How does money actually reach a WordPress contributor? On Do the Woo, Marcus Burnettecolleaguemet asked Sé Reedcolleague and me about the WP Community Collective, the nonprofit we’d cofounded. A big part of my answer was about the plumbing: transparent banking through Open Collective, and the awkward question of how a company pays someone who isn’t on its payroll.
🎙️ Episode details
- Topics: a role change, why the WP Community Collective used Open Collective, and how money reaches contributors
- Show: Do the Woo, episode 314 (now archived on Open Channels FM as Open Makers)
- Host: Marcus Burnette
- Guests: Sé Reed and me, Courtney Robertson
- Released: January 24, 2023
- Listen and read along: WordPress Community Collective, Collaboration and Support, with a transcript, on Open Channels FM
🔄 A role change
I’d just finished two years as a Training team co rep and handed over the role. Still, I stayed in the team’s Faculty Program, creating content. Meanwhile, Sé had just started as a Marketing team rep.
🏦 Why Open Collective?
The WPCC used Open Collective Foundation, which shows every dollar in and out to anyone who looks. For a nonprofit, after all, that transparency matters. Other open source groups, including the PHP Foundation, use Open Collective too.
By then we’d raised more than 3,000 dollars, all from individuals, with Scott Kingsley Clark as our first donor. I said I knew firsthand what it’s like to want to give more to the project than you have hours for, and how much it helps when contribution can be part of your job instead of something you do instead of sleep.
🧾 The hard part: getting Open Collective money to people
Paying an individual contributor isn’t payroll, and it isn’t HR, so neither individuals nor companies have an easy path. Next, Sé described a partnership program for larger companies. I said people often asked me how to get paid for contribution work. We didn’t have a process yet, and building one was on the list. Either way, funded work would need to connect to a Make team or an official WordPress.org event.
🧪 What can you take from the Open Collective model?
- Topics: a role change, why the WP Community Collective used Open Collective, and how money reaches contributors
- Companies: if you want to fund contributors, ask your finance team now how you’d pay a non employee.
- Individuals: transparent platforms let you see where a donation goes.
- Contributors seeking funding: tie your work to a specific Make team goal.
🔭 Update, November 2026
The WP Community Collective later rebranded as The WPOCC, where I’m still a co founding board member. That rename came after this episode.
Also, more conversations like this one live in my podcast and speaking archive.
🗓️ Archival note
Do the Woo released this episode on January 24, 2023. Then I added this post on November 9, 2026, from the publisher’s transcript. However, However, I reviewed the transcript, not the audio.