Membership at the Eclipse Foundation

The Foundation offers four levels of membership: Strategic, Contributing, Associate, and Committer.

Strategic Members

Strategic Members play an integral role in the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem. Strategic members are organizations that view participation in Eclipse projects as strategic to their business and are investing significant developer and other resources to further drive Eclipse Foundation technology. Typically, Strategic Members lead one or more top-level projects. Strategic membership benefits include:

• A seat on Board of Directors of Eclipse Foundation
• A seat on Foundation Architecture Council
• The opportunity to attend and vote at all meetings of the General Assembly
• Access to a number of Strategic Members-Only Programs such as banner and logo promotion on eclipse.org and eclipse.org/downloads
• Ad hoc Intellectual Property analysis and reporting
• Help to launch open source initiative(s)
• Direct influence through board voting rights on key aspects of the Eclipse ecosystem, including licensing, governing policy development, and amendments to Membership Agreement and bylaws
• Discounts towards sponsorship and attendance of Eclipse Foundation events
• Access to Eclipse Foundation marketing and advertising programs
• Opportunity to lead in the establishment of Eclipse Working Groups
• Opportunity to join and participate on all Eclipse Foundation public mailing lists
• Opportunity to show support for the Eclipse Foundation by displaying the Eclipse Foundation member logo

Contributing Members (formerly referred to as Solutions Members)

Contributing Members are organizations that view Eclipse Foundation technologies as important to their corporate and product strategy and offer products and services based on, or with, Eclipse Foundation technologies. These organizations want to participate in the development of the broad Eclipse Foundation ecosystem. Most members join initially as Contributing Members. Contributing membership benefits include:

• Contributing Members are represented on the Board of Directors, and thus have influence over decisions relating to licensing, governing policy development, and amendments to Membership Agreement and bylaws
• Opportunity to stand for election as the representative of all Contributing Members on the Board of Directors. Elections are held annually in the first quarter
• The opportunity to attend and vote at all meetings of the General Assembly
• Discounts towards sponsorship and attendance of Eclipse Foundation run events
• Access to Eclipse Foundation marketing and advertising programs
• Opportunity to participate in Eclipse Working Groups, including as a Strategic Member of those working groups
• Opportunity to join and participate on all Eclipse Foundation public mailing lists
• Opportunity to show support for the Eclipse Foundation by displaying the Eclipse Foundation Member logo

Associate Members

Associate Members are organizations that participate in and want to show support for the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem. Many research and educational institutions choose to join as an Associate Member. Associate membership benefits include:

• Opportunity to join and participate on all Eclipse public mailing lists, and to attend Members meetings
• Ability to join select Eclipse Working Groups as a Guest Member
• The opportunity to attend all meetings of the General Assembly
• Opportunity to show support for the Eclipse Foundation by displaying the Eclipse Foundation Member logo

Committer Members

The Eclipse Foundation’s governance model provides individual committers with the ability to become full members and includes representation on the Eclipse Board of Directors. Committer Members are individuals that are the core developers of the Eclipse projects and can commit changes to project source code.

Committer membership benefits include:

• Committer Members are represented on the Board of Directors, and thus have influence over decisions relating to licensing, governing policy development, and amendments to Membership Agreement and bylaws
• Opportunity to stand for election as the representative of all Committer Members on the Board of Directors. Elections are held annually in the first quarter
• The opportunity to attend all meetings of the General Assembly

Learn more about Committer membership.

How to Become a Member

In order for your organisation to become a member, you must complete and sign the following documents through our Member Enrolment Portal:

• Membership Application Form (you will need to indicate which class of membership you are joining. Most organisations join as Contributing members.)
• Membership Agreement
• Member Committer and Contributor Agreement (optional, but recommended)

If you would prefer, you may instead download, complete, and sign the documents and email to us for processing.

Note: Membership in an Eclipse Working Group requires the execution of the respective Working Group’s Participation Agreement. For more information, review the list of the current Eclipse Working Groups and their respective Participation Agreement.

What is the Member Enrolment Portal?

The simplest way to complete and sign the documents is by creating an Eclipse account (if you don't already have one) and using our Membership Enrolment Portal. This portal will walk you through the documents above and ensure you provide all the necessary information. Once complete, our staff will review the submission and send you the appropriate agreements for electronic signature.

What if I have questions?

Our governance page lists all of our key governance documents, including the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, IP Policy, Antitrust Policy, Affiliates Guidelines, etc.

And feel free to email us with any additional questions you have.

For Committer Members

If you are a Committer who is not already a Member by virtue of your employer being a Member, you are welcome to join as an individual Committer Member. The steps involved in becoming a committer are described here; individual Committer Members should download and email us the Membership Agreement.

Eclipse Foundation AISBL

In January 2021, the Eclipse Foundation created a new Belgian-based organisation, Eclipse Foundation AISBL. All new members are strongly encouraged to join this Eclipse Foundation AISBL organisation and do so using the above application and agreements.

Prior to January 2021, Eclipse Foundation membership was based on Eclipse Foundation, Inc., a Delaware-based organisation, and this organisation still exists. The membership benefits for both organisations are identical, and members are expected to join only one. Any new member of Eclipse Foundation who believes they have reason to join the Delaware-based organisation may contact membership@eclipse.org for the appropriate versions of the Membership Agreement and Membership Application.