Sustaining membership program ¶

QGIS is an Open Source project. QGIS development, its documentation, web sites and infrastructure are largely carried out by volunteers. Since the project’s inception in 2002, we have built up a large, valuable and useful code base, free for everybody to use and improve.

We provide free access to the QGIS source code and binaries on our web site. Despite the huge achievements made via this volunteer approach, further funding is needed to support our work.

How funds are used ¶

Here are some of the things we use the funds we receive for:

paying developers to fix bugs
our annual grant programme that pays for substantial improvements to the QGIS project
hosting fees for our server infrastructure
improvements to upstream libraries that QGIS depends on,
a full time web infrastructure maintainer
a full time documentation writer

In the future we hope to expand these activities as funding allows.

Membership levels ¶

€ 27,000+ ¶

Flagship Member (e.g. for companies larger than 100 employees, federal governmental organizations)

€ 9,000+ ¶

Large Member (e.g. for larger cities, provinces or companies up to 100 employees)

€ 3,000+ ¶

Medium Member (e.g. for universities, medium size cities or companies up to 50 employees)

€ 500+ ¶

Small Member (e.g. for smaller cities or companies up to 10 employees)

Sustaining memberships last one year, after which they may be continued with a new payment, or allowed to lapse. Sustaining memberships do not include voting rights. Existing voting rights remain unaffected.

Membership fees are approved or changed by the QGIS general assembly. They are defined as minimum fees per category, but the sustaining member may choose to pay more than the minimum if they wish.

Because QGIS.ORG is a global project and different companies, NGOs or governmental organizations have different financial means, we do not mandate membership levels. Sustaining members self-select whichever level they are able to afford.

Acceptance of sustaining members shall be subject to the discretion and approval of The Board, who reserve the right to accept or reject applications for sustaining membership and ongoing support memberships as deemed appropriate.

Sustaining membership benefits ¶

Supporting the QGIS project as a sustaining member provides the following benefits:

Public Acknowledgment ¶

All sustaining members and donors will be listed on the project Members page, ordered by membership category with a link back to the sustaining member’s organization or company website and their logo sized according to their membership category.

Enhanced Software Quality ¶

Contributions from sustaining memberships aid in resolving bugs and issues promptly, resulting in a better user experience.

Enhanced Brand Exposure ¶

Flagship, large and medium sustaining members will have their logo on the QGIS homepage footer banner with a logo size and order reflecting their membership category

Featured in Software Updates ¶

Sustaining members are highlighted in the visual changelogs of QGIS software releases, showcasing their ongoing commitment to supporting the project.

Public Acknowledgment ¶

You may use a special version of the QGIS logo on your website and materials, signaling your support for the project.

Keep QGIS Ad Free ¶

Sustaining memberships help to ensure we do not need to employ ‘user hostile’ tactics, such as advertising, to fund the project.

The decision on how funds are spent will be made by the QGIS Project Steering Committee, proposed in a budget that will be approved or declined by the QGIS.ORG general assembly.

How become a sustaining member ¶

Initial Contact ¶

You can self-enroll, or reach out to the treasurer at finance@qgis.org or any other Project Steering Committee (PSC) member to express your interest in becoming a sustaining member.

Write to treasurer Self Enroll

Clarification and Invoice Issuance ¶

The treasurer will gather necessary details (such as contact information, address, and permission to use the organization’s logo on the QGIS sustaining membership page) and issue an invoice for the membership fee.

Payment Verification ¶

The treasurer verifies the receipt of the payment to officially recognize the organization as a sustaining member.

Membership Management ¶

We provide a website where sustaining members are listed, categorized by level and sorted by the date of introduction or renewal etc.

Open Sustaining Members changelog

Recognition and Promotion ¶

Recognition: Sustaining members are acknowledged on the QGIS website, with logos of flagship, large, and medium members featured in the footer banner.

Visibility: Members are listed in the visual changelog of QGIS releases.

Promotion: When appropriate, QGIS will conduct social media promotion to highlight the support from sustaining members.

Ongoing Engagement ¶

Past sustaining members are listed separately for a period of two years to acknowledge their previous contributions.

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One-time payments ¶

Donations can be of any amount, via direct transfers to our bank account (SEPA payment), credit card payment (through stripe.com) or Paypal (information available at Donations page). Even a small donation can make a difference and help us to reach important project goals!

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About ‘earmarked’ funding ¶

We regret that we do not accept ‘earmarked’ funding as it creates many administrative issues. If you are interested in funding specific aspects of QGIS development, we encourage you to allocate additional human resources to the project, e.g. hiring a developer, or participating in our bug fixing initiative.

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Warning ¶

Acceptance of sustaining membership applications is at the discretion of the QGIS PSC. We reserve the right to decline offers of sustaining members if the membership organisation or party seems to be at odds with the ethos of our project. For example offers from marketing companies that have nothing to do with GIS / spatial services, or offers where we have reason to believe the presence of the sustaining member logo and marketing materials on our site and other materials will degrade the experience of our users will be declined.