Re: Common Good Cyber Fund Grant Program for Debian

On Tue, Jul 21, 2026 at 12:24:25PM +0200, Hector Oron wrote:
>...
> https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/common-good-cyber-fund/
> 
> How could Debian use such a fund

The first problem would be the requirement "that the applicant is a 
qualifying nonprofit organization", which is the old issue that Debian
is not a legal entity.

Perhaps SPI might be sufficient.

> (since all of it would require
> financial control and lots of paperwork)?

This is the longstanding problem that a non-profit project of our size 
and asking for donations should really have a proper budget process and
annual financial reports on our website.

And then something resembling a fundraising strategy.
Even the basic stuff like a "Donate" link on our website is missing.

What do we want?
What do we not want?
What do we need for what we want?

>...
> and if you think Debian should apply for it
>...

It tends to produce poor (sometimes even negative) outcomes when
a project starts with having (or applying for) money.

The program you are linking to would be one person paid full-time for 
two years, and then there would have to be both a suitable project
planned, and confidence that paying money there won't have a negative
impact on the unpaid volunteers working in that area.

A project that might fit the last bullet point of Objective 1 in this 
grant would be to make our own infrastructure more resilient, two years 
wouldn't be too much for designing, discussing and implementing improvements.

But such a project would have to be properly planned before applying.
And it would need someone available with the required skills in 
security and AI.

> Regards

cu
Adrian