Thanks for sharing your insights, @thadguidry. With the current wave of grant applications, I am looking to secure financial resources for 2025 and 2026. The USD 80,000 that we currently have available is not enough to cover the salary of a full-time developer for an entire year and we owe some visibility regarding funding to paid staff.
I think we have made great progress in growing the contributor base, with 41 contributors in the last 12 months, including several who contribute regularly. I believe the work regarding the mission/vision and the playbook will help onboard and retain more contributors. As pointed out in your second message, the OTF grant can help sustain that effort past 2024. It can fund a lead developer to prepare releases, review PR and triage issues, and potentially a community/project manager.
As a next step, I am keen to conduct a survey among previous contributors to understand why they are no longer contributing.