I joined the Foundation’s board about six months ago, as a hobbyist and Haskell fan. Not coming from industry or academia, there was a lot to learn. I thought I’d take stock of what I’ve discovered:
-
first, that many people are generous with their time and a few people are remarkably generous. Simon (@simonpj) has written here about the gift economy - people give so much, in all sorts of ways;
-
I should have noticed this before, but a lot goes on behind the scenes with the aim of realising the Foundation’s Vision. There are many moving parts that make up the community, and they need oiling from time to time;
-
some organisations are very generous with tech that they provide for free. It is easy to pass over an acknowledgement on a website and not appreciate fully what lies behind that;
-
on top of all that, the Foundation needs cash donations, mainly to fund a full-time Executive Director working for the benefit of the community. Every donation, small or large, makes a difference;
-
the amount of work that goes into a response to an NSF (National Science Foundation) proposal. If the Foundation succeeds in its current request, that could be transformational for the Haskell open-source ecosystem. Fingers crossed for good news in the New Year!
-
the Foundation could not have done what it has done without the support of its past financial donors and could not do what it is currently doing without the support of its current donors (a shout out to IOHK at Monad level (and more), Well-Typed and Standard Chartered at Applicative level, and the other organisations currently in conversation with José (@jmct)); and
-
the Foundation is not immune to the headwinds that have affected the funding of other not-for-profit software organisations during 2024, and José and directors are working hard to overcome them. (If you work for an organisation that benefits from the ecosystem, and it is not a current donor, please do consider whether you and your coworkers could help.)