Commercial Members | Apereo Foundation

Apereo Commercial Members are corporations, small businesses, and companies that demonstrate support for the Apereo Foundation and its constituent software communities by becoming paying members.

The process of becoming an Apereo Commercial Member is straightforward.

An applicant produces a short statement of 2 or 3 paragraphs about their company and why they believe synergy exists between the company and Apereo. This information is sent to Apereo's Executive director via email, ed@apereo.org

The Apereo Board of Directors evaluates the application and then votes on membership. If the application is approved, the company pays membership dues. All commercial membership levels secure a listing on our website and e-mailings of every inquiry to our website regarding software, services, RFPs, etc. Platinum membership secures an above-the-fold mention on the apereo.org home page.

Commercial Membership Contributions

Apereo Commercial Memberships have two levels. All memberships are based in USD.

Type	Benefits	Rate
Standard	Apereo Elections: Commercial Members are eligible to nominate candidates for and vote annually in the Apereo Board of Directors elections for “Organizational Member Representative” seats. Welcome Announcement: Within the first month of joining as a Commercial Member, Apereo will publish a “welcome announcement” on all the Foundation's major media platforms, highlighting the new Commercial Member including the Apereo website, Apereo internal discussion forums, Apereo project lists, BlueSky, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and through a general press release. Commercial Member Recognition: Commercial Members receive promotional opportunities, including display of Commercial Member’s logo and other agreed-upon identifying information on www.apereo.org and on any marketing and promotional media made by Apereo in connection with the Programs, solely for the purpose of acknowledging Commercial Members as a sponsor of the Programs in a manner (placement, form, content, etc.) reasonably determined by Apereo in its sole discretion. Commercial Member agrees to provide all the necessary content and materials for use in connection with such. Apereo Commercial Member Quarterly Business Round-table: An invitation will be extended to Commercial Members to join colleagues for a quarterly business round-table facilitated by Apereo’s Executive Director, Development Officer, and special guests to discuss current open source software trends, educational technology, open source business models, and other topics to advance the adoption of open source through member and foundation activities. The Business Round-table creates an opportunity to advise and offer feedback to the Foundation while offering time for peer-to-peer networking, sharing, and potential cooperation/collaboration. Apereo OSS Job Board Postings & Promotions: Commercial Members may include an unlimited number of job openings on the Apereo Job Board. Postings will be shared across all major social media platforms, listed on the Apereo website, included in Apereo’s newsletter, and forwarded to Apereo Project Management Committees for dissemination to their developer communities. Commercial Members will ensure that any job postings to be published by Apereo on Commercial Member’s behalf comply with all applicable municipal, state, provincial, and federal laws. Advanced Access to Resources: Commercial Members will receive access to Apereo-generated community resources (e.g., research reports, industry whitepapers, press releases, etc.) at least five business days in advance of public releases, offering opportunities to coordinate publicity opportunities/campaigns. OSS Values Statement: Commercial Members will provide, and Apereo will post on the Apereo website, a brief description of the Commercial Member's values regarding the development, dissemination, and sustainment of open source software in higher education. Commercial Member will submit their value statement as part of this Sponsorship Agreement.	$2,500/year
Platinum	All of the above, plus: Event Engagement: Platinum Commercial Members will be provided opportunities to participate (co-speaker) with Apereo staff and/or projects at relevant conferences (per acceptance by the event organizers), including All Things Open, Apereo MicroConferences, EDUCAUSE, FOSSY, OW2Con, SCaLE, etc. Bi-annual “Membership Thank You” social media posts. Costs associated with Commercial Member’s participation are the responsibility of the Platinum Commercial member. Apereo OSS Solution Showcase: Apereo will host, promote, and facilitate one 60-minute webinar per year as part of our OSS Solution Showcase program that will highlight the Platinum Commercial Members'’ OSS products and/or services. To qualify, the Platinum Commercial Member must: Include at least one co-presenter from a higher education institution using the Platinum Commercial Member’s product and/or services. Include information and resources beyond their own product and services that provide value to the audience (e.g., three best practices for making course registration easier for your students). Share your company’s values with regard to open source software and how your use of OSS drives value to your customers. Provide text for session descriptions, promotional emails, and presentation slides that incorporate and address feedback from Apereo. Apereo OSS Conference Coffee Connect-ups: At all conferences and events Apereo officially attends, Commercial Member will be invited to a networking session hosted by the Executive Director. Apereo Board of Directors, staff, etc. who attend the conference will also participate. Costs associated with Platinum Commercial Member’s participation are the responsibility of the member. OSS Business Development Consultation: Platinum Commercial Member will receive two one-hour business and strategy consultation sessions with Apereo’s Development Officer, focusing on topics such as entering the US higher education market, engaging edtech communities, OSS sales and marketing strategies, partnerships through high ed academic and research grants, recommendations for conferences and sales events, etc. CAMPOSS Partnerships: Tap into a pipeline of pre-qualified, funded projects through CAMPOSS—a federated alliance that connects mission-aligned companies with academic open source initiatives in need of expert services. As a CAMPOSS partner, your company can deliver paid, high-impact support in areas like infrastructure, security, governance, or community building—while Apereo handles the contracts, funding flow, and project coordination.	$10,000/year

