Outreachy is supported by our generous donors!
Outreachy is a diversity initiative of the 501(c)(3) non-profit Software Freedom Conservancy. Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law..
Former Firefox community coordinator, Larissa Shaprio (middle), with former Outreachy interns Maja Frydrychowicz (left) and Sara Mansouri (right).
After their Outreachy internships, Maja became a Mozilla employee and Sara continued as a volunteer leader in the Firefox community.
Photo CC-BY-SA-NC Sage Sharp
Outreachy welcomes new sponsors for each internship cohort.
Outreachy sponsors will receive logo placement for their sponsorship level for 6 months. This means their sponsorship will be promoted for one Outreachy internship cohort. Outreachy has two internship cohorts per year.
Sponsors who wish to have logo placement for 12 months will need to double their donation to sponsor two Outreachy internship cohorts.
Please consider sponsoring the program at one of these game-changing levels:
| Sponsorship Level | 6 months | 1 year |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling Smasher | $75,000 | $150,000 |
| Equalizer | $50,000 | $100,000 |
| Promoter | $25,000 | $50,000 |
| Includer | $10,000 | $20,000 |
| Welcomer | $5,000 | $10,000 |
Your generous donations go to the Outreachy general fund. The Outreachy general fund sponsors internship stipends, staff to support applicants, interns, and mentors, and resources to promote our program to people who face discrimination and systemic bias in the technology industry of their country.
A list of current Outreachy sponsors can be found on our homepage.
Sponsorship includes:
Sponsorship is for half of a year. Sponsors are credited for either the May internship cohort or the December internship cohort.
Important dates for sponsors to the May internship cohort:
Important dates for sponsors to the December internship cohort sponsors:
Outreachy may be able to invoice sponsors earlier or later to align with your budget deadlines. Please contact us to let us know what your invoicing deadlines are.
For details on sponsorship and statistics about the program, please read our sponsor presentation: (sponsorship.pdf / sponsorship.odp)
Urvika Gola, former Outreachy intern, hacks on the open source Android application, Lumicall, with former Google Summer of Code intern, Pranav Jain.
Photo CC-BY Sage Sharp
Sponsoring Outreachy directly supports diversity in open source, enabling anyone from any background who has experienced systemic bias and discrimination to apply!
Based on our 2019 longitudinal survey, past Outreachy interns are:
Outreachy attracts many motivated and talented applicants. Most of our interns have had their work included in the software releases, with some of them completing major features during their internships. About half of the program participants stay involved with the organization they worked with past their internship. Outreachy organizers know of the following accomplishments among 912 past participants who successfully completed Outreachy:
The outreach efforts like this one also result in the improvements for all newcomers. For example, the mentors list that GNOME started with 9 mentors is now a general resource that contains over 40 mentors. GNOME also improved how it engages Google Summer of Code students with the community based on its experience in the program, by requiring them to work with mentors on an initial contribution during the application period and by incorporating the required blog posts about their work on Planet GNOME. Making the community a friendly place for people who experience bias and discrimination also makes it such for all newcomers.
Q: Who pays the interns?
A: The Outreachy parent non-profit, the Software Freedom Conservancy, handles payments to interns.
Q: Are Outreachy interns employees or interns of the corporate sponsors?
A: No. Outreachy interns are considered contractors of the Software Freedom Conservancy during their internship.
Q: Are corporate sponsors required to help run the internship program?
A: No. The Outreachy application process, intern selection coordination, communication with mentors, and payments to interns are all handled by Outreachy organizers.
Q: We have a company internship program. Can you place Outreachy applicants into our internship program?
A: No. Outreachy internships are completely separate from any other internship program.
Q. If I'm a corporate sponsor, do I have to provide a mentor for the internship program?
A: No. While employees from many corporate sponsors mentor for Outreachy, it's not required for corporate sponsors to provide either mentors or internship project ideas. FOSS communities generally provide their own mentors and project ideas. If a sponsor does have an internship idea and a mentor, they should review the community guidelines.
Q: How does the Outreachy opportunities mailing list work?
A: Outreachy runs an opt-in mailing list open to all current and past Outreachy interns, coordinators, mentors, and sponsors.
The primary goal of this list is to connect Outreachy sponsors with Outreachy participants. Sponsors are invited to share job, internship, event, and other opportunities that they think might be of interest to the Outreachy community. Additionally, all Outreachy community members are invited to share job and internship opportunities.
We expect sponsors to not send e-mail about the same opportunity more than twice. Sponsors should send information about new opportunities no more than twice a week. If you are representing a sponsoring organization and would like to share opportunities with your member companies, please do so no more than once a month in a form of a digest.
The Outreachy opportunities list reaches participants around the world, so please provide details that can help people decide if any given e-mail is relevant to them in the subject line. For example, if an opportunity requires people to be in a particular location, please include the location in the subject line.
Q: Who is eligible for Outreachy internships?
Anyone from any background who has experienced systemic bias and discrimination is eligible to apply to Outreachy. There is no list of groups that are eligible or ineligible and Outreachy interns have been from countless backgrounds and identities. Obstacles that face people who wish to get started in FOSS can be significant. Our program does not presume what those obstacles may be, and instead we rely on applicants to tell us about the obstacles they face and how those obstacles impact them. We recognize that our technology will not be made for everyone if it is not made by everyone.
