Nathan Wrigley hosts the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern to discuss WordPress people, events, plugins, blocks, themes, and in this episode, how we might reimagine sponsoring WordPress contributions. Guest Roger Williams leads community and partner engagement at Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting company. Roger played a key role in Kinsta’s sponsored contributions program, launched in January 2025, which directs time and funds back into WordPress and other open source projects.
Roger’s role at Kinsta involves bridging the company with the WordPress community, agency partners, and technology collaborators. His work includes promoting conversations internally about sponsorship, identifying projects to support, finding and interviewing contributors, and building an internal framework for long-term sponsorship.
Why sponsor contributors?
Open source historically ran on passion and voluntary work, but as WordPress now powers over 40% of the web, sustainable funding has become more important. Roger frames the sponsoring conversation as a spectrum between pure philanthropy and business needs. To engage companies that rely on WordPress, he argues, the conversation must include return on investment (ROI) as well as the altruistic reasons for contributing.
Three practical arguments to get internal buy-in:
– Strategic benefits: For example, hosting companies benefit directly from a performant, secure WordPress. Improving core performance reduces customer issues and costs.
– Operational benefits: Contributing can reduce technical debt. By partnering with the project, companies share maintenance and get bugs or enhancements addressed upstream, lowering long-term internal costs.
– Second-order benefits: These are indirect and harder to measure—networking, recruitment, brand goodwill, training opportunities, and community relationships. These still matter and often sway executives when combined with strategic and operational points.
Who to sponsor and scope of contributions
Roger recommends a broad view of contributions beyond WordPress Core. Useful areas include:
– Core contributors (code, bug fixes, features)
– Polyglots (translations and localization)
– Documentation (helps new users and reduces support load)
– Event organizers and contributor days (community growth)
– Content creators, podcasts, and outreach (marketing and awareness)
Kinsta took a pragmatic approach: don’t overthink at first—set a comfortable budget, start small, and iterate. Sponsored contributors can be the easiest entry point for companies because they involve existing contributors doing project work with financial support, rather than reassigning internal employees to outside work.
Practical process suggestions
– Create an intake form: Ask about what contributors work on, past contributions, goals, and what they need from sponsorship.
– Evaluate contributors: Look for demonstrable work, community reputation, and mentoring ability (people who help others onboard).
– Keep marketing asks light and respectful: Low-effort activities such as a blog post, podcast appearance, or brief mention can be agreed on, but the primary focus should remain contributing to the project, not heavy-handed promotion.
– Track and report: Have a simple spreadsheet or tracking system to show executives how funds are used and what outcomes were achieved.
– Be prepared for legal/contract questions: Decide what level of formality is required (e.g., sponsorship agreements, non-disparagement clauses) and plan accordingly.
Advice for contributors seeking sponsorship
– Don’t approach companies with a bare “sponsor me” message. Present a small proposal: what you work on, the impact on the company, and how sponsorship benefits both the project and the sponsor.
– Start with likely sponsors (hosting companies, vendors) and ask simple questions: Do you have a sponsorship program? If not, would you like help establishing one?
– Learn to frame your work in business terms: explain strategic and operational value, not only philanthropic motives.
Avoiding community friction
Roger recognizes concerns that commercial approaches could alienate long-time volunteer contributors. His response: expanding the types of conversations to include strategic and operational benefits is a way to broaden participation, not replace volunteerism. Bringing more organisations into the conversation can increase resources available to the project, while core contributors can continue their work and shape how sponsorships are applied.
Consortiums and collective models
There are efforts like the WP Community Collective (WPCC) that can distribute funds and coordinate sponsorships. Roger acknowledges such models but warns that creating larger consortiums can complicate and slow processes. His recommendation for organisations starting out is to move quickly and iteratively—get started internally and refine processes—while remaining open to collaboration with broader initiatives.
Internal selling points for organisations
When pitching internally, Roger suggests:
– Understand organisational goals and tailor the pitch (e.g., focusing on performance/security for hosting companies, localization for businesses with non-English customers).
– Be patient but ready: conversations about budget can take months; have candidate contributors and a framework prepared so you can act when funding is available.
– Prepare for common objections by using the strategic/operational/second-order framework and matching messages to the audience (CTOs vs. CMOs).
– Make success visible: show execs concrete examples—sponsored contributor outputs, media appearances, or community endorsements—to justify continued support.
Final thoughts
Roger’s core message is to get started: allocate a modest budget, set up simple processes (intake form, tracking, light marketing agreement), and sponsor contributors whose work aligns with organisational goals. Treat sponsorship as part of your branding/marketing budget but prioritize the project’s needs and respect community norms. Be mindful, gentle, and collaborative to avoid undermining volunteer contributors.
Where to find Roger
Roger is active on LinkedIn and welcomes conversation and questions about sponsoring contributions and building programs that support WordPress and open source.
This conversation outlined practical steps for companies and contributors to engage in sponsored contributions—balancing business imperatives with the open source ethos to build sustainable support for WordPress.
