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Setting up GitHub Sponsors for your personal account

You can become a sponsored developer by joining GitHub Sponsors, completing your sponsored developer profile, creating sponsorship tiers, submitting your bank and tax information, and enabling two-factor authentication for your account on GitHub.com.

Joining GitHub Sponsors

Anyone who contributes to an open source project and lives in a supported region is eligible to become a sponsored developer. Contributions include but are not limited to bug reports, issue triage, code, documentation, leadership, business development, project management, mentorship, and design. If you live in a region that isn't already supported by GitHub Sponsors, you can sign up for the waitlist to participate in the beta of GitHub Sponsors. For a list of supported regions, see GitHub Sponsors.

To join GitHub Sponsors as an organization, see "Setting up GitHub Sponsors for your organization."

  1. Navigate to GitHub Sponsors.

  2. If you are an organization owner, you have more than one eligible account. Click Get sponsored, then in the list of accounts, find your personal account.

  3. Click Join the waitlist.

  4. Follow the prompts to complete your contact information.

  5. Decide whether to receive sponsorship payouts via a bank account or through a fiscal host. For more information about setting up and using fiscal hosts, see "Using a fiscal host to receive GitHub Sponsors payouts."

    Note that you can only set up your fiscal host information at the time you sign up for GitHub Sponsors. If you decide you want to switch to using a fiscal host after your profile has been set up, please contact us through the GitHub Support portal.

  6. Review the GitHub Sponsors Additional Terms and GitHub Privacy Statement, then click Join the waitlist.

If you have a bank account in a supported region, GitHub will review your application within two weeks.

Completing your sponsored developer profile

After GitHub reviews your application, you can set up your sponsored developer profile so that people can start sponsoring you.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Your sponsors.

Screenshot of the profile options dropdown menu. One option, labeled "Your sponsors," is outlined in dark orange.

  1. If a list of your sponsored and eligible accounts is shown, to the right of the account you want to manage, click Dashboard.
  2. In the "Profile" section in the left sidebar, click Profile details.
  3. Under "Short bio", type a brief description of yourself and your work.
  4. In the "Introduction" section, type a description of the work you'll do with your sponsorships.
  5. Optionally, choose the repositories that are showcased on your GitHub Sponsors profile.
    • In the "Featured work" section, to the right of the section title, click Edit.
    • In the modal that appears, select up to six repositories, then click Save.
  6. Optionally, select Optional: Opt-in to get featured on github.com/sponsors.
  7. Click Update profile.

Creating sponsorship tiers

You can publish up to 10 one-time sponsorship tiers and 10 monthly tiers for sponsors to choose from. Each tier has its own one-time or monthly payment amount in US dollars. Publishing tiers is optional.

You can customize the rewards for each tier. For example, rewards for a tier could include:

  • Early access to new versions
  • Logo or name in README
  • Weekly newsletter updates
  • Other rewards your sponsors would enjoy ✨

You can give all sponsors in a tier access to a private repository by adding the repository to the tier. For more information, see "Managing your sponsorship tiers."

You can include a welcome message with information about accessing or receiving rewards, which will be visible after payment and in the welcome email.

Once you have published a tier, you cannot edit the price of that tier. Instead, you must retire the tier and create a new tier. Existing sponsors will remain on the retired tier until they change their sponsorship tier, cancel their sponsorship, or their one-time sponsorship period expires.

The maximum price is US$12,000 per month.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Your sponsors.

Screenshot of the profile options dropdown menu. One option, labeled "Your sponsors," is outlined in dark orange.

  1. If a list of your sponsored and eligible accounts is shown, to the right of the account you want to manage, click Dashboard.
  2. On the left sidebar, click Sponsor tiers.
  3. To create a monthly tier, click Add a monthly tier at the right of the page. Alternatively, to create a tier for one-time payments, click One-time tiers and then click Add a one-time tier.
  4. Type a price per month and description for the tier.
  5. Optionally, to add a welcome message for the tier, select Display welcome message, then type your message in the text field that appears.
  6. Click Save draft.
  7. Proofread your tier, then click Publish tier.
  8. Repeat the steps above until you've published all the tiers you want to offer.

Submitting your bank information

As a sponsored user, you will receive payouts to a bank account in a supported region or via a fiscal host.

Note that you can only set up your fiscal host information at the time you sign up for GitHub Sponsors. If you originally chose to use a Stripe Connect account when you signed up for your profile, but would like to switch to using a fiscal host, please contact us through the GitHub Support portal. For more information about setting up and using fiscal hosts, see "Using a fiscal host to receive GitHub Sponsors payouts."

If you choose to receive payouts to a bank account, your region of residence and the region of your bank account must match. For a list of supported regions, see GitHub Sponsors.

When applying for a Stripe Connect account, ensure all of your information is correct before you submit your application. It's difficult to update identity information, like your name and date of birth, after your application has been submitted.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Your sponsors.

Screenshot of the profile options dropdown menu. One option, labeled "Your sponsors," is outlined in dark orange.

  1. If a list of your sponsored and eligible accounts is shown, to the right of the account you want to manage, click Dashboard.
  2. Click Stripe Connect account.
  3. Follow the prompts to create your account.

Submitting your tax information

For more information about the tax forms you need to complete, see the following instructions on the United States Internal Revenue Service website.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Your sponsors.

Screenshot of the profile options dropdown menu. One option, labeled "Your sponsors," is outlined in dark orange.

  1. If a list of your sponsored and eligible accounts is shown, to the right of the account you want to manage, click Dashboard.

  2. At the top of the left sidebar, click Overview.

  3. Click tax forms .

    Screenshot of the GitHub Sponsors dashboard. A link, labeled "tax forms," is outlined in dark orange.

  4. Complete, sign, and submit the tax form.

Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) on your GitHub account

Before you can become a sponsored developer, you must enable 2FA for your account on GitHub.com. For more information, see "Configuring two-factor authentication."

Submitting your application to GitHub for approval

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Your sponsors.

Screenshot of the profile options dropdown menu. One option, labeled "Your sponsors," is outlined in dark orange.

  1. If a list of your sponsored and eligible accounts is shown, to the right of the account you want to manage, click Dashboard.
  2. Click Request approval.

It may take a few days for GitHub to review your application. After we approve your application, your profile will automatically be live on GitHub Sponsors.