Cognitect derives enormous value from our use of open source, only some of which we write ourselves. We believe that companies that derive economic benefit from using open source should directly support and sustain the developers responsible for the software they use. Open source developers have families to feed, kids to educate, and bills to pay.

Instead of treating open source as a common good, companies should think of it as a utility - something you consume all the time for which you should be paying on an ongoing basis. Cognitect is proud to sponsor David Nolen and Mike Fikes, on a recurring basis, for their work on the development and maintenance of ClojureScript. We encourage companies who have built their products with ClojureScript to do the same. Or find the developers responsible for the software that you use, and sponsor them, not once but every month.

In creating the Sponsors program Github has made it straightforward to compensate open source developers directly. Most companies already have accounts with GitHub and established means of paying them. GitHub handles putting money into individual developers' accounts. Just click on that "<3 Sponsor" button and choose a level. It goes on your bill - nothing extra to do.

We look forward to sponsoring more developers whose work is important to Cognitect.