Content:
Nathan Wrigley interviews Roger Williams, Kinsta’s partnership and community manager for North America, about Kinsta’s sponsored contributions program and how companies can support WordPress and related open source projects.
Roger’s role bridges Kinsta and the wider WordPress community: working with agency and technology partners, relaying concerns both ways, and fostering relationships. In early 2025 Kinsta implemented a sponsored contributions program; Roger helped initiate the idea internally and worked on who and how to sponsor contributors across WordPress and other open source projects.
Why sponsor contributions?
– WordPress powers over 40% of the web, yet many maintainers aren’t funded. As the project grows in criticality, sustainable funding becomes more important.
– There’s a spectrum between purely philanthropic contribution (volunteer-driven) and business-driven support (needs ROI). Roger argues for expanding conversations to include business-oriented benefits so companies that rely on WordPress will participate.
Three practical arguments to engage businesses
1. Strategic benefits: If WordPress performs better, hosting companies and services that depend on it have fewer issues. Sponsoring work that improves performance, security, or compatibility can reduce downstream costs.
2. Operational benefits: Contributing can reduce technical debt. Offloading maintenance or improvements to the upstream project can lessen the company’s internal maintenance burden.
3. Second-order benefits: Networking, hiring pipelines, mentorship, reputation, and community goodwill—harder to measure but real advantages. Sponsored contributors can mentor others, improving project capacity.
Who and what to sponsor
– Sponsorship isn’t limited to WordPress Core. Polyglots (translations), documentation, events (WordCamps, contributor days), podcasts, and other community activities are valuable.
– Kinsta prioritised core contributors but also recognised the strategic value of Polyglots (many customers are non-English speakers) and documentation teams that lower support load.
– Sponsorship can be direct (funding individual contributors) or indirect (sponsoring events, community initiatives, or organisations that coordinate funding).
Sponsoring individuals vs allocating employee time
– Two main approaches: sponsor external individual contributors (straightforward entry for organisations) or allocate employee time to contribute directly (harder internal coordination).
– Sponsored individuals offer an easier, faster path for companies new to supporting open source.
Practical process recommendations
– Don’t wait: start with a modest, clearly defined budget and iterate. A small, disciplined program is better than over-planning and doing nothing.
– Have an intake process: an application or intake form that asks what the contributor works on, past contributions, goals, and how their work benefits the organisation.
– Set clear, reasonable expectations: ask for low-effort promotional actions (e.g., a blog post or podcast conversation) but prioritise genuine contribution over marketing value. Be cautious and respectful around branding requests.
– Track outcomes: maintain a spreadsheet or dashboard showing sponsored contributors, activities, and outputs so executives can see tangible progress.
– Prepare internal pitch: tailor arguments to organisational goals (performance/security for hosts; localization for global services). Be ready with strategic, operational, and second-order benefit explanations for different stakeholders.
– Be patient but ready: sponsorship budgets can appear suddenly. Maintain community relationships and candidate shortlists so you can act when funding is available.
How contributors should approach companies
– Contributors should craft a concise pitch: explain what they do, what they plan to accomplish, and how it benefits the company. Approaching major hosting companies or organisations aligned to the work is a sensible start.
– Ask simple questions: does the company have a sponsorship program? Would they like help setting one up? Offer to explain how the contributor’s work aligns with company priorities.
Concerns about commercialization and community culture
– Roger empathises with fears that business involvement could dilute open source spirit. His counterpoint: limiting the conversation to philanthropy excludes many organisations that need ROI language to engage.
– Bringing these businesses into the conversation can expand resources available to the project. The goal is to balance practical business framing with respect for the volunteer-driven core of the community.
– Be cautious about making marketing the main goal; the primary aim should remain contributing to the project.
Coordination beyond single companies
– There are collective models (e.g., WP Community Collective) that can pool and distribute funds, provide escrow-like services, and coordinate sponsorships.
– Roger worries about the slowdown and complexity that larger consortia can introduce, and advises companies to start sponsoring directly to avoid bureaucratic delays—but he’s open to collaboration and understands different models already exist.
What Kinsta is doing
– Kinsta gave autonomy to the community/partnership team to choose who to sponsor. The team (Roger, plus colleagues Marcel and Alex) looks across core, Polyglots, docs, events and media to fund impactful work.
– Kinsta uses gentle promotion—podcasts, interviews, and occasional posts—focusing on the contributor’s story rather than heavy-handed branding.
Key closing advice
– Start small and iterate—don’t wait for the perfect process.
– Frame sponsorship in terms executives understand: strategic, operational, and second-order benefits.
– Make internal processes clear and have materials ready (intake forms, tracking sheets, sample outcomes) so the moment funding is available you can act.
– Be respectful and cautious with marketing asks; prioritise supporting contributors and the project’s needs.
Where to find Roger
– Roger is active on LinkedIn and welcomes conversations about sponsorship, contributions, and how organisations can support open source.
The interview closes with Roger thanking the community and Nathan offering links to the episode show notes on wptavern.com.
