PSF Grants Workgroup Charter
Contents
Purpose & Common Goals
The mission of the Python Software Foundation is 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. Grants given out by the PSF or any PSF work group must fit within our non-profit mission. The PSF Board delegated authority to the Grants Work Group to review, approve, and deny grant funding proposals for Python conferences, training workshops, Meetups, development projects, and other related Python initiatives.
The PSF Board delegated authority to the Grants Work Group to review, approve, and deny applications for the Community Partner Program. This program offers a non-monetary partnership offered to qualifying applicants to help support their Python events and initiatives by lending the PSF name and logo as a “Community Partner”, as well as resharing eligible social media posts.
Guiding Principles
The PSF Grants Program supports hundreds of Python-related projects, events, and initiatives globally. To facilitate a healthy grant program, the PSF Board has established guiding principles for the program overall, as well as for 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
- Invest in both new and existing communities
- Evaluate and fund in our areas of expertise
- Ensure Python and Pythonistas are supported
Active Time
The Grants Work Group is active indefinitely and reports to the PSF Board of Directors.
Core Values & Internal Governance
The core values of this group are:
- Respect
- Support
- Positive Atmosphere
- Constructive Atmosphere
- Integrity
The Grants Work Group is governed by the PSF Code of Conduct. Any actions made against the principles in the Code of Conduct will result in a report submitted to the PSF Code of Conduct Work Group. The Chair or Vice Chairs reserve the right to moderate Work Group members on the psf-grants mailing list.
Membership
- The Grants Work Group (GWG) Chair administers the GWG and is a member of the PSF staff. The Vice Chair and appointed Board Director help facilitate reviews, votes, and recommendations for the PSF Board to review. GWG membership is voluntary and individuals must be from the Python community.
The GWG will, to the best of its ability, hold at least one voting member based in the following: Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, South & Central America & the Caribbean, and North America.
- GWG members are required to annually confirm, in writing, their participation in the workgroup within one month of the yearly PSF Board election. The GWG Chair and GWG Vice Chairs lead this process. If written confirmation is not received within two weeks, the individual is automatically removed from the GWG.
- To be considered active, GWG members must participate in at least 60% of the votes in the span of a year. Inactive members are not eligible to confirm continuing participation in the GWG.
- GWG members can resign from the Work Group at any time. The GWG will seek a replacement member from the region of the resigning member to continue balanced representation.
- The GWG may request the opinion of unpaid volunteers or experts. If not included in the annual PSF budget, the GWG may request paid experts or consultants pending approval by the PSF Board or PSF Staff.
Grant Application Guidelines
Grant Caps by Type
Each category of eligible grant type has a maximum amount that can be awarded, or a “cap”.
- 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 $12,500.
- 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.
Application Criteria
- All grant applications must include a Code of Conduct with a reporting method and an appointed Code of Conduct contact or team. The GWG cannot approve a grant request without a published Code of Conduct.
- Grant request size guidelines
- A typical conference grant size is $15 USD per attendee per day.
- Example: A two-day conference with 250 attendees can be approved with a grant of up to $7,500 USD.
- Each conference has different needs based on maturity, location, economic, or other factors. The GWG may consider exceptions based on relevant data points and the information provided in the grant application.
- A typical workshop grant size is $25 USD per student per day. Students must receive at least 6 hours per day of Python instruction as part of the workshop.
- Example: A one-day workshop with 30 attendees can be funded with a grant of up to $750 USD.
- Grant amounts will also be considered in light of customary local costs in the area of the event and additional documentation and review may be requested.
- Consolidated grant requests are to be reviewed by the PSF Board of Directors.
- For established events (have 2 or more events in the past with more than 200 participants at the last event), the GWG will consider additional funding above the established per person, per day guideline to cover accessibility-related services and accommodations to support the PSF’s mission of building inclusive and diverse communities. To evaluate such requests, the GWG will require sufficient information regarding the services considered such as provider certifications (where applicable), costs, and any other relevant information about the accessibility-related services.
