Supporting the Drupal Association in a pandemic

The Drupal Association is the company dedicated to supporting the Drupal community. It provides the infrastructure and creates the meeting space for us to gather, learn from one another, hack on code together, and generally advance the cause of the open web together through Drupal. Drupal Camps and DrupalCons have been the avenues for growth as contributors for most of our team, myself included.

Periods of economic uncertainty like the current pandemic create challenges for non-profit organizations like the Drupal Association, and they're even more challenging when the majority of an organization's revenue comes from a springtime conference like the upcoming Drupalcon Minneapolis originally planned for May. Heather Rocker and the team have made the commitment to only "gather the Drupal community when it's safe to do so," and it's no surprise that such a commitment creates stress on the organization as it upends its financial forecast for the year.

Centarro has been in business as a major contributor to Drupal (as Commerce Guys first via Ubercart then our Commerce modules) since DrupalCon D.C. in 2009, and our sponsorship and investment in the project has only grown with time. Even as a small team, we contribute 3,200+ hours / year through our modules and core initiatives and spend upwards of $30,000 annually in conference sponsorship / partnership fees that contribute directly to the Drupal Association's operating costs and those of our various local Drupal communities.