Procurement Is the Biggest Form of Fundraising for FLOSS
Shifting from "Free Assets" to "Living Infrastructure"
Mike Gifford, CivicActions
FOSDEM 2026 | CivicActions | Drupal Core Accessibility Maintainer
Background placeholder: pictures/cover-gov-building.jpg. Welcome. Frame procurement as infrastructure investment, not charity. Mention CivicActions and Drupal accessibility role.
The Great Misunderstanding
The Coffee Money
User donations: $5/month pledges.
The Trillion Dollar River
Government procurement: $50M+ contracts.
Visual placeholder: pictures/donation-vs-contract.png. Message: we obsess over $5 while ignoring $50M. Highlight asymmetry: crowdfunding vs public sector procurement. Urgency: redirect focus.
Whales vs. Minnows
| Item | Amount | Scale |
|---|
| Sovereign Tech Fund | ~€20M | Minnow |
| Global Gov IT Procurement | $ trillions | Whale |
Grants are for market failures. Procurement sustains the ecosystem. Underscore: procurement dwarfs grants; align FLOSS sustainability with procurement streams.
Open Source isn't a Free Chair. It's a Free Puppy.
Maintenance = food, training, vet bills. Drive home ongoing costs; procurement needs to fund upkeep.
The Financial Pivot
| Model | OpEx Posture | Risk |
|---|
| Proprietary | High OpEx (license rent) | Vendor lock-in |
| Open Source (trap) | Zero OpEx | Security and supply-chain risk |
| Open Source (sustainable) | Moderate OpEx | Resilient supply chain |
Quote: Redirect 20% of realized savings into sustainability. Encourage earmarking savings toward upstream maintenance; link to OpEx budgeting.
Digital Public Infrastructure
- Open Source: the engine
- Open Standards: the rails
- Open Data: the cargo
- Example: OpenACR and CivicActions
Position DPI as the stack; mention OpenACR as procurement-ready evidence.
The Contract Hack
Mandatory Requirement: Vendor must demonstrate history of upstream contribution.
All bug fixes must be submitted upstream.
Reference: Drupal Association RFP Guide
Explain why upstream-first clauses reduce forked risk and improve velocity.
DITAP & Procurement Culture
- Procurement officers fear risk
- Open standards reduce lock-in risk
- Resource: USDS DITAP curriculum
Invite procurement teams to DITAP; stress risk framing and open standards.
The Virtuous Cycle
Flow: Gov ($$) → Agency (hires) → Maintainer (code) → Foundation (governance) → Better software → Gov benefit. Use simple arrows or SVG if desired; ensure text alt. Describe the loop verbally; emphasize reinvestment and governance.
Call to Action
- Maintainers: build enterprise-ready docs
- Agencies: sell resilience, not hours
- Government: fund capabilities, not one-off projects
Short, actionable asks mapped to each actor.
Procurement is unsexy, bureaucratic, and boring. It is also the only thing that can save the Open Web.
Land the urgency and inevitability of procurement as leverage.
Scan for Playbook
QR code placeholder.
Invite scans; hand out QR. Mention CC BY-SA 4.0 licensing if relevant.