A few weeks ago, we rolled out an outline of how we’ll manage contributions to CiviCRM going forward. Full details about the framework are now online here. For this post, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve taken the effort forward by enabling self-reporting on contributions via a simple contribution log.
While managing community contributions is central to the Core Team’s role, it truly is a complex task to onboard, evaluate, reward and recognize contributors that come to the project for different reasons and from different sources. It’s more than a full time job. Because of this, we run the risk of diluting the efforts of our senior developers, and hence their capacity to work on CiviCRM (the software). At the end of the day, nobody wants that! So, in order to keep the Core Team lightweight and focused, we’ll rely on you, the contributor, to give us a head’s up on the work that you’ve done via this contribution log. This is completely voluntary of course. After all, not everyone cares that much for recognition.
At the same time, however, we do want to reward and incentivize contributions beyond just a thanks. Just like our member and partner programs, we’re rolling out benefits to contributors, like discounts to events, rate discounts to work with the Core Team, etc. to encourage ongoing engagement and future contributions. Again, full details on contributing to CiviCRM are online here.
So how does this work?
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Individuals use the contribution log to capture time spent on improving the CiviCRM project, be it the software, it’s growth in the market, etc. Individuals can soft credit an organization, and as credit accrue, the organization will be listed as an active contributor to the project based on the sum total of contributions over the past 12 months.
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Individuals can report contributions as often as they want… daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly… or not at all. It’s completely voluntary.
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All contributions will be reviewed/curated by the Core Team initially. This responsibility will shift to the Community Team, more specifically to the Community Engagement working group.
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We’ll recognize contributors on a monthly basis via social media and the CiviCRM newsletter. We’ll also send periodic reminders to log contributions into CiviCRM. We encourage you to begin logging contributions now. After December 31st, we’ll rely entirely on such reporting to reflect contributor levels.
How to get involved
CiviCRM as a project functions based on a team structure, broken broadly into development, marketing and community. Each team is comprised of community members, partners, and Core Team members, and is tasked with identifying priorities and spinning up working groups to drive progress. Working groups are a great starting point to match your interests with project priorities. Click here to view a list of working groups that are in progress or planned.
What’s up next?
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Recognizing end user organizations that contribute back to CiviCRM. Currently, the primary display listing excludes end user organizations. We’ll develop a consolidated listing and will reflect contributions provided by member organizations as well.
