GraphQL Community Grant

The GraphQL Community Grant program is funded by the GraphQL Foundation and administered by the GraphQL Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The goal of the program is to provide financial support and incentives for key technical and community initiatives within the GraphQL Foundation’s projects.

The GraphQL Community Grant program accepts applications at any time and reviews them at least twice per year. Grant applications are reviewed by the TSC based upon funding that is received as membership dues for the GraphQL Foundation. This is one way in which the GraphQL Foundation directly supports the ongoing health of the GraphQL developer ecosystem.

We would like to encourage you to be creative in your grant application, and propose tasks that are straightforward to articulate, achievable in three months, and bounded in scope.

Examples include:

• Finishing an outstanding RFC task that has been untended
• Getting a major pull request to a Foundation project ready to be merged
• Community advocacy, such as writing a deep-dive blog documenting a specific feature, writing a whitepaper, or developing newcomer onboarding guides and materials
• Other user experience improvement ideas for the graphql.org website and/or github.com/graphql.

How to apply

The GraphQL Community Grant Program accepts applications at any time, and evaluates all undecided applications at least twice per year. All applications will be closed after an evaluation cycle has completed. Applicants may re-apply at any point.

To apply, please complete the GraphQL Community Grant Program application.

FAQs

Do I need to be developing the specification or code to apply?

While we anticipate most applications will be for new technical development and documentation, we also encourage applications for community-building activities. Examples include community gardening and neutral advocacy for GraphQL adoption.

What work is expected?

Applications should describe work that can be completed in two to three months. Additionally, we’ll ask you to write a blog post report after three months describing your work and its impact on the GraphQL community.

What amount of money is available per grant?

The grant amount offered will depend on our available funding and the number of approved grants per cycle. Individual grants are expected to be between $1,000 and $10,000 USD. When you apply you can select what size of grant you feel would be appropriate, but if approved you may be offered a different amount and it will be up to you if you wish to proceed or not.

When can I expect to receive a response about my application?

We will review applications at least twice per year, on our about the end of May and on or about the end of November. However, we will endeavor to review applications as they come in and you will receive a response within 2 months of review.

How often can I apply?

You may only have one grant application open at a time, but otherwise as frequently as you like.

Who is eligible?

Any individual working in the GraphQL developer community who can receive a payment from a US-based organization. Please note that this program is not work-for-hire, and this is not an employment arrangement.

Only individuals are eligible to receive funding.

Are there any restrictions on what I produce?

Yes. All outcomes from the grant must be for the benefit of the GraphQL community, meaning that code must be contributed to public repositories under an appropriate open source license (generally MIT). Publications and documentation should be available to the public and not behind a paywall. We also expect every recipient to write a blog post summarizing the work they’ve done and how it benefits the community at large.

In summary, the GraphQL Community Grant Program is for the benefit of the GraphQL community. We want everything that is produced under this program to be usable by our community. Currently, we’re primarily interested in work that directly improves the GraphQL Foundation projects.

Do I have to sign anything?

Yes, if your proposal is selected you will need to sign the GraphQL Grantee Agreement (preview in order to receive the funding). It is your responsibility to read and understand the contents of the agreement.

More information

If you have questions, please contact operations@graphql.org.