Awarding travel grants to community members to PyCon US and seeing how much they get out of and contribute to the event is one of the most rewarding things we do at the PSF; every year, we wish we could award more.
PyCon US 2024 received 852 travel grant requests totaling almost $1.5 million. With estimated revenue of $1.8M and conference costs of $2.1M, we didn’t have the funds to support every applicant. In round one, we offered $360K, or about 24%, of the grant requests received. This is a record number of travel grants received and offered. We know many folks hoped for a grant and were disappointed not to receive one, so we wanted to share more about the process.
Travel Grant Funding
PyCon US travel grants are funded by various sources, from PyCon US ticket sales and sponsorships, Python Core Devs, the PSF, and generous contributions from PyLadies.
In 2024, some funding sources have contracted. To date, we have not received any corporate travel grant sponsorships. Furthermore, the crunch in the tech sector’s economy is negatively affecting general conference sponsorship. Inflation in event costs and lower projected sponsorships have combined to create a significant loss for PyCon US this year. The tech sector crunch also means that corporations aren’t funding travel for both speakers and attendees, which leads to more travel grant requests, which leads to us awarding a lower percentage of travel grants.
Travel Grant Award Philosophy
PyCon US Travel Grants are intended to support our non-profit mission to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. Overall, we aim to have an event that reflects that diverse community and our diverse interests, that brings together people who will get a lot out of the event and bring benefits back to their home communities, and that is engaging and impactful from the first tutorial to the last sprint.
To those ends, a part of our budget went to funding our incredible lineup of speakers. We also considered factors such as getting representation from around the world, bringing people who have never attended PyCon US, people who are looking for work, as well as educators and conference and community organizers around the world. Even still, the bittersweet reality is there are so many wonderful people in our community that we could not award grants to everyone who applied (though we sorely wish we were able to).
Although we are a US-based conference, we strive to bring folks from around the world. In fact, 77% of our travel grant funds were offered to 54 countries outside of the US!
Since PyCon US 2022, the Travel Grant Team has used an individualized approach; we read every application more than once. Funds awarded are more likely to be used under this awards model; in fact, there were no travel grant leftovers from PyCon US 2023. Prior to 2020, the team used an algorithm-based approach that relied on randomization and sometimes left money on the table that could have been used by other applicants.
Exploring Alternatives
We decided to offer an in-person ticket to anyone within the US and an online ticket for anyone outside the US. This resulted in offers for 203 in-person tickets and 420 online tickets (which would otherwise cost $100-$400 each). We know it may be impossible to use the in-person ticket without accompanying travel funds, but we wanted to offer something even if we couldn’t award the full request. If you’d like to request an exchange for an in-person ticket to an online ticket, or vice versa, please email your request to pycon-reg@python.org.
Some questions were raised about how multiple rounds of grant allocations work. Our award emails advise folks that they may request additional funds if the round one award is insufficient. Requesting additional funds removes awardees from the round one travel grant pool and puts them into the second round. Unless we receive new corporate sponsorships or other funds, round two funds come from the funds folks don’t accept in round one.
To clarify the language in the award emails, the complimentary registrations will not be removed from anyone in round 2. That is to say, if you have been offered a complimentary ticket, that offer stands regardless of whether you request additional funds or not. Even if you put yourself into the second round, you will NOT forfeit your complimentary registration.
Find more information on the PyCon US Travel Grants FAQ. If you have feedback on our process, please send it to pycon-aid@python.org.
PyCon US Staff
PS - As a final note, we’d love to continue expanding our travel grant program in the future. If you’d like to help do that, a great way is to encourage your employer or other companies you are connected with to sponsor the PSF or to let them know you notice and appreciate it if they are already a sponsor.
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