Type

Benefits

Rate

Standard

Apereo Elections: Commercial Members are eligible to nominate candidates for and vote annually in the Apereo Board of Directors elections for “Organizational Member Representative” seats.
Welcome Announcement: Within the first month of joining as a Commercial Member, Apereo will publish a “welcome announcement” on all the Foundation's major media platforms, highlighting the new Commercial Member including the Apereo website, Apereo internal discussion forums, Apereo project lists, BlueSky, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and through a general press release.
Commercial Member Recognition: Commercial Members receive promotional opportunities, including display of Commercial Member’s logo and other agreed-upon identifying information on www.apereo.org and on any marketing and promotional media made by Apereo in connection with the Programs, solely for the purpose of acknowledging Commercial Members as a sponsor of the Programs in a manner (placement, form, content, etc.) reasonably determined by Apereo in its sole discretion. Commercial Member agrees to provide all the necessary content and materials for use in connection with such.
Apereo Commercial Member Quarterly Business Round-table: An invitation will be extended to Commercial Members to join colleagues for a quarterly business round-table facilitated by Apereo’s Executive Director, Development Officer, and special guests to discuss current open source software trends, educational technology, open source business models, and other topics to advance the adoption of open source through member and foundation activities. The Business Round-table creates an opportunity to advise and offer feedback to the Foundation while offering time for peer-to-peer networking, sharing, and potential cooperation/collaboration.
Apereo OSS Job Board Postings & Promotions: Commercial Members may include an unlimited number of job openings on the Apereo Job Board. Postings will be shared across all major social media platforms, listed on the Apereo website, included in Apereo’s newsletter, and forwarded to Apereo Project Management Committees for dissemination to their developer communities. Commercial Members will ensure that any job postings to be published by Apereo on Commercial Member’s behalf comply with all applicable municipal, state, provincial, and federal laws.
Advanced Access to Resources: Commercial Members will receive access to Apereo-generated community resources (e.g., research reports, industry whitepapers, press releases, etc.) at least five business days in advance of public releases, offering opportunities to coordinate publicity opportunities/campaigns.
OSS Values Statement: Commercial Members will provide, and Apereo will post on the Apereo website, a brief description of the Commercial Member's values regarding the development, dissemination, and sustainment of open source software in higher education. Commercial Member will submit their value statement as part of this Sponsorship Agreement.

$2,500/year

Platinum

All of the above, plus:

