Nick DeJesus/GitHub GitHub Sponsors lets stakeholders give money to developers of open source projects they depend on. Hundreds of devs use it to make a full-time living and some even pull in six figure salaries. A GitHub product exec told Insider the firm is planning a global expansion and testing new models. Although open source software powers some of the world's most well-known technologies, even the most popular projects are often maintained by developers who volunteer their time and effort. Microsoft-owned GitHub is trying to change that through a program that helps those open source developers get paid for their work.