As we enter March, I wanted to provide an update on the project’s fundraising status and direction for 2026. A lot has happened since my last update in December and the discussion regarding the institutional package model.
Our LOI with the Sloan Foundation was not accepted, and we recently published the results of the 2025 donation campaign
Funding Landscape
Discussions and fundraising efforts throughout 2025 confirmed that the funding landscape has changed significantly. It is increasingly unlikely that the types of funding currently available will support the USD 140–160k/year budget required to sustain a general-purpose developer position.
Today, funding opportunities tend to favour clearly scoped technical work tied to defined milestones, rather than long-term stewardship roles or general operational support. As a result, funding intended for ongoing community support has become much harder to secure.
Current Project Funding
OpenRefine is currently not running any active grant. The EOSS-5 grant concluded in December, and the developer contract supporting that work ended on February 28, 2026.
The USD 25,000 donation received from the FLOSS/Fund will support the project through 2026.
In light of the current funding context and available reserves, the Advisory Committee reviewed the 2026 operating assumptions on February 26 and agreed to prioritize funding for the Managing Director role, while maintaining a smaller budget for community support activities.
The revised annual operating budget assumption is therefore approximately USD 50,000, covering:
- USD 30,000 for the Managing Director role
- USD 20,000 for community support, including event organization, technical bounties, and essential software licenses (Figma and Discourse)
Under this baseline scenario, no funds are allocated to the BarCamp or to conference travel in 2026.
Technical Role
Under the current budget assumptions, the Advisory Committee did not allocate funds for a community developer role in 2026 without securing additional funding.
Given the evolution of the funding landscape described above, the project is increasingly likely to pursue technical work through project-specific funding, such as grants tied to clearly defined milestones and deliverables.
Under this model, technical capacity would be hired or contracted once funding is secured, rather than funded from the project’s core operating budget. This approach reduces financial risk for the project while allowing technical work to continue through externally supported initiatives.
Community Activities
For 2026, the BarCamp will be replaced by a series of structured monthly community calls.
Feedback from last year’s event indicated that a week-long online format can be difficult to attend and follow. A series of shorter, topic-focused sessions is expected to better support online participation and ongoing community engagement.
More details about this format will be shared in the coming weeks.
Evolution of the Project Coordination Role
Finally, the Project Manager role is evolving into a Managing Director role (as discussed here February 5, 2026 Advisory Committee with CS&S).
The focus of this role will include:
- Building and maintaining institutional relationships
- Fundraising through the institutional package model and targeted mission-aligned grants
- Supporting community-building activities, including the bi-yearly survey and the new monthly community calls
Conclusion
OpenRefine has always advanced through the contributions and energy of its community, and that remains central to the project’s direction. The upcoming community calls will provide new opportunities for people to share ideas, surface needs, and help shape the project’s priorities.
Further updates will be shared as fundraising efforts progress and as new project opportunities emerge.