Event Engagement: Platinum Commercial Members will be provided opportunities to participate (co-speaker) with Apereo staff and/or projects at relevant conferences (per acceptance by the event organizers), including All Things Open, Apereo MicroConferences, EDUCAUSE, FOSSY, OW2Con, SCaLE, etc. Bi-annual “Membership Thank You” social media posts. Costs associated with Commercial Member’s participation are the responsibility of the Platinum Commercial member.
Apereo OSS Solution Showcase: Apereo will host, promote, and facilitate one 60-minute webinar per year as part of our OSS Solution Showcase program that will highlight the Platinum Commercial Members'’ OSS products and/or services. To qualify, the Platinum Commercial Member must:
- Include at least one co-presenter from a higher education institution using the Platinum Commercial Member’s product and/or services.
- Include information and resources beyond their own product and services that provide value to the audience (e.g., three best practices for making course registration easier for your students).
- Share your company’s values with regard to open source software and how your use of OSS drives value to your customers.
- Provide text for session descriptions, promotional emails, and presentation slides that incorporate and address feedback from Apereo.
Apereo OSS Conference Coffee Connect-ups: At all conferences and events Apereo officially attends, Commercial Member will be invited to a networking session hosted by the Executive Director. Apereo Board of Directors, staff, etc. who attend the conference will also participate. Costs associated with Platinum Commercial Member’s participation are the responsibility of the member.
OSS Business Development Consultation: Platinum Commercial Member will receive two one-hour business and strategy consultation sessions with Apereo’s Development Officer, focusing on topics such as entering the US higher education market, engaging edtech communities, OSS sales and marketing strategies, partnerships through high ed academic and research grants, recommendations for conferences and sales events, etc.
CAMPOSS Partnerships: Tap into a pipeline of pre-qualified, funded projects through CAMPOSS—a federated alliance that connects mission-aligned companies with academic open source initiatives in need of expert services. As a CAMPOSS partner, your company can deliver paid, high-impact support in areas like infrastructure, security, governance, or community building—while Apereo handles the contracts, funding flow, and project coordination.

$10,000/year

Ready to join us?

Become a Commercial Member today! The Apereo membership staff will be happy to assist you, contact them at membership@apereo.org

Thanks to our Apereo Commercial Members!

Apereo Commercial Members have the right to make use of Foundation owned trademarks in promotional material. Being an Apereo Commercial Member does not carry with it the implication of a quality mark but is an open and public expression of a company willing to contribute to the common good. Below is a listing of all current Commercial Members and the Apereo technologies they support.

Blindside Networks started the BigBlueButton project in 2008 with one goal: to provide remote students a high-quality online learning experience. BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system for online learning. It enables teachers to engage remote students with real-time sharing of audio, video, presentation, chat, desktop, and polls. BigBlueButton has deep integrations with Sakai via the Sakai Meetings Tool.

Blindside Networks provides commercial hosting and support for BigBlueButton to the Apereo community.

Edalex offers a range of platforms and services for the education sector. With key management, product strategy, development, support and hosting staff from the original EQUELLA team, Edalex offers deep expertise in all things Open EQUELLA. Edalex partners with clients to deliver innovative and mission-critical deployments. Hosting (99.994% availability since inception), custom development, configuration, deployment, client support and more - backed by nearly 150 years of combined Open EQUELLA experience on the team.

Entornos de Formación is a Spanish company specialising in educational technology since 2007 that works with leading universities and large-scale institutions across six continents. Entornos de Formación delivers knowledge, training and personal development for businesses and educational institutions by making use of information technologies. Our team is made up of open source professionals (Sakai experts) who are well qualified to prepare our clients in each and every step involved in the process of training. EDF provides support for Apereo's CAS, Sakai and Tsugi projects.

ePortfololium is a coop dedicated to support the Karuta community (universities, non-profit organizations, etc.) in building meaningful ePortfolios workflows by providing hosting, pedagogical and technical services. ePortfolium is also actively involved in the maintenance and the development of the Karuta open source code.

OpenCampus puts educational institutions back in control of their technology by enabling them to design, manage, and automate every digital workflow across campus within a single no-code platform - on their own terms, without reliance on external vendors. Built on Drupal and equipped with a drag and drop workflow modeler that integrates leading AI models directly into processes, OpenCampus gives institutions the freedom to shape solutions to their unique needs and share them with peers.

Apereo recognizes with thanks the contribution of OpenCampus as one of our Platinum Commercial Members.

Tirasa builds and supports mission-critical secure solutions to manage digital identities, user federation, and access control across different environments, including cloud, social networks, and mobile. We offer specialized IAM solutions based on 100% Open Source components. Tirasa provides support for Apereo CAS.

Unicon is a leading provider of IT consulting, services, and support for the education technology, specializing in open source solutions. Unicon provides services and support for Apereo projects including CAS, Sakai, SSP, uMobile, and uPortal, and is one of the original Sakai Commercial Members. To learn more about Unicon’s services for open source solutions, please visit: www.unicon.net/opensource. Institutions and organizations seeking support can subscribe to Unicon's Open Source Support program; to learn more, please visit: www.unicon.net/support.

Apereo recognizes with thanks the contribution of Unicon as one of our Platinum Commercial Members.