The major benefit of a foundation is that it promotes participatory governance, preventing any single company from monopolizing a collaborative project. Specifically, a foundation ensures:

• Community-driven Governance: Projects are managed by the community for the community, with contributions reviewed and accepted based on merit.

• Open Source: Contributors can use the project's resources without fearing sudden changes in licensing or direction.

• Impartiality: contributions to the content and direction are accepted based on their community value, regardless of their impact on any particular vendor.

This initiative stems from a shared passion for DevRel and the recognition that the profession faces persistent challenges, such as a lack of clarity and difficulty in measuring impact. Despite significant growth in resources and organizations addressing these issues, these resources are fragmented. Our goal is to create an inclusive, community-driven entity that formally defines DevRel practices, addresses common challenges with best-in-practice resources, and attracts both individuals and organizations’ decision-makers. A foundation aims to be a trusted, credible, and expert resource, similar to professional bodies in other fields, providing training, certification, continuing education, and advocacy.

This collaborative project has been hosted as a community project, with no funding involved. This means taking advantage of the governance structure, project management staff, and back-end resources that the Linux Foundation (LF) provides to all hosted projects under an unfunded model, to ensure long-term sustainability. Developer Relations Foundation is part of the LF project series, as a non-profit 501(c)(6). Examples of these projects include SPDX (SBOM Standard), FOSSology, and CHAOSS.

The major benefit of hosting with the LF is that it offers recognized global credibility. Specifically, the LF ensures:

• DevRel value outside DevRel: Being part of a renowned and large open source foundation like the Linux Foundation enhances the project's credibility within the DevRel community and among external stakeholders and decision-makers. This recognition elevates DevRel's visibility and perceived value as a profession, demonstrating its importance and impact beyond industry peers.

• Level Playing Field: Ensuring that no single company in the ecosystem can exert undue control over the project by owning the trademark.

• Licensing Integrity: Protecting the licensing integrity of the collaborative project, as detailed in this LF blog post.

The LF allows individual contributors to retain copyright ownership of their contributions while providing an open source license, reflected through the Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off process.

We also chose the LF to avoid reinventing the wheel. Creating something new requires tools, infrastructure, and, ideally, a lightweight process to get started and make the initiative resilient.

The DevRel Foundation operates through two key structures: the Steering Committee, which provides oversight and strategic direction for the Foundation, and the Working Groups, which drive the Foundation's projects. These groups are coordinated by WG managers, and activity direction relies on active community participation (called working group participants). For more details, please see our governance playbook.

The Steering Committee provides oversight for the entire open collaborative project as defined in the Developer Relations Foundation Charter. The current Steering Committee members are listed here

Working groups are volunteer-led teams within the Developer Relations Foundation that focus on specific DevRel topics or challenges. They collaborate to create open-source resources, best practices, and frameworks to support the DevRel community. Anyone can join and contribute.

You can view current working groups and learn how to get involved here.

There are numerous ways to get involved in the Developer Relations Foundation. Join us here.

The Steering Committee provides expectations, timelines, tools, and regular check-ins for group leads. In addition, we’ll be available via the Discord community for questions as they arise.

A Working Group Manager is a leadership position within working groups responsible for keeping the group focused, organized, and moving forward. They help create an environment where all working group participants can share ideas, co-create meaningful outputs, and make an impact in the DevRel ecosystem. If you are interested in becoming a WG manager, please learn more at the DRF Join us here page.

The purpose of having a charter for the Developer Relations Foundation is to help people understand its mission and scope. The DevRel Foundation Charter is a living document, allowing the community to propose changes and updates as the project evolves.