- Examples: Professional live captioning, sign language interpretation, or certified child care. This list is not all-inclusive.
- The GWG requires a sufficient budget breakdown that includes:
- An appropriate level of detail for the scope of the grant.
- All expected expenses.
- For events, a projection of ticket numbers and revenue.
- A typical conference grant size is $15 USD per attendee per day.
- For events, the GWG generally requires a program schedule for review to ensure the grant is Python-focused and supports a diversity of speakers in line with the PSF mission. If the program has yet to be finalized at the time of the grant submission, the applicant can alternatively provide a tentative schedule or all of the following:
- Programs from previous editions of the event.
- 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.
- A description of the efforts that are being made to ensure a diversity of speakers.
- For any project, event, initiative, or grant applicant that receives funding, the PSF requests an accountability report. For any subsequent grant applications (whether by project/event or by individual), a report for past awards within 3 years is required to consider further requests.
Example: Jules, the new lead organizer for PyCon Jupiter 2050 and first-time applicant, is requesting a grant for the event. Jules needs to ensure a report has been submitted for PyCon Jupiter 2049 for their 2050 application to be considered. The report can be submitted by the previous grant recipient, anyone on the organizing team, or Jules, if they were involved in organizing the 2049 event.
Example: Cameron, grant recipient for PyCon Mars 2050, applies for PyLadies Neptune 2051. Cameron must submit a report for PyCon Mars 2050 for their current PyLadies application to be considered.
- Certain grant types that the PSF Grants Program formerly funded are indefinitely paused for awards as of March 1st, 2025:
- Development work
- Kids Coding Camp
- Sprints
- Training Programs
- Workshop with equipment
- Other
- Part or all of a grant request may be ineligible for funding. Such instances include:
- Personal travel requests
- Hackathons
- Swag and prizes
- Unrelated to Python or the PSF’s charitable mission
- Other portions of the grant as determined by the GWG
Fast Track Grants
To facilitate the timely review and processing of grants, some grant requests may be fast-tracked if the following criteria are met:
- The event, workshop, or training has been regularly reviewed and approved in the previous 3 years by the GWG.
- The total requested grant amount is $2,500 USD or less, and only 10% above the previous amount granted.
- Meets all other criteria for Grant applications (e.g. inclusion of a Code of Conduct, event registration in place, venue secured, etc)
- Accountability reports have been submitted to the GWG for any previously funded grants by the applicant or event.
If a grant application meets the above criteria, the GWG Chair sends a written resolution to the GWG for a vote. The GWG has one (1) week to submit objections to the resolution. If an objection is raised, the application is moved out of the fast-track process and back to the regular review process for discussion.
Grant Application Workflow
Grant applicants submit grant requests through the PSF Grant Proposal Form.
- The GWG Chair conducts an initial review of the application to confirm that it is complete.
- The GWG Chair may contact the grant applicant to request missing information or clarification.
- The GWG Chair routes to the GWG for review with a comment deadline.
- Grant requests will be discussed on the mailing list. All grants are open for review with the GWG for no more than ten (10) business days, after which the request automatically moves to a vote.
- The GWG Chair moves the proposed grant to a vote.
- The GWG will vote on the proposed grants.
- The GWG will discuss and vote on a grant request in eight (8) weeks or less. Time waiting for requested information from the grant submitter is not included in this timeframe.
- If the GWG is awaiting information for more than six (6) weeks, the GWG Chair will automatically close the grant request and notify the grant applicant of the status update.
Voting Rules
- A vote for any proposal will last for ten (10) days, or when all voting members have voted, whichever comes first.
- For a proposal to pass, at least 30% of the voting GWG members must vote aye excluding abstentions. Votes that do not fall within these parameters lead to the grant being denied.
