Dear WPCC Community,

2023 marked the WP Community Collective’s first year and saw a journey filled with challenges and triumphs. We move into 2024 with a profound sense of gratitude for the strength and commitment of the WordPress community, and we are excited to share some of our milestones with you.

We received our first donation for the WPCC Accessibility Fellowship on January 3, 2023. Seven months later, thanks to the generosity of our contributors, we successfully raised enough funds to fund the Accessibility Fellowship. 

After navigating through months of paperwork and processing, including a few accessibility challenges, we're thrilled to announce that as of January 2024, Alex Stine has officially joined the WPCC as the first WPCC Accessibility Fellow. Actually, the very first WPCC Fellow in history! We're excited to work with him over the next six months to advocate for and elevate accessibility within the WordPress community.

In August, WordPressCS–a crucial component for the stability of the WordPress ecosystem–was facing a critical bus factor of 1 and a immediate halt to maintenance. To support the development of an organization that could help sustain a functional PHP code base, including the crucial WordPressCS, we opened a tier to collect and pool funds. Once again demonstrating the generosity of the WordPress community, we raised a total of $1202.79 (after mandatory processing fees). We are excited to be able to support the work that went into facilitating the management of the PHPCS project, including its transfer and migration from a privately owned archive to an openly managed community-led resource.

A milestone moment for WPCC was signing a sponsorship agreement with our inaugural corporate partner to foster diversity within WordPress. We're excited about this partnership's potential and look forward to sharing more details soon!

This first year of the WPCC has had its own unique learning curve, and for us, it emphasized that doing things right requires time. Our parent organization, the Open Collective Foundation, underwent significant changes in leadership and policies, changing our plans and slowing our processes. Partnering with larger organizations brought in the reality of extended approval chains. This experience has strengthened our patience and adaptability, demonstrating that navigating challenges can lead to growth and stronger partnerships.

We believe the true core of WordPress is the community and the individual people that comprise that community. This year, the WPCC's founding volunteer board members experienced numerous reminders that we are also people, including family challenges, online bullying and harassment, and mental and physical health issues. These experiences have not only tested our personal resilience, but also highlighted the importance of community trust, support, and understanding.

Transparency remains a cornerstone of mission and our operations. Every donation and expenditure for the WPCC can be viewed at opencollective.com/thewpcc/transactions. We are also developing our GitHub to house our organizational management openly. We believe these choices will ensure clear and open organizational accountability as we grow. It is our hope that this approach leads to a culture of trust within the WPCC contributor community, and the greater WordPress community.

As we venture into 2024, our road map is focused on strengthening our organizational structure, such as organizational bylaws and policies, and deepening our engagement with contributors, including bringing on new board members and folks who are interested in leading new initiatives. The WP Community Collective is intended to be a place where we can combine the collective effort of our community, and as such we look forward to developing the future of the WPCC collectively!

We extend our deepest appreciation to each of you for your contribution, whether it be time, financial resources, or, crucially, moral support. Together, we believe we can make a meaningful and positive impact within the WordPress community.

Warm regards,

Sé Reed and Courtney Robertson

The WP Community Collective founding board members

P.S. After readying this update, we received news about Open Collective Foundation that will affect the WPCC moving forward. We will update you more when we have more information. Thank you.