrilled to share that we awarded a record-breaking amount of grant funds in 2024!
• Empowering the Python community through Fiscal Sponsorship - We are proud to continue supporting our 20 fiscal sponsoree organizations with their initiatives and events all year round. The PSF provides 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to fiscal sponsorees such as PyLadies and Pallets, and provides back office support so they can focus on their missions. Consider donating to your favorite PSF Fiscal Sponsoree and check out our Fiscal Sponsorees page to learn more about what each of these awesome organizations is all about!
• Connecting directly through Office Hours - The current PSF Board has decided to invest more in connecting and serving the global Python community by establishing a forum to have regular conversations. The board members of the PSF with the support of PSF staff are now holding monthly PSF Board Office Hours on the PSF Discord. The Office Hours are sessions where folks from the community can share with us how we can help your regional community, express perspectives, and provide feedback for the PSF.
• Paying more engineers to work directly on Python, PyPI, and security - We welcomed Petr Viktorin, Deputy Developer in Residence (DiR), and Serhiy Storchaka, Supporting DiR. It’s been exciting to begin to realize the full vision of the DiR program, with special thanks to Bloomberg for making it possible for us to bring Petr on board. The DiR team is taking an active role in shaping the development of the language, and with three people on the team each DiR can now also spend a percentage of their time on feature work aligned with their interests.
• Continuing to enhance Python’s security through Developers-in-Residence - Seth Larson, PSF Security Developer in Residence (DiR) had a busy year thanks to continued support from Alpha-Omega. Seth worked on a variety of projects including the creation of SBOMs for Source and Windows CPython artifacts, implementing build reproducibility for CPython source artifacts, and auditing and migrating Sigstore, to name just a few. Check out Seth's blog to keep up to date with his work. Mike Fiedler, PyPI Safety & Security Engineer, also worked on a variety of projects such as two-factor authentication for all users on PyPI, an audit of PyPI, made significant progress on malware response and reporting, collaborated on the PSF’s submission for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)’s Request for Information (RFI), and more! Thanks to AWS and Georgetown for making Mike’s PyPI security accomplishments possible. Stay up to date with Mike's work on the PyPI blog.
• New PSF Staff dedicated to critical infrastructure - We established the PyPI Support Specialist role, filled by Maria Ashna. Over the past 23 years, PyPI has seen essentially exponential growth in traffic and users, relying for the most part on volunteers to support it. The load far outstretched volunteers and prior staff capacity, so we are very excited to have Maria on board. We also filled our Infrastructure Engineer role, welcoming Jacob Coffee to the team, to ensure PSF-maintained systems and services are running smoothly.
  

 

Our thanks!

Every dollar you contribute to the PSF helps power Python, makes an impact, and tells us you value Python and the work we do. Python and the PSF are built on the amazing generosity and energy of all our amazing community members out there who step up and give back.

We appreciate you and we’re so excited to see where we can go together in the year to come!

PSF Grants Program Updates: Workgroup Charter, Future, & Refresh (Part 2)

Building on Part 1 of this PSF Grants Program Update, we are pleased to share updates to the Grants Workgroup (workgroup) Charter. We have outlined all the changes below in a chart, but there are a couple of changes that we’d like to highlight to grant applicants. These updates in particular will change how and when you apply, and hopefully reduce blockers to getting those applications in and ready for review. Because we are just sharing these updates, we are happy to be flexible on these changes but hope to see all applicants adhere to the changes starting around January 2025. 

