💖 Your First Month With GitHub Sponsors

[mecodeatlas]

An onboarding guide for newly approved maintainers 💖

Getting approved for GitHub Sponsors is a meaningful milestone, as your work becomes eligible for financial support from our community.

The early days are about understanding how the system works and setting a stable, sustainable foundation. This guide focuses on concrete actions you can take after your profile is approved and published, with links to official documentation whenever you want to double-check details.

Before you start: get oriented

Before adjusting tiers or sharing links, it helps to understand the context you are operating in.

✅ Orientation checklist

• Confirmed whether I was approved as a sponsored developer or a sponsored organization
• Reviewed how GitHub Sponsors works, including the About GitHub Sponsors overview and the GitHub Sponsors Additional Terms, and set expectations for where sponsorships may come from

Week 1: Minimum viable setup

The goal of the first week is simple. Make sure your account is clearly presented and ready to receive sponsorships without creating unnecessary pressure.

✅ Action checklist

• Opened my Sponsors profile and confirmed it is publicly visible
• Checked that my profile description clearly reflects what I maintain today
• Choose whether to enable monthly sponsorships, one-time sponsorships, or both
• Revise or create one or two sponsorship tiers (if you have not done so already)
• Removed any tier benefit that depends on real-time availability or strict deadlines

Need help double-checking these steps?
See the following documentation:

• Editing your profile details for GitHub Sponsors
• Managing your sponsorship tiers

Week 1 deepening: tiers that won’t lock you in

Tiers should support your work, not create ongoing obligations or stress.

✅ Action checklist

• Each tier description is short and easy to skim
• Benefits focus on recognition, access, or updates
• I avoided offering custom work, guaranteed response times, or private support
• I understand that retiring a tier does not remove existing sponsors
• I am comfortable keeping these tiers unchanged for at least one month

Week 2: Visibility and communication choices

You are not required to announce your Sponsors profile immediately. What matters is being intentional and clear.

✅ Action checklist

• Decided whether I will announce my Sponsors page publicly this month
• If announcing, drafted a short message explaining why sponsorship exists
• If not announcing, intentionally chose to wait
• Reviewed tier descriptions to ensure expectations are explicit and limited
• Contacting your sponsors" once they receive sponsorship

Need help double-checking these steps?
See the following documentation:

• Editing your profile details for GitHub Sponsors
• Contacting your sponsors

Week 3: Payout timing and expectations

This is often when maintainers start checking dashboards more closely. Understanding payout timing helps avoid unnecessary concern.

GitHub Sponsors follows a monthly payout cycle. Newly approved profiles also go through a probation period before the first payout.

✅ Action checklist

• Confirmed that a 60-day probation period applies before the first payout
• Understood that the probation period starts when I receive my first sponsor
• Confirmed that payouts run on a monthly cycle (around the 22nd)
• Checked where payout-related information appears in my account
• Reminded myself that payout timing alone is not a performance signal

Need help double-checking these steps?
See the following documentation:

• Payment timing
• Managing your payouts from GitHub Sponsors

Week 4: Review and stabilize

The final week is about confirming that your setup feels sustainable and aligned with your goals.

✅ Action checklist

• Re-read my Sponsors profile from a first-time visitor perspective
• Simplified any tier description that felt unclear
• Removed any benefit I no longer feel confident delivering
• Confirmed that links and descriptions reflect my current work
• Wrote down two things I learned during my first month

End of month: ready for month two

✔️ Month one readiness checklist

• I know where to check payouts and sponsorship settings
• I can explain my Sponsors setup in two sentences
• My tiers feel sustainable
• I know what I will not change next month
• I feel confident moving forward

This guide is meant to be practical, not prescriptive. Use it to orient yourself, confirm your setup, and move forward with clarity.

Over to you

If you have already gone through your first month with GitHub Sponsors, what would you add to this checklist for someone starting today?