apache · rbowen · Dec 28, 2025 · Dec 28, 2025 · Dec 28, 2025 · Dec 28, 2025
diff --git a/source/companies/_index.md b/source/companies/_index.md
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+---
+title: Companies and Open Source
+url: /companies/
+tags: ["companies", "business", "navigation"]
+---
+
+# Why your company should participate in ASF projects
+
+All modern digital infrastructure is dependent on open source software,
+and **ASF projects are everywhere**.
+Companies must think strategically about how they will engage with the
+open source projects on which they rely in order to ensure
+sustainability, and **influence the direction of these projects** for the
+benefit of their customers. 
+
+## [Benefits to Companies](/companies/benefits.html)
+
+Active participation in open source projects provides significant
+strategic and operational benefits to companies, including talent
+acquisition, influence over industry standards, strong company
+partnerships, and greater customer trust.<br />
+[[Read more ...](/companies/benefits.html)]
+
+## Ways to contribute
+
+There are three primary ways that companies can engage with ASF
-There are three primary ways that companies can engage with ASF
+There are several primary ways that companies can engage with ASF
-There are three primary ways that companies can engage with ASF
+There are several primary ways that companies can engage with ASF
+projects. Each has costs and benefits that should be carefully
+considered.
+
+<div class="row">
+    <!-- Employ -->
+    <div class="col-md-4">
+
+### [Employ Contributors](/companies/employ.html)
+
+[![employ](/images/company-employ.jpg)](/companies/employ.html)
+
+Support ASF projects by employing, or otherwise financially supportiong, developers, and other professionals,
+who contribute directly to projects.<br />
+[[Read more ...](/companies/employ.html)]
+    </div><!-- End Employ -->
+
+<div class="col-md-4">
+<!-- Sponsor -->
+
+### [Financial Sponsorship](/companies/sponsor.html)
+
+[![sponsor](/images/company-sponsor.jpg)](/companies/sponsor.html)
+
+Sponsor the ASF, the Community Over Code conference, project events,
+and local meetups.<br />
+[[Read more ...](/companies/sponsor.html)]
+
+</div> <!-- End Sponsor -->
+
+<!-- Advocacy-->
+<div class="col-md-4">
+
+### [Advocacy](/companies/advocacy.html)
+
+[![advocacy](/images/company-advocacy.jpg)](/companies/advocacy.html)
+
+Companies can advocate for ASF project adoption both publicly and with 
+their customers, while appropriately using open source project brands.<br />
+[[Read more ...](/companies/advocacy.html)]
+    </div> <!-- End Advocacy-->
+</div> <!-- End Row -->
+
+*The Apache Software Foundation welcomes corporate participation that aligns with our mission of providing software for the public good.*
diff --git a/source/companies/advocacy.md b/source/companies/advocacy.md
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+---
+title: Open Source Advocacy
+url: /companies/advocacy.html
+tags: ["companies", "advocacy", "branding"]
+---
+
+# Open Source Advocacy
+
+TO BE WRITTEN:
+
+Focus on:
+* Appropropriate (and inappropriate) ways to associate your own company
+  with the success of a project.
+* Third-party events/conferences
+* Respectig brand policy
+* Talk directly about ways NOT to use ASF brands
+* Ways to train/educate your marketing/sales folks so that you don't end
+  up burning trust.
+
+Be sure your marketing department understands and respects the [ASF Trademark
+Policy](https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/).
+
+[... To Do ...]
diff --git a/source/companies/benefits.md b/source/companies/benefits.md
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+---
+title: Benefits of Open Source Participation
+url: /companies/benefits.html
+tags: ["companies", "benefits", "business value"]
+---
+
+# Benefits of ASF Participation
+
+Companies that actively participate in ASF projects realize significant
+strategic and operational advantages that extend far beyond cost savings.
+It's important to think strategically about how, where, and why you will
+participate and measure impact.
+
+## Influence the roadmap
+
+While it can sometimes take months, or years, to gain expertise and
+trust in an established community, showing up to do the daily
+project maintenance -- issue and PR triage; reviewing PRs; planning and
+executing community events; answering user questions -- you'll quickly
+begin to establish that you can be trusted, which will make it easier
+for you to influence the direction of the project.
+
+Decisions about the direction of Apache projects are made by the people
+who show up to participate in the conversation. If you don't join the
+conversation, then your competitors will decide how tomorrow's
+technology will shape up.
+
+Make sure someone on your team is reading the project [mailing
+lists](https://www.apache.org/foundation/mailinglists.html) every day,
+and advocating for your priorities. That's what community means --
+showing up to own the future of the project.
