2024 Board highlights

2024 was a year marked by growth and a reaffirmation of core values at the Django Software Foundation. As board members, we remain dedicated to supporting, promoting, protecting, and advancing the Django Web Framework, with inclusivity and active community engagement at the forefront. Our key milestones from 2024 include:

• Getting Working Groups up and running: The creation and expansion of working groups continues to foster meaningful contributions from our global community. From Code of Conduct to Social Media, we’re elated to see where our volunteers take the Foundation and our community.
• Welcoming our new Fellow, Sarah Boyce: Her appointment as Django Fellow provides critical support for our project, driving timely development and community mentorship.
• Technical governance reset: We responded decisively to community needs by renewing our technical governance structure. Creating "opportunities and onramps" is essential, and our 6.x Steering Council elections exemplify our honest and hands-on approach to community engagement.
• CHAOSS DEI Badge: Getting recognition with the CHAOSS DEI Bronze Badge is an amazing testament to our work on diversity and inclusivity, ensuring everyone feels welcomed and valued.

These highlights illustrate our ongoing journey to build a vibrant, inclusive Django community. Thank you to every contributor and supporter whose efforts make this possible. Join us as we explore more stories and achievements from 2024 💚

Chaim Kirby
2024 President

Çağıl Uluşahin Sonmez
2024 Vice President

Thibaud Colas
2024 Secretary

Jacob Kaplan-Moss
2024 Treasurer

Sarah Abderemane
2024 Board Member

Katie McLaughlin
2024 Board Member

Kátia Nakamura
2024 Board Member

With support from
Catherine Holmes
Assistant

Launching Working Groups

With the working groups concept announced in late 2023, early 2024 marked the formation of several DSF working groups, enhancing opportunities for community members to participate actively in shaping Django’s future. The social media working group and code of conduct working group were the first two to launch successfully.

The creation of the social media working group is a good example of our commitment to treat our communication efforts more seriously. This group is a critical step toward ensuring the Foundation's sustainability by enhancing our visibility and community engagement.

“Django's Code of Conduct was originally created with much care and coordination with professional parties. As the community evolves, we have to evolve with them. Donations help us to continue to consult with amazing professionals to ensure we create a community where everyone can feel as if they belong.”

— Jay Miller (Code of Conduct working group member)

“It’s been a great experience to have and contribute to the Fundraising Working Group which ensures that Django’s growth is sustained for its bright future in the open-source ecosystem”

— Afi (Fundraising working group member)

2025 DSF Board elections

The Board elections are a critical moment for our community. This year, 21 incredible candidates stepped forward, reflecting the depth and passion within our Django ecosystem. From this diverse group, four new Board members were elected: Abigail Afi Gbadago, Jeff Triplett, Paolo Melchiorre, and Tom Carrick — each bringing fresh perspectives and valuable experience to the table. They join Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Sarah Abderemane, and Thibaud Colas who were elected on the 2024 Board for a two-year term.

Here are excerpts from our new Board members’ work which you might find interesting!

Steering Council renewal and governance challenges

In response to governance challenges highlighted in 2024, including the need for more proactive technical leadership and a clearer technical direction, the DSF Board facilitated a crucial election for the Django 6.x Steering Council. The new members are Frank Wiles, Carlton Gibson, Tim Schilling, Emma Delescolle, and Lily Foote. As a group, they are committed to addressing these governance issues, safeguarding Django’s technical excellence, and guiding its future development.

Here are excerpts from their work to understand their perspectives.

Other 2024 events

Here are other snapshots of 2024 we want to showcase ❤️

Our 2024 Corporate Members

Platinum

Gold

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Silver

Bronze

Django Fellows highlights

The Django Fellowship program is integral to maintaining Django's health, security, and continued innovation. As Fellows, we cover essential daily maintenance and support tasks. Our two Fellows’ role encompasses managing security reports, reviewing pull requests, triaging tickets, mentoring new contributors, and ensuring timely releases.

