A university-style endowment now funds open-source maintainers in perpetuity
Nearly 60% of open-source maintainers work unpaid, and ordinary corporate grants dry up in downturns. The Open Source Endowment, a 501(c)(3) backed by ~$700K from 60+ founders behind Supabase, Vue.js, curl, and HashiCorp, invests donations and grants only ~5% of annual returns while keeping the principal intact forever. The bet: a university model that survives volatility, burnout, and backdoors.