• Increase overall process time frame to 8 weeks (formerly 6 weeks). We want to be realistic about how long the process takes and we know that going over our projection can cause pain for applicants. We hope to turn around applications in 6 weeks in most cases, but planning for the extra two weeks can make a big difference for everyone involved!
• Our application form requires that you set the event date out to 6 weeks in advance. We will wait to update that to 8 weeks in advance until January 2025.
• It’s important to note that this time frame begins only once all required information has been received, not exactly from the day the application is submitted. Make sure to check the email you provided on the application to see if the workgroup Chair has any questions regarding your request!
• Add a statement of support for accessibility services. In line with the PSF’s mission to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse community, we are explicitly stating in the charter that we will consider funding accessibility services. For established events (have 2 or more events in the past with more than 200 participants at the last event), we are open to considering accessibility-related requests such as live captioning, sign language interpretation, or certified child care.
• To review these types of requests, we will need sufficient documentation such as quotes, certifications, or any other relevant information.
• Add guidelines around program/schedule review. Previously undocumented, we were checking event programs/schedules to ensure a Python focus as well as a diversity of speakers. Because of event organizing time frames, we often received grant requests before the schedule was available. Moving forward we are accepting 1 of 3 options:
1. The program/schedule for the event
2. A tentative schedule or list of accepted speakers/sessions for the event
3. Programs from previous editions of the event if available, a link to the event’s call for proposals, which should state a required Python focus for the event as well as a statement in support of a diverse speaker group, and a description of the efforts that are being made to ensure a diversity of speakers.

Grants Workgroup Charter Updates 

 

Update Summary	Former Charter	Projected Benefit	Observations
Establish fast-track grants: Grants that meet pre-approved criteria skip the review period with the workgroup and go straight to a vote	Did not exist previously	Resolutions reach applicants sooner, reduce load on workgroup	Not many events meet the initial criteria we set to qualify for fast-track review, so this is mostly untested
Establish workgroup participation criteria: workgroup members must participate in 60% of the votes to remain active	Did not exist previously	Resolutions reach applicants sooner, set out clear guidelines on the meaning of active participation, reduce load on Chair	Reduction of workgroup membership to only active members has resulted in shorter voting periods by removing blockers to meeting quorum
Increase $ amount for PSF Board review: Grant requests over 15K are reviewed by PSF Board	Grant requests over 10K were reviewed by PSF Board	Resolutions reach applicants sooner, reduces load on PSF Board to ensure they are focused on high level efforts	Resolutions have reached applicants sooner, some reduction in load for PSF Board as we are still receiving applications over 15K
Increase process timeframe: 8 week processing time from when all information has been received	6 week processing time from when all information has been received	Improves community satisfaction and sets realistic expectations, reduces stress on workgroup & Chair	We are just sharing this update so it has yet to be tested- come to our Grants Office Hour session to discuss it with us!
Establish schedule for Grant review process: 10 day review period and 10 day voting period	Did not exist previously	Improve community satisfaction by ensuring requests are moving through the process promptly	This has worked great to keep things moving as the workgroup has a set expectation of how long they have to comment
Establish guideline for workgroup process: no discussion after the vote has begun	Did not exist previously	Improve community satisfaction by ensuring requests are moving hrough the process promptly	While untested, this has set an expectation for the workgroup to comment during the review period
Update voting mechanics: Votes will last for 10 days, a majority is reached, or when all voting members have voted, whichever comes first. For a proposal to be successful, it must have ayes in the majority totalling 30% of the WG	Decisions were made by a majority rule (50%+1), with no time limit	Improve community satisfaction by ensuring votes take place promptly, reduce stress on the workgroup and Chair if members are absent or unable to participate	This has worked wonderfully! The Chair no longer has to track down votes. Paired with the participation guideline, voting periods no longer present a bottleneck
Removed stated set budget: The annual budget is set by the PSF Board and is subject to change	The previously documented budget was $120,000 (regularly exceeded)	Removes an inaccurate description of the Grants Program budget and the need to update this line yearly	A practical update, no observations to note
Update workgroup officer roles: one Chair, one Vice Chair, one Appointed Board Director	One Chair and two Vice Chairs	Correct an unusual and discouraged practice of having two vice chairs and ensures PSF Board participation	A practical update, no observations to note
Add a statement of support for accessibility services: for mature events, consideration of granting funds for accessibility services	Did not exist previously	Establishes criteria for the workgroup and Board to consider accessibility-related requests	We are just sharing this update so it has yet to be tested- come to our Grants Office Hour session to discuss it with us!
Additional guidelines around grant reviews: tentative schedules OR previous schedules, CfP that shows a Python focus, as well as a description of the efforts being made to ensure a diversity of speakers	Did not exist previously in documented form, though we checked for a program	Improve community satisfaction with the process, remove delays in the grant review process	This has been a great addition, and blockers for many applications have been removed!

