Where communities raise the features they need
BarnRaise is a nonprofit platform that brings the barn-raising tradition to open source software. We enable communities to collectively fund and build features through a unique double opt-in system that respects maintainer autonomy while empowering feature requesters and developers.
Just as farming communities once gathered to build barns together, BarnRaise enables:
- Sponsors to fund features they need
- Project Leaders to approve what gets built
- Builders to get paid for meaningful work
- Communities to benefit from new features
- Double Opt-In System: Both requesters and maintainers must agree before work begins
- Community Fund (Escrow): Protected payments for all parties
- 501(c)(3) Nonprofit: Lower fees, tax-deductible contributions
- Project Leader Control: Maintainers approve all raisings
- Builder Protection: Get paid even if PR is rejected (sponsor override)
- Start a Raising - Sponsor proposes a feature with funding
- Get Approval - Project leader reviews and approves
- Find a Builder - Developers apply, project leader selects
- Build Together - Feature is developed with community support
- Celebrate - Feature ships, funds distributed, community wins!
``` barnraise/ ├── PROPOSAL.md # Detailed platform proposal ├── README.md # This file ├── docs/ # Documentation (coming soon) ├── landing/ # Landing page code (coming soon) └── platform/ # Platform code (coming soon) ```
Current Phase: Proposal & Planning
- Platform concept and proposal
- Secure domain names
- Design visual identity
- Build landing page
- Develop MVP
- Launch with first 10 projects
We're looking for:
- Open Source Projects interested in being early adopters
- Developers who want to help build the platform
- Designers to help with visual identity
- Community Members who believe in the vision
This project will be open source. License TBD.
Contact information coming soon
"Many hands make light work. Many contributors make great software."