Sponsorship
For several years, development of RaspAP was funded through a sponsorware release model, where new features were first released exclusively to sponsors as part of Insiders, and merged into the public repo once a funding goal was reached. That model has succeeded in its goals. Every feature it funded is now part of RaspAP, available to everyone. Read on to learn how Insiders worked, what sponsorships achieve now, how to become a sponsor and what's in it for you!
Paying it forward
We donate a percentage of all sponsorship proceeds to the Raspberry Pi Foundation each quarter, to help inspire future generations of makers together with their educators.
How Insiders worked
RaspAP Insiders was a private fork of RaspAP, hosted as a private GitHub repository. New features were developed there first and made available to sponsors, who were added as collaborators of the repository. Every feature was tied to a funding goal in monthly subscriptions; when a goal was hit, the features tied to it were merged back into the public repo for general availability.
Insiders was a resounding success, so that private repo has been retired. All features that were ever exclusive to Insiders are now part of the public RaspAP repository, and new features are built directly into the main repo from now on and forever.
The private repository hasn't disappeared, though. It's been repurposed as the Alumni Lounge. See what's in it for you below.
What sponsorships achieve
Sponsorship is now purely voluntary. Your support simply buys the maintainers of this project time, a very scarce resource, which is spent on the development of new features, bug fixes, stability improvements, issue triage and community support.
If you're curious what past sponsorships built, check out the list of core features. You're most likely already using several of them, thanks to our awesome sponsors!
What's in it for me?
Sponsorship no longer unlocks exclusive features, but it does get you into the Alumni Lounge — the private Insiders repository, now a space reserved for sponsors past, present and future. There you can:
- Talk directly with the RaspAP team
- See roadmap discussions and UI mockups early
- Weigh in on the project's direction before things go public
- Chat in a private channel on RaspAP's Discord server
You'll also be credited by name (or GitHub handle) in BACKERS.md, which is parsed and displayed on the About page of the RaspAP app itself — so your support is visible right where people actually use the software.
How to become a sponsor
Thanks for your interest in sponsoring! You can become a sponsor using your individual or organization's GitHub account. Just pick any tier and complete the checkout. You'll be added to BACKERS.md and instantly granted access to the Alumni Lounge.
Info
If you're sponsoring RaspAP through a GitHub organization, please send a short email to sponsors@raspap.com with the name of your organization and the account that should be added as a collaborator.1
You can cancel your sponsorship anytime.2
Transparency
We've chosen OpenCollective as the fiscal host for our GitHub sponsors organization. This means that our budget is completely transparent — financial contributions, expenses and payouts to project team members are automatically reported. Everyone can see where money comes from and what it's spent on. This commitment to full transparency was central in our original decision to implement Insiders, and it hasn't changed now that sponsorship is voluntary.
Quarterly giving
Each quarter, 20% of total sponsorship proceeds are donated directly to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, up from the 15% we gave while Insiders was still a funded-feature model. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity that works to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world.
The Foundation supports initiatives like Coder Dojo, Astro Pi, Coolest Projects and much more.
As a sponsor, you not only support development of RaspAP but you also help inspire young people by harnessing the power of computing to solve problems and express themselves creatively.
Support for educators
We're big believers in the role that computing and digital technologies can play in shaping a better world. Many engineers, including members of the RaspAP team, got their first introduction to computing at an early age. This can take the form of a structured curriculum in a school setting, or less-formally through clubs, competitions and partnerships with youth organizations. Equally important is university, vocational and research training in digital technologies at all levels.
Now that all Insiders features are part of the public RaspAP release, educators and their students already have full access to everything RaspAP offers, at no cost. We've extended our original pledge accordingly: educators, teacher trainers, researchers and club organizers are welcome in the Alumni Lounge free of charge, for the same reason we originally offered free Insiders access.
Criteria
Educators, teacher trainers, researchers and club organizers engaged in digital and computing technologies for students of all ages are eligible. The only requirement is a GitHub account and a domain email address associated with an educational institution or organization with a focus on digital learning. Send a mail to sponsors@raspap.com with your GitHub account details and we'll get you set up with Alumni Lounge access.
Repository access
To access the Alumni Lounge, you will be invited to become a member of the RaspAP organization. GitHub will send an email with an invitation link to the address associated with your GitHub account. To join, simply click the invitation link in the email.
Important
GitHub invitations automatically expire seven days after they are created. Be sure to accept the invite during this time frame.
Scope of support
All bug reports and feature requests, sponsor or otherwise, are now filed in the main RaspAP repository, per our issue policy. The Alumni Lounge is reserved for discussion, early roadmap visibility and direct conversation with the team — not for filing issues.
Terms
We're using RaspAP for a commercial project. Does anything about Insiders' retirement change our terms?
No. RaspAP, including every feature formerly exclusive to Insiders, is available under the GNU GPL 3.0 license, the same as it always has been. You're free to use it for public, private or commercial projects, fork it, mirror it, or do whatever you like with it, without restriction.
If you cancel your sponsorship, GitHub automatically removes you as a collaborator on the Alumni Lounge repository, but this has no effect on your use of RaspAP itself — all features remain part of the public release regardless of sponsorship status.
Discussions
Questions or comments about this transition? Join the discussion here.
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It's currently not possible to grant access to each member of an organization, as GitHub only allows for adding individual users. After sponsoring, please send an email to sponsors@raspap.com stating which account should become a collaborator on the Alumni Lounge repository. ↩
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If you cancel your sponsorship, GitHub schedules a cancellation request which becomes effective at the end of the billing cycle, which ends on the 22nd of the month for monthly sponsorships. Your Alumni Lounge access remains active until that cancellation takes effect. All charges are processed by GitHub through Stripe. As we don't receive any information regarding your payment, and GitHub doesn't offer refunds, sponsorships are non-refundable. ↩