Best practices to reward open source contributors
Volunteers that devote their time and talents to enhancing and maintaining open-source projects are vital to every open-source community. Therefore recognizing and rewarding these contributors is essential to maintain a healthy community and encouraging ongoing contributions. In this blog post, I’ll share some of the best practices for rewarding open-source contributors based on my experience.
Most times open-source contributors have full-time jobs and only strive to make out time for contributions and so offering monetary rewards is a good way to show appreciation. These could include stipends, bounties, or even grants. Organizations like the Mozilla Foundation and Google offer grants to open-source contributors to support their work. Another approach to express gratitude to contributors is by acknowledging and appreciating the work of contributors, many of these contributors make out time for contributions because of their desire to build their reputation and make valuable connections in the industry, and so a public appreciation of contributors via the project’s documentation, a blog article, or a social network post would go a long way. Not only does acknowledging contributions help to express gratitude, it also encourages contributors to keep making gifts.
Secondly, some developers see open-source projects as a platform for displaying their skills to hiring companies and so providing contributors with recommendations, referrals, or even job opportunities can be an excellent way to reward them for their contributions and support their career advancement. Also, creating a contributor rewards program is a structured way to reward contributors based on their level of contribution. This could include tiers of rewards, such as swag for minor contributions, monetary rewards for significant contributions, and access to exclusive content for top contributors. Creating a rewards program can help incentivize contributors and encourage ongoing contributions.
Thirdly, swag and products are great ways to acknowledge donors and foster a sense of community. They might be t-shirts, bumper stickers, or even specially manufactured products made just for the cause. They can either be distributed to donors who have made sizable contributions or offered as a part of a contributor incentives program. Not just swags and products, access to restricted content can be a terrific way to thank contributors. Examples of restricted content include beta releases, early access to new features, and secret forums. This may engender a feeling of exclusivity and give contributors a sense of belonging to a select group.
Finally, open-source contributors are critical to open-source project success. Rewarding them for their contributions can help keep their support and motivate them to contribute more. Putting some of these best practices into action can help open-source contributors feel valued and appreciated.
