December 21, 2022

Dear FreeBSD Community,

Wow, another year has flown by! Is it just me, or are the days/years flying by more quickly than ever? Like many of you, December is when I reflect over the past year. I had a few personal goals, some I met and some I didn’t, but it helps guide me with determining what I want to accomplish in the new year.  We do the same here at the Foundation. We start with lofty, but realistic goals. Lofty because there is so much we want to do to help the FreeBSD Project and community, but we are limited in what we can do because of the lack of resources. I like to think of us as a small, but mighty team of passionate FreeBSD supporters. If you haven’t yet, please take a look at what our team has accomplished over the past year throughout this newsletter.  

When discussing goals for the Foundation, one might argue that one of our most important goals revolves around fundraising. I have to agree with that. So, let’s talk about where we are with our fundraising efforts for 2022. 

As of this writing we have raised $1,000,000 towards our goal of raising $1,400,000. We are very grateful for all the support we have received so far from you and so many individuals and organizations that value FreeBSD. But we’re not there yet. If you haven’t done so, please consider making a gift to support our work in 2023. Every little bit matters and the smaller individual donations are key to keeping our status as a 501c3 public charity. Your $10 donation will help us make a positive impact on FreeBSD.

The reality is, there is a tremendous need in the FreeBSD Project for resources and funding from the Foundation to support fundamental areas such as long-term security, FreeBSD advocacy, leadership training, software improvements, and innovation. We’re here for the long run to provide ongoing support and guidance for FreeBSD. In fact, the FreeBSD Foundation has been proudly supporting the FreeBSD Project and community for over 22 years now. But, we can not do this without your help.

Your donation will assist us in achieving our top 2023 goals, which include:

  • Improving the ease of adoption of FreeBSD, to make it easier for companies to start using FreeBSD. Your donation will help us hire resources to improve this area of FreeBSD, and create content on how to get started with FreeBSD in various applications.
  • Continuing the development and implementation of a FreeBSD technology roadmap to help drive innovation and software development efforts. Your donation will help us hire additional software developers to identify and implement key areas of improvement to FreeBSD, to make it the operating system of choice for most applications. 
  • Improving developer tools to increase developer velocity and improve efficiency. Your donation will help us hire a full-time developer to improve developer tools to make it easier to make changes.
  • Improved messaging to encourage more organizations to use FreeBSD. Your donation will help us do market research to understand why companies are using FreeBSD, which we will share with potential adopters of FreeBSD.
  • Creating educational content, including Coursera-type classes and workshops to recruit new users and developers to the Project. Your donation will help us hire 1 full-time person to head up this program.
  • Provide the FreeBSD Core Team with leadership training and support. Your donation will help us invest in the long-term leadership of the Project, which will help with the speed of innovation.

The flat structure of FreeBSD and the collaborative community offers a unique combination for commercial success and developer satisfaction. By investing in our efforts you are helping us bring FreeBSD to a larger user base while supporting the sustainability and improvement of the operating system. Please consider investing in FreeBSD in 2023 and thank you again to those who have already invested in FreeBSD this year! Your support is greatly appreciated.

On behalf of the FreeBSD Foundation team, I wish you a very happy holiday season.

Deb

P.S. Don’t forget about our Company Matching and Partnership Programs!