Nathan Wrigley speaks with Roger Williams, Kinsta’s partnership and community manager for North America, about a practical new approach to corporate sponsorship of WordPress and other open-source contributions. Roger explains his role as a connector between Kinsta and the wider WordPress ecosystem and outlines Kinsta’s sponsored contributions program launched in early 2025.
Why corporate sponsorship matters
WordPress runs a huge portion of the web, but many maintainers and contributors aren’t funded. Companies that depend on WordPress face a choice: stay passive or invest in the project that underpins their products and services. Roger frames the issue as a spectrum between traditional open-source philanthropy and business realities. To bring more companies into the fold, conversations must be reframed in business terms so decision-makers understand the concrete returns.
Three business-focused reasons to sponsor
Roger recommends translating community needs into language executives use. He groups the business case into three areas:
– Strategic: Align contributions with company goals. For example, hosting providers that help improve WordPress performance, stability, or security can directly reduce support and infrastructure costs.
– Operational: Use sponsorship to address technical debt. Contributing upstream spreads maintenance effort across the community and can lower long-term maintenance costs while improving reliability.
– Second-order benefits: Harder-to-quantify gains such as recruiting pipelines, staff learning and retention, stronger community relationships, and brand goodwill. These matter but are best treated as complementary to strategic and operational cases.
Who and what to sponsor
Kinsta’s program looks beyond core code authors. Non-code work—documentation, localization (Polyglots), event organizers, contributor-day volunteers, and content creators (podcasts, blogs)—can produce major downstream value: better onboarding, fewer support requests, and broader global adoption. Roger stresses that supporting these areas often yields outsized impact relative to the investment.
Practical steps for companies that want to start
Roger’s advice is pragmatic and low-friction:
– Start now and start small: Use a modest budget leadership will approve and iterate from there.
– Set priorities: Pick project areas that align with business objectives (e.g., performance, docs, localization).
– Build simple processes: An intake form asking contributors about their work, goals, and budget needs is a fine starting point. Track spending and outcomes so you can demonstrate value.
– Keep marketing modest: Low-effort visibility—an interview on a company podcast or a short blog post—is fine, but marketing shouldn’t be the main motivator.
– Be prepared to show results: Have basic tracking and content ready to demonstrate early wins to executives and justify ongoing support.
How contributors should approach companies
Roger encourages contributors seeking sponsorship to prepare business-aware pitches: describe what they do, the tangible benefits for potential sponsors, and a specific ask. Rather than sending mass cold emails, start with likely partners—hosting providers and major ecosystem players—and be ready to explain how the work helps those companies strategically or operationally. Offering to help a company set up its own sponsorship process can also open doors.
Choosing who to fund
When evaluating candidates, Kinsta looks for demonstrable work, a solid reputation in the project, and mentorship activity—contributors who help others get involved as well as finishing tasks. Early-stage programs often focus on enabling established contributors to increase their impact, though ticket-based or project-specific funding is also possible.
Return on investment and marketing
Treat sponsorship primarily as a community-focused brand investment with indirect returns. Sponsoring contributors generates organic recognition and one-to-one conversations inside the community. Roger recommends light-touch promotion—interviews, short write-ups, or allowing contributors to acknowledge sponsors modestly—while avoiding heavy-handed marketing that would clash with community norms.
Navigating internal challenges and getting buy-in
Inside organizations, Roger advises:
– Frame sponsorship around executive priorities (e.g., lower support costs, better security).
– Be patient but ready: approvals can take time—prepare candidate lists, simple processes, and metrics to move quickly once budget appears.
– Anticipate objections: have clear answers about why funding is needed and how it benefits the business.
– Decide on administrative approach: small sponsorships can be handled via credit card or platforms like GitHub Sponsors; larger arrangements may require contracts and legal review.
Working with consortiums and community funds
Roger recognizes pooled funding efforts like the WP Community Collective (WPCC) that centralize and distribute resources. Consortiums can scale support but often bring complexity and slower decision-making. His practical counsel: don’t wait for a perfect centralized solution—get individual companies started quickly while remaining open to collaboration and referrals across organizations.
Final recommendations
– Start where you are: small budgets, clear priorities, and light processes.
– Begin by sponsoring individuals or small projects; sponsoring employee time is a bigger organizational shift.
– Invest in relationship-building and support contributors who mentor others to amplify impact.
– Keep marketing modest and respectful; let the contribution itself be the priority.
Where to find Roger
Roger is active on LinkedIn and open to conversation and collaboration. He, along with Marcel Bootsman (Europe) and Alex Michaelson (APAC), are involved in Kinsta’s sponsorship efforts and welcome suggestions.
Conclusion
The interview argues for expanding corporate sponsorship of WordPress work by translating community needs into business terms, starting small, and creating simple processes that let companies and contributors collaborate without undermining the volunteer spirit that has driven WordPress for years.