OWASP Nest Sponsors Program

[arkid15r]

We'd like to start brainstorming and gathering ideas to define a potential sponsor program for OWASP Nest -- this time involving actual sponsorship funding.

The challenge is that, due to uncertainty around GSoC mentor stipend distribution for 2025/2026 - funds we'd previously used to fuel our sponsorship program -- we need to explore alternative sources of funding (external sponsors).

Our goal is to develop a balanced offering that would appeal to potential sponsors. While most prospects may come from existing OWASP Foundation sponsors, this is not a strict requirement. We have flexibility across the Nest ecosystem, including full control over the https://nest.owasp.org platform (for example, displaying logos or highlighting sponsors on specific pages), as well as GitHub repository (issue/pr templates, contribution process), and NestBot which we can leverage to provide value to sponsors.

Please feel free to share your ideas here or on Slack.

[rudransh-shrivastava]

I've seen "ad placeholders" on some websites. These typically have "Your brand here" / "Your logo here" / "Buy this space" text. Not sure if this is what we want, but it could attract sponsors.

[arkid15r]

Yeah, that's a good initial idea. It seems it'd quicker to come up with the requirements and create an issue for a PoC. Just implement initial version and build on top of it.

[dhirukumar]

Along with placeholders, we could also try a ‘sponsor a feature’ approach (onboarding, mentor matching, NestBot), with a small ‘Supported by ’ label for clean, contextual sponsor visibility. If this is possible to implement, it may help attract some sponsors

[anurag2787]

We can also add something lightweight in our workflows for example, a small “Supported by ” line at the end of every NestBot response as suggested by dhirukumar and also can add a short “Thanks to for supporting OWASP Nest” footer in issue and PR templates this will give more consistent visibility to the sponsors

[asifrazadev]

Enhanced Contributor Profiles with Activity Timeline & Badges

Description: Upgrade the Community Contributors page: Add a visual timeline of contributions (commits, PRs, issues across OWASP repos via PyGitHub), auto-awarded badges (e.g., "First PR", "10+ Contributions", "Chapter Leader"), and exportable profile cards for LinkedIn/resumes.
Why it improves Nest: Gamifies participation, recognizes active members, and helps with mentorship/recruitment.
Expected Outcomes: Rich profile views, badge system stored in DB.