+
+While trust does not necessarily transfer to other employees, over time,
+as project participants see your company actively contributing to the
+project, and demonstrating ownership, they'll be more willing to work
+with you.
+
+## Recruiting
+
+By working upstream on projects, you directly showcase to potential
+employees what they might be working on. This helps attract the right
+kind of talent to work on your priorities, and they'll begin to see your
+company as a partner in the project, and an attractive place to work.
+
+Being involved in the day-to-day life of the project
+gives you direct access to the most qualified people in the world to
+work on your team. And you know they'll be arriving with the skills you
+need.
+
+## Business and Strategic Advantages
+
+For more than 25 years, the ASF has been a place where industry
+standards have been set and implemented. Collaborating in those
+projects is the most effective way to shape industry standards and best
+practices. You'll be building trust with current and potential
+customers, and building strategic partnerships with other companies
+working in the same space.
+
+And by collaborating with your peers on the common tasks, you'll be able
+to better focus on your unique business differentiators.
+Collaborate on what all share; Compete where you excel.
+
+*The benefits of open source participation compound over time, creating
+sustainable competitive advantages and fostering innovation that drives 
+long-term business success.*
diff --git a/source/companies/employ.md b/source/companies/employ.md
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+---
+title: Employing Open Source Contributors
+url: /companies/employ.html
+tags: ["companies", "employment", "contributors"]
+---
+
+# Employing Open Source Contributors
+
+If your business relies on an open source project, employing, or
+otherwise financially supporting,
+contributors to the project is the most effective way to ensure that
+your priorities are reflected in project decisions. 
+(See also [Recruiting and Employee 
+Satisfaction](/companies/benefits.html#recruiting-and-employee-satisfaction))
+
+This goes [far beyond code contributions](/contributors/non-code.html), 
+although that is the most obvious and visible way that you can participate.
+
+## Effective ways to contribute
+
+While many companies contribute here and there to open source projects,
+having a carefully considered strategy for doing so will lead to more
+consistent, measurable results, and greater influence in the project's
+decisions and roadmap.
+
+### Allocate Dedicated Time
+
+Earning trust in open source projects takes consistent engagement, and
+visibility to the community. Thus, having guaranteed dedicated time to
+focus on upstream work will result in better long-term results.
+
+Giving employees a specific time allocation - 10-20% of their schedule
+is typical - will ensure that they remain visible to the community, and
+are able to have focused time to build their skills.
+
+Trust earned by one contributor does not necessarily rub off on your 
+other employees. So don't assume that you can just swap out one employee
+for another.
+
+### Recognize Contributions
+
+Include open source contributions in performance reviews and career 
+advancement considerations. Define specific metrics, such as PRs
+accepted, reviews, public speaking engagements, or promotion to
+committer or PMC member, which are tied to promotion opportunities. This
+will help employees feel appreciated, and communicate that engagement in
+open source projects is not considered charity or altruism, but is a key
+part of company goals.
+
+### Support Conference and Meetup Participation
+
+Fund employee attendance at relevant conferences and encourage speaking
+opportunities. Understand that attending conferences is primarily about
+creating opportunities to collaborate with peers, and this, in turn,
+will accelerate your business priorities.
+
+
+## Support individual contributors
+
+Supporting individual contributors financially (via B2B contracts, 
+individual sponsorships, fellowships, and third party sponsor programs)
+can be a very effective way to contribute to a project if you don't have
+full-time positions available on your payroll.
+
+### Bug bounties
+
+
+
+### Sponsor programs
+
+(Github sponsors, outreachy, etc, etc)
+
+### what else goes here?
+
+
+## Project Independence
+
+Project independence is a central tenet of the ASF, and one of the most
+common places that companies misstep in their interactions with ASF
+projects.
+
+Take time to understand ASF ethos, the [ASF Trademark
+Policy](https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/), and the reasons why
+we value project independence. Trust takes a long time to earn, but can
+be burned very quickly by misusing a project's brand.
+
+There are several very practical ways that you can contribute to overall
+project health, while earning trust for your contributors.
+
+### Broad project ownership
+
+Ensure contributions align with long-term project goals rather than 
+solely short-term company priorities. That ensures that the project as a
+whole remains healthy.
+
+Companies that focus only on contributions that support their own
+specific business model quickly identify themselves as not valuing the
+overall health of the project. It also makes it very difficult to
+attract broader community interest in your proposed changes, since they
+are seen as self-serving.
