On July 5, 2024, I got a notification that stopped me mid-task. I'd been nominated for the Yoast Care Fund. I had to read it twice.
The Care Fund is Yoast's way of recognizing WordPress contributors who give significant time to the project — people contributing to Core, documentation, training, community events — without direct financial compensation. I knew about it. I'd seen other recipients. I didn't think I was there yet. You can read my full Yoast Care Fund interview here.
Who Nominated Me
The nomination came from Ahmed Kabir Chaion, someone I'd worked alongside in the WordPress contributor space. His words in the nomination caught me off guard — he described my work as reflecting "multifaceted involvement and unwavering commitment." That phrasing stuck with me. Not because it was flattering, but because it made me realize how much of what I do, I do with my head down. I rarely step back and see it from the outside.
Chaion had watched me contribute across multiple teams — Core, Hosting, Docs, Training, Testing — and across different types of work, from patching tickets to writing Dev Chat summaries to showing up at Contributor Days and helping others get their first commits in. It meant something that someone who'd been in the community much longer than me saw that work as worth recognizing.
Where I Was in My Contribution Journey
By mid-2024 I'd been contributing to WordPress Core since version 6.3. That sounds like a lot written out, but in practice it's a slow, humbling process. WordPress Core development moves through trac tickets, patches, and long comment threads. Getting a patch committed — even a small one — requires persistence, follow-through, and learning to accept feedback from maintainers who've been doing this for years.
One of the people who shaped that process for me was Colin Stewart, a Core committer and Triage Lead. He became a mentor figure without either of us making it formal. When I was unsure whether a patch was worth pursuing, or when feedback on a ticket felt discouraging, having someone with his experience willing to give honest direction made a real difference.
The Yoast Care Fund exists specifically to support contributors who give their time freely to WordPress.org. Receiving it meant my work across Core, Docs, Training, and community events had been visible enough to someone to be worth nominating.
What It Actually Felt Like
Honestly? It felt like validation I didn't know I needed. Contributing to open source is inherently thankless in the traditional sense — there's no performance review, no manager telling you the work matters, no bonus. You do it because you believe in the project. But after months of quiet work, hearing that the community noticed — that's a different kind of fuel.
It also made me feel a responsibility I hadn't felt as acutely before. If people are watching your contributions and finding them worth supporting, you carry something forward for them too. It's not pressure — it's more like a reminder of why the work connects to something bigger than your own to-do list.
What I'd Tell Someone Starting Out
The hardest part of contributing to WordPress is the beginning — not because the technical bar is impossibly high, but because the project is enormous and it's easy to feel invisible. Nobody is going to assign you a ticket or tap you on the shoulder. You have to find your entry point, make noise in the right threads, and keep showing up even when your patches get rejected.
- Start with what you know — if you work in hosting, the Hosting team is a natural fit.
- Docs and Testing are genuinely underserved and welcoming to new contributors.
- Contributor Days at WordCamps are the fastest way to get unstuck at the beginning.
- Find one person who's been doing it longer than you and pay attention to how they work.
The Yoast Care Fund was a moment, not a destination. The contribution work continues the same way it always has. But I think about Chaion's nomination note more than I'd admit — and it quietly keeps me honest about why I show up.