- GWG members affiliated with a grant application should disclose their affiliation with the entire GWG membership; GWG members may participate in the grant discussion but should abstain from voting on the grant to avoid a conflict of interest.
- If the GWG vote is a deadlock, the grant doesn’t fit the eligibility criteria in this policy, or there are not enough established criteria due to the nature of the request, the GWG may submit the grant to the PSF Board for review.
- No comments are allowed in the voting thread after the vote has been started. A GWG member can request to pause the vote in the discussion thread if there is relevant new information the GWG needs to consider.
Community Partner Program
The Community Partner Program process is designed to be lightweight for everyone involved—applicants, administrators, and the GWG—so the PSF can deliver the program’s non-monetary yet meaningful support in a timely manner.
The general process is as follows:
- Applicants submit an application for their event or initiative through a Google form.
- The GWG Chair performs a pre-review of the application.
- Questions will be sent to the applicant as needed.
- The GWG Chair forwards the application with any notes to the GWG for review.
- The GWG reviews the applications and asks questions or provides commentary.
- Questions will be sent to the applicant as needed.
- The GWG votes via a lazy consensus voting model (3 +1’s, and no -1’s in the span of 10 days).
- If there are -1’s, the GWG Chair facilitates a discussion, and a full consensus must be reached.
- If a consensus cannot be reached, the application goes to the PSF Board for review.
- The decision is delivered to the applicant.
Promotional Support
In addition to permission to use the PSF name and logo as a “Community Partner” for the event or initiative, the PSF will re-share eligible social media posts across its official social media accounts.These requests must be submitted to the grants@python.org email address, and will be managed by the GWG Chair.
Generic posts are eligible for re-sharing. Examples of qualifying posts:
- Save the date
- Here’s our mission
- Our CfP is open
- Our schedule has been published
- Our travel grant/scholarship program is open
The PSF is unable to share any type of fundraising or revenue related posts. Due to our status as a 501c3 in the US we cannot raise funds for other organizations. Examples of ineligible posts:
- Fundraisers or requests for donations
- Registration-related posts
- Anything related to purchases or revenue
- Anything the PSF deems would threaten its non-profit status in the US
Social media posts should be suitable for a professional audience made up of people from many backgrounds and adhere to the PSF Code of Conduct.
Communication Plan
The GWG Chair maintains the GWG’s emails in a PSF-managed mailing list: psf-grants@python.org.
Ad hoc conference calls are to be scheduled by the GWG Chair or Vice Chair.
The GWG Chair will submit a monthly report on the awarded grants to the PSF Board before the Board meeting date.
The voting method is electronic (including email or other methods as agreed to by the Grants Work Group).
The GWG Chair and/or PSF Staff, and any available GWG members hold monthly Office Hours on the PSF Discord for current or aspiring applicants and community members to make inquiries regarding the status of their applications, the scope of the program, or any other PSF grant-related questions.
Budget
The annual budget is set by the PSF Board of Directors every year and is subject to change.
Contact Information
Mailing list: psf-grants@python.org
List of Participants / Who we are
Chair: Marie Nordin (North America, non-voting)
Vice Chair:
- Cheuk Ting Ho (UK / Asia)
Appointed Board Director:
- Christopher Neugebauer (Australia/North America)
Participants:
- Aaron Yankey (Africa, Ghana)
- Afape Temiloluwa Ruth (Africa, Nigeria)
- Chukwudi Nwachukwu (Africa)
- Fernando Masanori (South America)
- Karolina Ladino (South America)
- Kevin Rodriguez-Turcios (South America/North America)
- Kushal Das (Asia)
- Michael Iyanda (Africa, Nigeria)
- Sayan Chowdhury (Asia)
- Vicky Twomey-Lee (Europe)
- Younggun Kim (Asia)
Former Members:
- Darshita Chaturvedi (Asia / North America)
- Gonzalo Peña-Castellanos (South America, Colombia)
- Lorena Mesa (North America)