 

What’s next?

Still on our Grants Program refresh to-do list is:

• Mapping Board-mandated priorities for the Grants Program to policy
• Charter adjustments as needed, based on the priority mapping
  
• Main documentation page re-write
• Budget template update
• Application form overhaul
• Transparency report for 2024
• Exploration and development of other resources that our grant applicants would find useful

Our community is ever-changing and growing, and we plan to be there every step of the way and continue crafting the Grants Program to serve Pythonistas worldwide. If you have questions or comments, we welcome and encourage you to join us at our monthly Grants Program Office Hour sessions on the PSF Discord.

PSF Grants Program Updates: Workgroup Charter, Future, & Refresh (Part 1)

Time has flown by since we received the community call last December for greater transparency and better processes around our Grants Program. PSF staff have produced a Grants Program Transparency Report and begun holding monthly Grants Program Office Hours. The PSF Board also invested in a third-party retrospective and launched a major refresh of all areas of our Grants program.

To provide the Grants Program more support, we assigned Marie Nordin, PSF Community Communications Manager, to support the Grants Program alongside Laura Graves, Senior Accountant. Marie has stepped into the Grants Workgroup Chair role to relieve Laura after 3+ years– thank you, Laura! Marie has been leading the initiatives and work related to the Grants Program in collaboration with Laura.

Behind the scenes, PSF staff has been working with the PSF Board and the Grants Workgroup (workgroup) to translate the feedback we’ve received and the analysis we’ve performed into action, starting with the Grants Workgroup Charter. A full breakdown of updates to the charter can be found in Part 2 of this update.

The PSF Board spent time on their recent retreat to explore priorities for the program going forward. We also ran a more thorough workgroup membership renewal process based on the updated charter to support quicker grant reviews and votes through active workgroup engagement. We’re excited to share refresh progress, updates, and plans for the future of the program later on in this post!

Something wonderful, bringing more changes

Meanwhile, the attention our Grants Program has received in the past year has resulted in something wonderful: we’re getting more requests than ever. Our call to historically underrepresented regions to request funds has been answered in some areas- and we are thrilled! For example, in the African region, we granted around 65K in 2023 and over 140K already this year! And, year to date in 2024 we have awarded more grant funding than we did in all of 2023. The other side of this coin presents us with a new issue– the budget for the program.

Up until this year, we’ve been able to grant at least partial funding to the majority of requests we’ve received while staying within our guidelines and maintaining a feasible annual budget. With more eligible requests incoming, every “yes” brings us closer to the ceiling of our grant budget. In addition to the increased quantity of requests, we are receiving requests for higher amounts. Inflation and the tech crunch have been hitting event organizers everywhere (this includes the PSF-produced PyCon US), and we are seeing that reflected in the number and size of the grant requests we are receiving.

Moving forward, with the increased quantity and amount of eligible grant requests, we will need to take steps to ensure we are balancing grant awards with sustainability for our Grants Program, and the Foundation overall. We know that the most important part of any changes to the Grants Program is awareness and two-way communications with the community. We aim to do that as early and transparently as we possibly can. That means we aren’t changing anything about how we award grants today or even next week– but within the next couple of months. Please keep an eye on our blog and social accounts (Mastodon, X, LinkedIn) for news about upcoming changes, and make sure to share this post with your fellow Python event and initiative organizers.

Grants Workgroup Charter update process

The purpose of the PSF Grants Workgroup (workgroup) is to review, approve, and deny grant funding proposals for Python conferences, training workshops, Meetups, development projects, and other related Python initiatives. The workgroup charter outlines processes, guidelines, and membership requirements for the workgroup. Small changes have been made to the charter over the years, but it’s been some time since any significant changes were implemented.
 
During the summer of 2024, Marie, workgroup chair (hi 👋 it’s me writing this!), and Laura worked on updates for the charter. The updates focused on how to make the Grants Program processes and guidelines work better for the workgroup, the PSF Board, and most especially, the community we serve.

