> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://guidebook.theopensourceway.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://guidebook.theopensourceway.org/growing-contributors.md).

# Growing Contributors

This is the longest and most thorough section of the guidebook because the challenges of creating a community around an open source software project are complex, interesting, difficult, sticky, and rewarding.

Once you reach the point where someone wants to help you make your software better, there is a sacred, ages-old responsibility you have as a human already inside of a community, responding to and enabling someone outside of that community to come in from the cold. This is made even more poignant when that person has come to bring not only their precious attention but an associated willingness towards effort. Effort to make the world a better place.

Because at its core, when someone willingingly contributes to a community effort, it is from the desire we all share to see the world a better place. Contribution is the moment where desire becomes action.

This section contains chapters that:

* Explain the journey and shifts from participating to contributing.
* Define and provide examples of what are contributions to an open source project.
* Provide steps towards organizing a full open source project.
* Give material for efforts and creating a program to welcome new contributors onboard the project.
* Share the importance of having a culture of mentorship.
* Have concrete steps towards building a mentoring program.
* Cover the means and methods for creating and conducting governance.
* List types of community roles and the meanings around them.
* Focus on the importance of and techniques for self-care for community managers and contributors.

This section is useful for you if:

* You are looking to grow a contributor base.
* You want a deeper, more thorough understanding of one of the key topics in this section.
* You are troubleshooting issues around your contributors or work they are doing.
* You need some reference materials to explain to the methods and philosophy of guiding a contributor community.
* You've been waiting all guidebook to get to this section, not wanting to skip ahead, but savoring each page.


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