+
+### Chop wood, carry water (Routine maintenance)
+
+Open source communities sometimes use the phrase "chop wood, carry
+water" to talk about doing the mundane maintenance tasks that are
+required to keep a project going.
+
+Many companies focus only on the flashy new features, and ignore the
+fact that a software project needs daily care to keep going.
+
+#### Triage
+
+Participating in the weekly triage of new issue reports and pull
+requests keeps a project healthy. It ensures that the project does not
+appear abandoned. And it exposes your team to parts of the project on
+which they would not otherwise gain expertise.
+
+It also identifies your contributors as people who care about the
+overall health of the project, which, in turn, earns trust and increases
+the community's willingness to work with you.
+
+Be sure to explicitly give your employees time to do these tasks.
+
+#### Infrastructure
+
+While the physical infrastructure behind ASF projects is maintained by a
+[team of paid professionals](https://infra.apache.org/), there's more to
+project infrastructure than that. Keeping the CI system running
+effectively, understanding what supplementary infrastructure the project
+depends, on, and generally being useful are key ways to ensure the
+sustainability of the project.
+
+For projects that provide infrastructure, or other cloud services,
+donating these to the project (talk to infra about how!) is critical to
+the health of ASF projects.
+
+#### User support
+
+Answering user questions is the very best way to understand the pain
+that your own customers are experiencing with the project. It will make
+you more responsive to them, and build your own expertise, in a way that
+no other activity will do.
+
+### Transparency
+
+Many companies value secrecy in their roadmap, as they believe that it
+gives them a competitive advantage in the market.
+
+This is in tension with the open source focus on transparency and
+collaboration. Finding an appropriate balance is key to your successful
+participation in ASF projects.
+
+Being transparent about your company priorities has several positive
+outcomes.
+
+#### Avoid conflicts
+
+Telling the project what you will be working on can avoid conflicting
+with other work that is going in a different direction. The project can
+discuss your plans, and compromise on a mutually agreed direction,
+saving you time going down a path which will ultimately get rejected.
+
+#### Attract collaborators
+
+It can be a way to identify people from outside your organization who
+share the same priority, who may work with you to achieve your goals,
+and, in the process, provide ideas and innovation that you may have
+missed had you done the work yourself behind your company walls.
+
+#### Earn trust
+
+It always comes back to earning trust. Being transparent about your
+priorities shows the project what you care about. It doesn't leave them
+guessing about your ulterior motives. The more you do this, and the more
+you live up to what you say you're going to do, the more the project
+will be willing to work with you.
+
+## Getting Started
+
+1. Identify projects your company already uses or depends on
+2. Connect with existing contributors in your organization
+3. Start with small, manageable contributions
+4. Consider sending a weekly/monthly update to the project dev list
+   about what you're focusing on. (Discuss this with the project first
+   to be sure it's welcome.)
+5. Build relationships within project communities
+6. Gradually increase involvement and responsibility (See [Becoming a
+   committer](/contributors/becomingacommitter.html))
+
+*Companies that invest in employing open source contributors create a sustainable model that benefits the entire ecosystem while building internal expertise and community relationships.*
+
diff --git a/source/companies/sponsor.md b/source/companies/sponsor.md
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+---
+title: Financial Sponsorship of Open Source
+url: /companies/sponsor.html
+tags: ["companies", "sponsorship", "funding"]
+---
+
+# Financial Sponsorship
+
+The sustainability of our projects relies on consistent funding for
+infrastructure, legal services, marketing, events, and many other
+expenses. Financial sponsorship is a direct way to participate in
+keeping the lights on.
+
+## ASF Sponsorship
+
+Companies can sponsor the ASF with an [annual
+donation](https://apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html), 
+[conferences sponsorship](https://communityovercode.org),
+targeted donations to a particular project, or in-kind donations of
+products or services.
+
+## Event and meetup sponsorship
+
+In addition to the [main ASF conference](https://communityovercode.org),
+many ASF projects have their own events. These are usually listed on
+[events.apache.org](https://events.apache.org), and announced within the
+project community itself.
+
+Sponsoring, and speaking at, these events, is perhaps the fastest way to
+raise your profile in a project community, and for your employees to
+earn trust and visibility within the project.
+
+Supporting local gatherings of open source enthusiasts is a great way to
+foster community growth, and can help your company attract and retain
+experts in your employ.
+
+See also the [Apache Local
+Communities](https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/COMDEV/Apache+Local+Community+-+ALC)
+for local and regional groups where you can engage with other ASF
+enthusiasts.
+
+
diff --git a/static/images/company-advocacy.jpg b/static/images/company-advocacy.jpg
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