After many hours of discussing pain points, running scenarios, exploring possible guidelines, and drafting the actual wording, Marie and Laura introduced proposed updates for the charter to the Board in July. After a month of review and 1:1 meetings with the PSF Board and workgroup members, the updated charter went to a vote with the PSF Board on August 14th and was approved unanimously.

The workgroup has been operating under its new charter for a couple of months. Before we shared broadly with the community, we wanted to make sure the updates didn’t cause unintended consequences, and we were ready to walk back anything that didn’t make sense. Turns out, our hard work paid off, and the updates have been mostly working as we hoped. We will continue to monitor the impact of the changes and make any adjustments in the next Charter update. Read up on the Grants Workgroup Charter updates in Part 2 of this blog post!

PyCon US 2025 Kicks Off: Website, CfP, and Sponsorship Now Open!

Exciting news: the PyCon US 2025 conference website, Call for Proposals, and sponsorship program are open!

To learn more about the location, deadlines, and other details, check out the links below:

• PyCon US 2025 Launch Blog Post
• PyCon US 2025 Website
• Submit Your PyCon US 2025 Proposal on Pretalx
• Sponsorship Application
• PyCon US 2025 Changes Blog Post

We’re very happy to answer any questions you have about PSF sponsorship or PyCon US 2025– please feel free to reach out to us at sponsors@python.org.

On behalf of the PSF and the PyCon US 2025 Team, we look forward to receiving your proposals and seeing you in Pittsburgh next year 🥳 🐍

Announcing Python Software Foundation Fellow Members for Q2 2024! 🎉

 

The PSF is pleased to announce its second batch of PSF Fellows for 2024! Let us welcome the new PSF Fellows for Q2! The following people continue to do amazing things for the Python community:

Leonard Richardson

Blog

Winnie Ke 

Facebook, LinkedIn

Thank you for your continued contributions. We have added you to our Fellow roster.

The above members help support the Python ecosystem by being phenomenal leaders, sustaining the growth of the Python scientific community, maintaining virtual Python communities, maintaining Python libraries, creating educational material, organizing Python events and conferences, starting Python communities in local regions, and overall being great mentors in our community. Each of them continues to help make Python more accessible around the world. To learn more about the new Fellow members, check out their links above.

Let's continue recognizing Pythonistas all over the world for their impact on our community. The criteria for Fellow members is available online: https://www.python.org/psf/fellows/. If you would like to nominate someone to be a PSF Fellow, please send a description of their Python accomplishments and their email address to psf-fellow at python.org. Quarter 3 nominations are currently in review. We are accepting nominations for Quarter 4 through November 20th, 2024.

Are you a PSF Fellow and want to help the Work Group review nominations? Contact us at psf-fellow at python.org.

Join the Python Developers Survey 2024: Share your experience!

This year we are conducting the eighth iteration of the official Python Developers Survey. The goal is to capture the current state of the language and the ecosystem around it. By comparing the results with last year’s, we can identify and share with everyone the hottest trends in the Python community and the key insights into it.

We encourage you to contribute to our community’s knowledge by sharing your experience and perspective. Your participation is valued! The survey should only take you about 10-15 minutes to complete.

Contribute to the Python Developers Survey 2024!

This year we aim to reach even more of our community and ensure accurate global representation by highlighting our localization efforts:

• The survey is translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, French and Russian. It has been translated in years past, as well, but we plan to be louder about the translations available this year!
• To assist individuals in promoting the survey and encouraging their local communities and professional networks we have created a Promotion Kit with images and social media posts translated into a variety of languages. We hope this promotion kit empowers folks to spread the invitation to respond to the survey within their local communities.
• We’d love it if you’d share one or more of the posts below to your social media or any community accounts you manage, as well as share the information in discords, mailing lists, or chats you participate in.
• If you would like to help out with translations you see are missing, please request edit access to the doc and share what language you will be translating to. Translation into languages the survey may not be translated to is also welcome.
• If you have ideas about what else we can do to get the word out and encourage a diversity of responses, please comment on the corresponding Discuss thread.
  

