Opportunity Grants

DjangoCon Africa 2020 postponed. Read more.

DjangoCon Africa 2020 offers grants to attendees and speakers, so that those who might otherwise not be able to attend won’t hesitate to participate. Some expenses for the conference attendance (which can include travel, hotel, registration etc.) will be covered for opportunity grant recipients.

We actively encourage people to apply for an opportunity grant. While we wish we could give grants to everyone who applies, we do not have the funds to do that. Our goal is to maximise the impact our grant program has, within the limited funds we have.

We try to do this in a number of ways:

  • Conferences are a meeting place for developers from all around the globe. Therefore, the selection process is designed to benefit people that we believe make a difference, particularly speakers and tutorial presenters.
  • Additionally, the selection process attempts to promote a more diverse DjangoCon Africa. While encouraging diversity takes many forms, we’re happy to use the opportunity grant program as a very direct method of supporting diversity within the Django community. In particular, our grant program prioritises people part of an underrepresented or marginalised group in tech, as these people are more likely to experience hardships and difficulties in travelling to our events and being a part of our community.
  • When prioritising grant applications, we try to get a feel for how much impact this grant will have on the applicant and the wider community and country, compared to others. In this, we consider things like involvement in a local community, social impact of the applicant’s activities, and how accessible other conferences are to them.

Our program prioritises speakers first, and then anyone who is part of an underrepresented or marginalised group in tech. These groups include, but are not limited to:

  • women and other gender minorities of all expressions and identities; e.g. trans, agender and non-binary people
  • people of color
  • sexuality minorities, including asexual people
  • people with disabilities, both visible and invisible
  • neurodivergent people
  • people with chronic illnesses or diseases
  • religious and ethnic minorities
  • age minorities (under ~21, over ~60)
  • people experiencing poverty
  • homeless and home/food insecure people
  • caregivers of children or other dependents
  • people who have experienced trauma and its aftermath (PTSD, anxiety, etc)
  • people living with or recovering from substance abuse

The closing date for grant applications will be same as the call for papers. If you would like to submit in the CFP and need a grant if you are selected, please ensure you fill in both the CFP form and the opportunity grant application form.

If you are an accepted speaker, and you don’t need a grant because your employer is funding your conference costs, we can recognise your employer for this. For now we’re planning to get their logo in the programme, next to your talk, and a post on the job board. This is opt-in. With this, we hope to make it a bit easier for you to convince your employer to contribute towards your conference costs as a speaker.

Lastly, we know that for some people it can be difficult to feel like it’s okay for you to apply. That’s why we want to stress:

  • Have you already attended a conference in the past? That’s ok.
  • Already received a grant in the past? Still ok.
  • Don’t have much experience with Django? That’s ok, too.
  • Don’t want to take money away from someone else? Really, it’s ok, everyone says that!
  • Don’t feel like you deserve this? That’s also ok: you do.

With our limited funds, we can’t promise you will receive a grant, but if you’re not sure, we encourage you to apply. If you’re uncomfortable with other people knowing you received a grant, you don’t have to tell them - our policy is to never publicly identify grant applicants or recipients unless we have your explicit permission.