Gem Fellowship 2027 for Ruby open source maintainers

The Gem Fellowship is a grant program for people who maintain open source tools for the Ruby community. It is a partnership between gem.coop, a cooperative in the Ruby community, and Contributed Systems, the company behind Sidekiq Pro and Sidekiq Enterprise. Contributed Systems has committed $100,000 in grants for each of three years.

Each accepted project receives between $2,500 and $25,000 USD. The first announcement says grants are given in steps of $2,500 and that at least five projects are funded each year. The money is for existing projects, not seed funding for new ones.

The fellowship is meant for individuals. You can apply for a project you do not own, but you should show that the project wants to mentor you or accept your work, for example by opening an issue first. People outside the United States can apply, as long as there is a way to pay them; note any payment issues in the proposal.

Applications for the 2027 round open on 1 December 2026, and the organizer takes them during the month of December. Your proposal should describe the work you want to do and the amount you ask for. In January, gem.coop members select the proposals to fund. After the work is mostly done, you send a final summary with payment details, and the stipend is paid within one month after the work is checked.

The 2026 round received 40 applications asking for $439,000 in total and funded eight projects, among them Rouge, ruby-git, Herb and Bridgetown.