PSF Annual Report

Introduction

2020 was a year of challenges, as well as a year of celebrations for the Python Software Foundation (hereafter 'PSF'). While COVID-19 forced the cancellation of PyCon US in-person, our community rose to the challenge and stepped up to support our non-profit in many ways!

The PSF’s priority is the health and safety of the community and when COVID-19 made it unsafe to hold PyCon US in 2020, we cancelled the event. The cancellation had several impacts on the PSF, not least of which was the financial impact. However, our community helped us raise more than $579K USD in donations from event sponsors and registrants when we announced the cancellation. Our staff and board directors were deeply moved by the empathy and understanding of the community and our supporting organizations. Additionally, our staff and volunteers put together many online resources for PyCon US Online for Pythonistas to enjoy from the safety of their homes!

As PyCon US typically generates 65% of the PSF’s revenue, we started planning how we can diversify our revenue to make the PSF more sustainable. In 2020, our staff and board of directors realized there is no better time than now to create new revenue streams for the PSF and become less reliant on PyCon US. We are currently working on ways to introduce paid features for the Python Package Index and researching other options. Financial impacts aside, the PSF community did continue to grow in 2020!

The PSF launched two new Work Groups! The first was the Funding Work Group whose mission is to help our community seek external grants for their own projects. The second, the Diversity and Inclusion Work Group, was launched to improve geographical diversity amongst the board and the PSF membership.

Our membership grew as well! 33 new Fellow Members were voted in by our Fellow Work Group and over 200 new Contributing and Managing Members self certified! Additionally, the PSF continued to operate its programs and initiatives throughout the year.

Trademark support continued throughout 2020 to ensure we protect “Python”, “PyCon”, “PyLadies”, and “PyPI” globally. The PSF continues to file necessary trademarks for all these terms and applica- ble logos. This work helps strengthen and protect terms that are staples within our community.

Our projects and established Work Groups ac- complished so much last year. PyLadies launched its new governance model. Several of our Work Groups continued their efforts including the Code of Conduct Work Group and the Scientific Work Group.

The PSF’s Grants Program was paused for part of 2020 due to the pandemic, however it was relaunched in September of 2020 with the focus of supporting virtual efforts, for the time being. The Python Software Foundation Meetup Pro Network grew to include 82 groups in 19 countries with over 129,000 members!

In 2020, PyCon US 2021 planning started! The event will be virtual but our staff is working on making it as interactive an experience as possible!

Throughout 2020, Python infrastructure, CPython, and Packaging continued to evolve. An initiative was started to improve CPython processes by migrating bugs to GitHub. Some additional highlights included Python Packaging receiving several grants to support new features including localization & internationalization for PyPI, the in- troduction of Secure PyPI downloads with signed repository metadata, and a new dependency resolver for pip.

For 2021, our goals are to continue to work on making the PSF financially sustainable and also improve community support via several initiatives. The PSF will be hiring a Developer-in-Residence to support CPython as well as a Director of Resource Development to spearhead fundraising efforts. We look forward to sharing these and many more updates with everyone as they develop.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy 2021.