Our work often involves behind-the-scenes tasks that keep Django running smoothly—tasks that need constant attention beyond what volunteer efforts alone can consistently provide. This includes:

• Handling and responding promptly to security reports.
• Triaging tickets on Trac to quickly address and categorize issues.
• Reviewing and merging pull requests, ensuring contributions meet Django's high standards.
• Issuing regular monthly releases and urgent security updates when necessary.
• Fixing severe bugs and managing their backporting to stable versions of Django.

2024 Fellow activities

Throughout the year, we've also spent time supporting new contributors through initiatives that significantly enhance community engagement:

• Djangonaut Space: Encouraging and supporting new Django contributors to become active and confident participants.
• Google Summer of Code: Guiding students through significant projects that improve Django’s capabilities and features.
• Actively supporting the community’s efforts on accessibility, helping to ensure Django remains inclusive and accessible to all users.

If you want to learn more about our work, here are some of our recent talks highlighting what we have been part of in 2024:

Your continued support through donations is essential, directly sustaining the Fellowship program and helping us keep Django robust, inclusive, and welcoming for all contributors. Thank you for being an integral part of this journey!

Operating budget, revenue and expenses

For our 2024 budget of USD $296,583; $195,300 of our revenue comes from Corporate Donors, and $94,156 comes from individual donors. Expenses comprise $229,893 of wages, $38,172 of grants, $9,536 of professional fees including hosting. We also generated a surplus of $18,982.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, all our tax filings are publicly available.

2025 fundraising plans

In 2024, we set a fundraising goal of $200,000 — and thanks to your generosity, we made it happen! 🌈 Those contributions, big or small, directly power Django’s continued success. Looking ahead, we think there is room for us to do more, with more resources. Imagine what we could achieve with enhanced support:

• If we could raise $500,000, we could:
  • Hire an Executive Director to strategically lead our operations and dramatically expand our capabilities.
  • Hire a new Django Fellow
• If we could raise $750,000, we could:
  • Double our Fellowship program, increasing support for Django’s core development, community mentorship, and feature enhancements.
  • Launch dedicated feature grants. For enhancements like built-in WebAuthn, improved API capabilities, or a modernized admin.
• If we could raise $1,000,000, we could:
  • Significantly increase grants to events and community projects like Django Girls, to broaden our impact.
  • Introduce hardship grants, inspired by initiatives like the Rust Foundation’s program, directly supporting community members facing financial challenges.

Your donation today fuels these aspirations and helps build a vibrant, sustainable future for Django. Join us in shaping what's possible!

6.x Steering Council

The newly elected Steering Council is dedicated to renewing Django’s technical governance, providing proactive leadership, and setting a clear direction for the framework.

We will prioritize addressing recent governance challenges by clearly defining the Steering Council’s role, and how and when we get involved with discussions and decisions. We want our more proactive approach to inspire confidence and clarity in Django's technical decisions, in particular when it comes to adding or removing features.

We also recognize the current challenges contributors face when proposing changes. We will strive to make the process less intimidating and less taxing for everyone involved, encouraging a broader and more diverse set of contributors to engage with Django.

Community and mentorship are crucial for the sustainability of Django. We can help by actively bridging the gap between new contributors and long-term maintainers by fostering structured mentorship programs, enhancing documentation, and engaging with contributors at all levels of experience.

We also plan to work on:

• Technical health: balancing improvement and innovation against the need to maintain Django’s reliability and stability.
• Supporting the third-party Ecosystem: acknowledging their critical role in Django’s ecosystem, improving the visibility and discoverability of third-party applications.
• Feature requests clarity: Actively championing community-driven feature requests to guide development and provide clarity for potential contributors, potentially with a formal project roadmap.

Through these focused initiatives, the Steering Council will ensure Django remains a vibrant, accessible, and future-ready framework.

Frank Wiles

Carlton Gibson

Tim Schilling

Emma Delescolle

Lily Foote