Help Fund the People Who Build Rust

Several exciting avenues now exist to fund the hard work of Rust maintainers around the world. Learn more in this post + read more about the Rust Project Funding Team in this new post on the official Rust Project blog.

The open source software powering much of the world’s critical infrastructure runs on something that doesn’t scale indefinitely on its own: human dedication. The developers who review pull requests, shepherd RFCs, work through painstaking refactors, and keep the toolchain humming are doing work that the entire industry depends on, often without reliable compensation for it.
That has to change.

Late last year, we announced the Rust Foundation Maintainers Fund (RFMF) to provide consistent, long-term financial support to the maintainers who keep Rust evolving. Contributing to the RFMF is one way for people and corporations that use Rust to show their financial support of the humans behind the code.

Both individuals and non-corporate entities can contribute directly to this effort through the Rust Foundation’s GitHub Sponsorship page. All contributions will be distributed through the Rust Project Funding Team’s process.

The Rust Project offers its own path for supporting individual maintainers directly at rust-lang.org/funding. Together, these funding efforts represent a shared commitment to the people behind the language.

Why Funding Maintainers Matters

Rust is no longer a niche systems language. It’s in the Linux kernel. It’s in Android. It’s in critical infrastructure at companies of every size around the world. The language’s growth has been extraordinary, but that growth puts real pressure on a relatively small group of people doing the unglamorous, essential work of maintenance.

Sustainability challenges across open source have intensified significantly, and Rust is not immune. Many maintainers are uncertain about whether they can continue doing this work at the level the project demands. The Rust Foundation Maintainers Fund exists to address that directly: to create the conditions for stable, long-term maintainer roles and ensure continuity for the people whose efforts keep Rust safe, reliable, and moving forward.

As Rust Foundation’s Executive Director & CEO Rebecca Rumbul put it: “Any open source project, especially one as widely used as Rust, cannot evolve, remain secure, or function at the most basic level without supporting its maintainers.”

Directing this support is a shared responsibility between the Rust Foundation and the Rust Project Funding Team. Funds contributed to the RFMF go exclusively to Rust maintainers, through a combination of existing programs and a new Maintainer in Residence program — dedicated contracts for long-term maintainers to focus on the maintenance work the Project depends on. When funding is available, the Funding Team puts out an open call for applications, weighing candidates against the Project’s needs and priorities. The Foundation makes offers to the strongest candidates.

How to Help

If you’re an individual developer, Rust enthusiast, or someone who’s built something with Rust: you can sponsor the Rust Foundation Maintainers Fund directly through GitHub Sponsors at github.com/sponsors/rustfoundation. Every contribution, no matter the size, is appreciated and goes toward sustaining the people behind the language you rely on.

The Rust Project and the Rust Foundation are working together to ensure this support reaches the people who need it most. The Rust Project’s own funding page at rust-lang.org/funding offers another avenue: sponsoring individual maintainers directly through their GitHub profiles. The RFMF and direct maintainer sponsorship are complementary, and together represent a coordinated effort to build sustainable support across the ecosystem

If you represent an organization – a company shipping Rust in production, a team whose infrastructure depends on the ecosystem, a business that has benefited from the language’s safety and performance guarantees – we want to talk to you. The scale of what’s needed to properly fund Rust’s maintainers requires meaningful organizational commitment, and we’re actively seeking partners who understand what’s at stake. Reach out to us at maintainers-fund@rustfoundation.org to discuss how your organization can support the fund at a level that matches what you get out of Rust.

All Hands On Deck

Rust is a critical tool for software safety, security, and performance in today’s world, and it cannot be sustained on infinite volunteer energy. If your company’s engineers write Rust, if your services run on software written in Rust, if your product’s reliability depends on a language whose safety guarantees come from years of careful design and maintenance work, then you have a stake in whether that work continues.

The RFMF is one answer to the critical need for maintainer support. We’ll be working closely with the Rust Project Funding Team to direct funding where it’s most needed, with full transparency into how contributions are used.

Organizations interested in Rust Foundation membership or supporting maintainers at a higher level: contact us at contact@rustfoundation.org