Why the PHP Foundation Was Created and How It Supports Core Development

Background

PHP is celebrating 26 years of development, driven by contributors such as Rasmus Lerdorf, Zeev Suraski, Andi Gutmans, Nikita Popov and many others. On November 20, 2021, the community announced a new evolution for the language.

Founding of the PHP Foundation

A non‑profit organization called the PHP Foundation is being created by several companies and individuals, including JetBrains, to ensure the quality and future of PHP.

Nikita Popov, a long‑time core contributor who helped deliver PHP 7.4, 8.0 and 8.1, announced he will leave JetBrains on December 1, reducing his time spent on PHP. His departure prompted the community to accelerate foundation work.

Community Momentum

In May 2021, Joe Watkins published a blog urging the community to prevent the loss of key contributors, sparking discussions about forming a foundation. Zend, part of Perforce, has contributed critical components to PHP for over 20 years, including the object model, opcode cache, the PHP 7 engine and JIT compiler.

Founding Members

The following companies have agreed to join the PHP Foundation: Automattic, Laravel, Symfony, Acquia, Zend, Craft CMS, Private Packagist, Tideways, and PrestaShop.

Mission and Operations

The foundation’s core mission is to ensure the long‑term development and prosperity of PHP. To start operations quickly, the community has engaged Open Collective (opencollective.com/phpfoundation) to handle legal and accounting matters.

Open Collective also supports other open‑source projects such as Vue.js, webpack, and Yii Framework.

The foundation has already received full contributions from member companies, expecting to raise over $300,000 annually, with JetBrains pledging $100,000 per year.

Funds will be used to pay core developers market‑level salaries, enabling more contributors to work full‑time on PHP.

Governance

A temporary management board will be established, later replaced by a permanent governing body. The temporary board includes representatives from sponsoring companies and PHP researchers such as Rasmus Lerdorf, Dmitry Stogov, Joe Watkins, Sara Golemon, Derick Rethans, Sebastian Bergmann, and Nikita Popov.

Activities and Grants

The foundation will allocate money to support PHP contributors, both part‑time and full‑time, regardless of other income sources. Grant applications are open for a 28‑day period (link: https://forms.gle/mk52v6FphaYr6yMS8).

Next Steps

After selecting developers, the temporary board will document workflows with community help. The PHP RFC process will remain unchanged, with core language decisions staying within the internal PHP community.

How to Contribute

Individuals can apply for grants, donate via opencollective.com/phpfoundation, encourage their companies to support PHP, or spread the word using the #ThePHPFoundation hashtag on social media.

FAQ

Q: Why does a good language face challenges? A: Losing key contributors can be painful, but the foundation aims to keep PHP thriving.

Q: Can I sponsor via GitHub? A: Not yet, but the option is planned.

Q: How much funding can be requested? A: Up to 20% of a part‑time position, potentially full‑time.

Q: What is the foundation’s initial operational scope? A: Focus on hiring core developers; later it may expand to non‑core projects and community initiatives.

Q: How long will it take to formalize operating procedures? A: The goal is within six months.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to community members Joe Watkins, Stefan Priebsch, Sebastian Bergmann, Sara Golemon, Larry Garfield, Alexander Makarov, Nicolas Grekas, Ben Ramsey, and many others.