The survey is organized in partnership between the Python Software Foundation and JetBrains. After the survey is over, we will publish the aggregated results and randomly choose 20 winners (among those who complete the survey in its entirety), who will each receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a local equivalent.

Python 3.13 and the Latest Trends: A Developer's Guide to 2025 - Live Stream Event

Join Tania Allard, PSF Board Member, and Łukasz Langa, CPython Developer-in-Residence, for ‘Python 3.13 and the Latest Trends: A Developer’s Guide to 2025’, a live stream event hosted by Paul Everitt from JetBrains. Thank to JetBrains for partnering with us on the Python Developers Survey and this event to highlight the current state of Python!

The session will take place tomorrow, October 3, at 5:00 pm CEST (11:00 am EDT). Tania and Łukasz will be discussing the exciting new features in Python 3.13, plans for Python 3.15 and current Python trends gathered from the 2023 Annual Developers Survey. Don't miss this chance to hear directly from the experts behind Python’s development!

Watch the live stream event on YouTube

Don’t forget to enable YouTube notifications for the stream and mark your calendar.

Service Awards given by the PSF: what are they and how they differ

Do you know someone in the Python community who inspires you and whose contributions to the Python community are outstanding? Other than saying thank you (definitely do this too!), you can also nominate them to receive recognition given by the PSF. In this blog post, we will explain what each of the awards are and how they differ. We hope this will encourage you to nominate your favorite inspirational community member to receive an award!

PSF Community Service Awards

The most straightforward way to acknowledge someone’s volunteer effort serving the Python community is to nominate them for the PSF Community Service Awards (CSA). The awardee will receive:

• A cash award of $599 USD

• Free registration at all future PyCon US events

Recipients need not be PSF members and can receive multiple awards if they have continuous outstanding contributions. Other than individuals, there are also small organizational groups (e.g. PyCon JP Association 2021) who can receive the CSA award.

The PSF Board reviews nominations quarterly. CSA recipients will be recognized at PyCon US every year.

 

CSA Award Winners 

The PSF Community Service Awards are all about the wonderful and dedicated folks in our community, and we had to take this opportunity to show some of their faces! You can find all of the inspiring PSF CSA recipients on our CSA webpage.  

 

CSA Recipients (left to right, top): Jessica Upani, Mariatta Wijaya, Abigail Mesrenyame Dogbe, Lais Carvalho, Mason Egger 

CSA Recipients (left to right, bottom): Kojo Idrissa, Tereza Iofciu, Jessica Greene, Carol Willing, Vicky Twomey-Lee

 

PyCon JP Association CSA Recipients (left to right): Takayuki Shimizukawa,
Shunsuke Yoshida, Jonas Obrist, Manabu Terada, Takanori Suzu

PSF Distinguished Service Awards

As the highest award that the PSF bestows, the Distinguished Service Award is the level up of the CSA award described above. Recipients of a DSA need to have made significant, sustained, and exemplary contributions with an exceptionally positive impact on the Python community. Recognition will take the form of an award certificate plus a cash award of $5000 USD. As of the writing of this blog post, there are only 7 awardees of the DSA in history.

Naomi Ceder is the latest Distinguished Service Awards recipient, she received the award in 2022

PSF Fellow Membership

Although it is also a form of recognition, the PSF Fellow Membership is different from the awards above and there’s no comparison of the level of recognition between fellowship and any of the awards above. Fellows are members who have been nominated for their extraordinary efforts and impact upon Python, the community, and the broader Python ecosystem. Fellows are nominated from the broader community and if they meet Fellow criteria, they are elevated by a vote of the Fellows Working Group. PSF Fellows are lifetime voting members of the PSF. That means Fellows are eligible to vote in PSF elections as well as follow the membership rules and Bylaws of the PSF. 

Nominate someone!

We hope this makes the types of recognition given by the PSF clear, as well as gives you confidence in nominating folks in the Python community that you think should be recognized for a CSA, DSA, or as a PSF Fellow. We also hope that this will inspire you to become a Python community member that receives a service award!