For many of us, Drupal is very much a labor of love. It's a story of having fun and working hard. If you follow what we do, it's easy to understand what we're all about -- making it easy to build websites, both for users and developers. Passion spreads and as a result, Drupal's size and scope has grown beyond what an ad hoc group of volunteers can realistically manage. Organizing last summer's Drupal conference in Brussels would have been a lot easier with some financial backing, for example. Maintaining, scaling, upgrading, and improving the Drupal.org infrastructure is becoming a monumental task.

In response, we're proud to launch the Drupal Association. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization with one goal: to support the Drupal project.

I wanted the Drupal Association to be a servant to the Drupal community, and to give it what it needs to flourish. Like this, the Drupal community can focus on what it does best: satisfying our users, defining Drupal's technical direction and having a blast.

After talking to various leaders in the Open Source community, I got together with Dries Knapen and Steven Wittens and we spent days drafting statutes and internal regulations. These were checked by legal advisors, refined, checked and proof-read by various members of the Drupal community until we were confident to incorporate the Drupal Association. Today, the Drupal Association has been incorporated, we assembled the initial board of directors, and we're ready to get to work.

Creating the Drupal Association opens up a number of opportunities. For example, donations may be given to the project through a central entity, rather than to individual community members. By handling administrative tasks, such as event management, resources are freed within the community to focus on improving the Drupal project. In the future, it will also provide the opportunity for individuals and businesses to be formally recognized as supporters of the project.

Needless to say, I'm really excited about the Drupal Association and we've big plans for it, too. Expect to learn more about that soon.

You can read more in our official press release and the official announcement.

In the mean time, if you want to learn more about the Drupal Association, check out the Drupal Association's website; in particular the "about" page, the structure, the history, the staff, the statutes and internal regulations and the FAQ.

Donate to the Drupal Association

Now that we have this vital body in place, it is time to start funding it and giving it the power it needs to get things done. There has never been a better time to show your appreciation and support of Drupal than now, and the best way is to donate to the Drupal Association. Your donation will enable the association to meet its goals for supporting Drupal. One of the first goals is to enhance the hosting infrastructure of Drupal.org to provide a faster and more responsive experience on this site.