Since its formal launch in 2019, the Five for the Future program has significantly impacted the WordPress project by advocating for and supporting sponsored contributions. In the past few months, notable efforts have been made to improve the program and the contributor experience in WordPress. The purpose of this post is to share the current state of projects affiliated with the Five for the Future program to bolster transparency and openness. Here’s an executive summary of the current state of Five for the Future and WordPress Contribution Initiatives as of September 1, 2024
1. Latest Five for the Future Company Stats
Organization Count & Pledged Hours
Stats as of September 1, 2024:
- 191 total organizations have pledged contributors, with 897 confirmed contributors.
- A total of 7,838 hours have been pledged towards the initiative.
- On average, a 5ftF company sponsors 39.19 hours per week with 4.87 employees each.
The dip in organization count in Q1 and Q2 2024 resulted from a thorough validity check of company status (pledge rationalization).
Organization/Contributor Activity Levels
As WordPress grows, it is essential to improve our understanding of the impact of Five for the Future and sponsored contributions. Three key metrics were identified: sponsored contributor activity, organization activity, and organization impact. As a result of outreach and improved metrics, there has been a significant increase (~40%) of active and impactful Five for the Future organizations since May 2024.
Listed below are the stats as of September 1, 2024:
| Active 5ftF Sponsored Contributors | Active 5ftF Organizations | Impactful 5ftF Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| 80.33% Percentage of sponsored contributors pledged to 5ftF who logged into WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ in the past 3 months. | 62.63% (41% increase) Percentage of organizations with at least one Active 5ftF Sponsored Contributor (with w.org profile activity in the past 3 months). | 29.47% (41% increase) Percentage of organizations contributing to impactful projects that align with the project’s Big Picture Goals. |
2. Contributor Stats
Contributor Count & Pledged Hours
Stats as of September 1, 2024:
- 8,314 self-sponsored contributors have pledged 116,530 hours
- 905 company-sponsored contributors have pledged 7,838 hours
3. Five for the Future Website Refresh
Contributors from MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., Design, and Community teams worked hard to relaunch the Five for the Future website as part of an ongoing effort to create a consistent design language across WordPress.org. This update introduces a blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.-based child theme alongside the shared WordPress.org parent theme, paving the way for future enhancements. The main changes include converting all content to blocks and standardizing the layout, typography, and colors. The homepage was also redesigned, and new contributor testimonials were added. Since the last update, the site now features an updated handbook page and a contact page for old and new Five for the Future contributors to get support on their initiatives. More updates, such as adding case studies of participating organizations and additional testimonials, are in the pipeline. Plans are also in motion for a Five for the Future blog and newsletter.
4. Dashboard Project Updates
After a year’s work, the experimental WordPress Project Health Dashboards have now been published. These dashboards cover the Make/WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Community, and Training Teams, along with an overview of WordPress 6.6 release statistics. Compiled manually using tools like Bitergia Analytics, the dashboards offer a snapshot of team performance and provide insights into their health status. Still experimental, seeks community feedback to refine and expand dashboarding efforts across more teams. Check out these individual dashboard pages which live in the Make/Project blog:
5. October Contributor Mentorship Program
The WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program’s October-November (2024 Q3) cohort received nearly 150 mentee applications and around 46 mentor applications, much higher than expected. Given this extraordinary interest in the program, working group members are working hard to select the final group of mentors and mentees. The final group of selected mentors and mentees is expected to be announced on the week of September 16th. Check out the program white paper to learn more about the Q3 mentorship cohort.
This post was written by @harishanker with inputs from @nao