It's been a year since I quit my job to work on Drupal and play with Jack. Many amazingly special things have happened to me. I still remember falling off my seat when Dries asked me to be a committer and lying awake all night with excitement whilst I "slept on it".

Without the Drupal community's support I would have had to return to work much earlier. With everyone's donations through gittip, two companies' financial support and my own savings, I've been able to continue working full time on core. However my savings are diminished and the corporate sponsorship only lasts until 18th April. Fundraising month to month is more than a little stressful when a family is involved. Therefore I plan to take some form of employment. Hopefully I will be able to find some interesting work starting at the beginning of May.

Whatever type of job I take it is important to me that I have the ability to continue to contribute as much as possible to Drupal 8 and have time for my family. What will happen to my gittip? This depends on the type of job I take. If I take a contracting job where I work less than a full work week I will reset my target so that it'll amount to extra time I will work on core. If I take a full time job that allows me to work on core I plan to create a gittip team called "Drupal Core" to which I will transfer all my gittip earnings to this. Obviously, people are free to redirect their gittips as they see fit.

Fundraising and Drupal

There are companies using Drupal that are willing to contribute to core even though the immediate benefits are not tangible. One of the companies that has funded me since December is a Drupal user, but not at all focussed on Drupal development. The only condition for receiving the money is that I do not disclose their name. This is because it is not easy from an accounting perspective for a company to donate money to an individual.

We all know that core is more complex than ever and the interests in Drupal larger. Sustaining Drupal core development is a key challenge for the community. I think we need to seriously consider extending the Drupal Association's remit to be able to coordinate the collection and distribution of funds from major Drupal users for Drupal core development. If this is impossible then this does not mean we should not still try to solve the problem.

Thanks

Feel free to contact me if you have an interesting job offer - especially if it involves Drupal 8.

Lastly, thank you to everyone for your wonderful support.

Tags:

• Drupal