Providing travel grants to community members for PyCon US and witnessing both their growth and contributions to the event is one of the most fulfilling aspects of our work at the PSF, and every year, we only wish we could award more!
PyCon US 2025 received 952 travel grant applications from 87 countries totaling almost $1.7M. We dislike using the phrase “record-breaking” every year, but it’s true! Again, the number and amount requested have broken our 2024 record. The total dollar amount requested was more than six times the available budget. For 2025, the total PyCon US revenue is budgeted at $2.3M and supports conference costs of $2.5M, including $266K in travel grant funds. The Travel Grant Team offered 272 travel grants and 33 ticket-only grants, amounting to $384K, or about 23%, of travel grant requests received.
The PSF is committed to financial transparency, and in line with that commitment, we are happy to share more about how our PyCon US 2025 travel grant process works.
Travel Grant Funding
PyCon US travel grants are funded from various sources including PyCon US ticket sales and sponsorships, the Python Core Devs, the Packaging Work Group, the PSF, and generous contributions from PyLadies. In addition, we already have a direct sponsorship for 2025 travel grants from OpenEDG Python Institute!
Inflation in event costs, continued economic risk from the tech sector, and global market swings mean that many corporations are funding less travel for both speakers and attendees. PyCon US has received increased travel grant requests over the past two years. We are working with a limited budget and can only accommodate a portion of those who applied.
Travel Grant Award Philosophy
PyCon US Travel Grants are designed to further our non-profit mission of promoting, protecting, and advancing the Python programming language while supporting the growth of a diverse and global community of Python developers. Our goal is to create an event that mirrors this diversity, unites individuals who will gain valuable experiences and bring those benefits back to their communities, and delivers an engaging and impactful experience from the first tutorial to the final sprint.
To achieve these goals, we allocate part of our budget to fund our incredible lineup of speakers, and this year, to reduce costs, we limited travel grants to up to 2 speakers per talk. We prioritized factors such as global representation, welcoming first-time PyCon US attendees, supporting folks looking for new job opportunities, and inviting students, educators, and community organizers from around the world. Despite our best efforts, the bittersweet reality remains that we couldn't award grants to everyone who applied.
Although we are a US-based conference and non-profit organization, PyCon US strives to bring folks from around the world. In fact, about 75% of travel grant funds were offered to non-US Pythonistas covering 58 countries!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Percentage of Travel Grants Awarded by Continent
The PyCon US Travel Grant Team takes a personalized approach to the awards process, and each application is reviewed multiple times (by humans!). The team continues to be impressed with the true community spirit of the Python community! All travel grant awards for PyCon US 2024 were used by awardees.
Award Outcome
As of the acceptance deadline of March 11th, 2025, 226 full travel and 28 ticket-only grants were accepted by grantees. 9 full travel and 2 ticket-only grants were declined, and a handful of grants expired.
We do not have additional funds to award because the Travel Grant Team intentionally over-awards grants; for reference, our budget was $266K, and we offered $384K. Based on several years of historical travel grant offers, acceptance, and use trends, the team has found that many folks aren’t able to use the travel grant due to changes in personal circumstances, illness, changes in work or education commitments, as well as issues securing a US visa.
You can find more information on the PyCon US Travel Grants FAQ. If you have feedback or questions about our process, please contact us at pycon-aid@python.org.
Sincerely,
The PyCon US 2025 Travel Grant Team
p.s. 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.