In terms of how the funding is dispersed, Reeder says it’s open to whatever suits the team in question. For FastAPI, this involved making a direct payment to Montaño himself, which was simpler given that it was just the one individual. But where teams are involved, it makes sense to use a third-party fundraising platform such as Open Collective, which also comes with added transparency.
“For the two most recent fellows, we were supporting small groups rather than a single individual and Open Collective made it easier to manage the funds,” Reeder said. “Similarly, we’ve done both up-front payments as multi-install payments, depending on the needs of the project. Open Collective is more transparent, but the fees are not insignificant.”