Since its formal launch in 2019, the Five for the Future program has significantly impacted the WordPress project by advocating for and supporting sponsored contributions. In the past few months, notable efforts have been made to improve the program and the contributor experience in WordPress. This post summarizes the current state of WordPress contributions as of May 2024 to bolster transparency and openness.
1. Latest Five for the Future Company Stats
Organization Count & Pledged Hours
Stats as of May 20, 2024:
- 191 total organizations have pledged contributors, with 897 confirmed contributors.
- A total of 7,926 hours have been pledged towards the initiative.
- On average, a 5ftF company sponsors 42 hours per week with 4.7 employees each.
The dip in organization count between February and May 2024 resulted from a thorough validity check of company status (“pledge rationalization”).
Organization/Contributor Activity Levels
As WordPress grows, it is important to improve our understanding of the impact of Five for the Future and sponsored contributions. Three key metrics were identified for this purpose: sponsored contributor activity, organization activity, and organization impact.
Listed below are the stats as of April 30, 2024:
| Active 5ftF Sponsored Contributors | Active 5ftF Organizations | Impactful 5ftF Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| 79.34% Percentage of sponsored contributors pledged to 5ftF who logged into WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ in the past 3 months. | 44.26% Percentage of organizations with at least one Active 5ftF Sponsored Contributor (with w.org profile activity in the past 3 months). | 20.77% Percentage of organizations contributing to impactful projects that align with the project’s Big Picture Goals. |
2. Contributor Stats
Contributor Count & Pledged Hours
Stats as of May 20, 2024:
- 8,102 self-sponsored contributors have pledged 114,001 hours
- 897 company-sponsored contributors have pledged 7,926 hours
3. Documentation Revision Project
Contributors have started working on revising the available documentation on the Five for the Future website. The goal of this effort is to improve support for 5ftF company and contributor onboarding and retention.
You can follow along or contribute to this project here: https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/249
4. Dashboard Project Updates
@courane01 recently published these P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. posts closely related to the 5ftF project.
- Project Health Dashboards (and an invitations to join Hangout calls)
- Recognizing Contributions and Acknowledging Challenges
5. Observations from the Recent Mentorship Cohort
This March, the WordPress Contributor Working Group successfully wrapped up the second cohort of the Contributor Mentorship Program. This program brought valuable insights into how we can further enhance the onboarding of new contributors, some of which were shared and discussed in the Working Group Chat in April.
Mentee Survey Results
- Contribution familiarity went up by 27%
- Contribution confidence went up by 25%
- 89% of mentees were satisfied with the program
- 81% of mentees achieved their personal goals as part of the program
- 62% of mentees created future contribution plans
To leverage the mentorship program’s success, the Working Group plans to integrate its effective elements, such as personalized guidance, goal setting, and feedback mechanisms, into the 5ftF organization contribution onboarding process.
This post was collaboratively written by @harishanker @nao and @peiraisotta.