Appwrite Loves Open Source: Why I Chose To Sponsor Santosh
Tags: opensource
Published: 2023-02-28 16:17:44

## Off season Santa on duty - sponsoring OSS projects/maintainers

[Appwrite](https://appwrite.io/) being an open-source company has its vision rooted to giving back to the community. We know the hurdles faced by a project maintainer and want to solve at least one - the fund. Be it for the project, better features or maintaining the community every little thing requires some funding and to help reduce that Appwrite gives an opportunity to its employees to pick and sponsor an open-source project/maintainer for one year.

## To, by and for the community

Communities played an important role in my own development - it improved my technical and soft skills. From learning about Git to learning about different cultures, making friends across the globe - communities have given me all. So when I had an opportunity to be a santa, I chose Santosh Yadav - an Angular GDE, India’s first GitHub star and a co-founder of [This is Learning](https://twitter.com/Thisis_Learning). [Santosh](https://twitter.com/SantoshYadavDev) is a self-made developer, and a father of a beautiful daughter. He is currently settled in Germany and is a living proof of how one can achieve their dreams in spite of no-family backup.

## From contributor to maintainer 

It dates back to 2018, when Santosh wanted to get started with open-source, but was only able to do it in 2019. He started with [Ngrx](https://github.com/ngrx) - as a contributor, created few utilities for Angular and is an active member of the project now. When he started, he wasn’t well versed with Angular, but the impostor syndrome did not stop him from contributing and today he is a well known face in the community. He also thanks the open source community for shaping his career and getting him job offers too. 

Fast forward to 2022, Santosh is now looking forward to following his passion in tech and community, by helping early in career developers, students and career switchers. He is already supporting many developers and projects and is looking to increase them sevenfold - this is where Appwrite has decided to help him expand his initiative and reach every developer, project that needs support. Santosh, being a co-founder of [This is learning](https://dev.to/this-is-learning), is imparting free and quality tech content to 300+ people, and is aiming to double it this year.

## And it’s a wrap

It brings me so much joy to be finally able to bring a change, and I am so proud of Appwrite for giving me an opportunity to give back to the community I have learnt so much from.

If you love Appwrite and think we are doing a good job, hop on to our [Discord server](https://appwrite.io/discord) - we have so much fun going on, you don’t want to miss.

Before I end, here’s a little bit about Appwrite - we are the firebase alternative to all your backend needs (and more). 

Perks:It is open source, has some cool functions, there are rumors about some more amazing features under work in progress. Find out more from:
- [Appwrite Contribution Guide](https://github.com/appwrite/appwrite/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [Appwrite Discord](https://appwrite.io/discord)
- [Appwrite Github](https://github.com/appwrite)
- [Appwrite Documentation](https://appwrite.io/docs)