Links:
FreeBSD Foundation URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/
Technology Roadmap URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/technology-roadmap/
Donate URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/
Foundation Partnership Program URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-partnership-program/
FreeBSD Journal URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/journal/
Foundation Events URL: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/events/

Contact: Deb Goodkin <deb@FreeBSDFoundation.org>

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing FreeBSD through technical and non-technical support. Funded entirely by donations, the Foundation supports software development, infrastructure, security, and collaboration efforts; organizes events and developer summits; provides educational resources; and represents the FreeBSD Project in legal matters. The following report covers just some of the ways we supported FreeBSD in Q4.

Deb Goodkin here. On behalf of the Foundation, I want to start out by saying thank you to this amazing community! Your financial contributions have allowed us to step up and take on some significant projects, including large, multi-phase software development work, greater security improvements, and important infrastructure improvements that will continue through 2025. We also increased our FreeBSD advocacy efforts over many different technical and social media platforms, including creating more content to promote and advocate for FreeBSD. You’ll find more information about all of this work below. For a more in-depth look at our efforts in 2024, be sure to check out the year-end blog posts and my year-end reflections in the advocacy section below.

We are hiring! Check out our jobs page here for our Solutions Specialist and Technical Marketing Manager job postings. Plus, we are looking for part-time technical writers and will be opening up another position soon, so keep an eye on this page https://freebsdfoundation.org/open-positions/.

We are still finalizing our 2024 fundraising numbers, but at this writing, we have raised around $1,324,000. You might be thinking, why do not we have a final tally now that it is 2025? First, we have not yet received all the checks postmarked 2024 . We are also waiting on a few payments from invoices issued last year. We will have a final report in the next quarterly status report.

Thank you to the individuals and organizations that made a financial contribution in Q4! We received 325 donations from individuals totaling $120,841 and six financial contributions from organizations totaling $326,000. We also received a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Fund.

I would also like to send a shoutout to the anonymous donor who wanted us to help get Framework laptops into developers' hands. Pietro Cerutti has been coordinating that effort, and we are close to finalizing the process with Framework so developers can place their orders directly with them.

We also funded almost $5,000 worth of AV equipment for the BSDCon AV team to minimize the amount of equipment needed to rent at each of the two main BSD conferences.

Now, back to our financials. We will be publishing 2024 financial documents and reports in Q1. Our updated Q1-Q3 2024 Financial reports will be published by the end of January and will better match the budget format. The Final 2024 financial reports will be published in early Q2. Going forward, our budget and financial reports will provide more details on how funding is allocated to the major software development projects. For example, we will include how much was spent on the laptop project each quarter. We are working with our accountant to improve our accounting systems to be more transparent on how we spend our money.

We are excited about the opportunities for FreeBSD in 2025 and beyond, and are growing our team to help support the work needed to take advantage of these opportunities. However, we need your help to sustain this. Our investments will only carry on this work for a year or two at most. If your company is invested in the long-term sustainability of FreeBSD, please consider giving a financial contribution so we can ensure it stays the secure, reliable, and innovative platform you depend on. Not sure how to go about asking? Please reach out. We can help you navigate the process.

Please go here to make a donation: https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/. To find out more about our Partnership Program, go here: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-partnership-program/.