Meeting sponsorship
Support for the IETF keeps the Internet’s technical foundation open supporting permissionless innovation.
The IETF sponsorship program provides organizations the opportunity to support gatherings of the community directly through meetings, by advancing values at the core of its work, or as a long term contributor to ensure the continuation of the IETF's essential contributions to the global Internet.
To learn more about IETF sponsorship opportunities, contact Stephanie McCammon, the IETF Sponsorship Coordinator.
Supporting the IETF aligns your organization with:
Technical excellence
Your sponsorship demonstrates the importance your organization places on IETF standards as a foundation of technologies that operate successfully at a global scale.
Values in action
Sponsorships focused on environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion, “running code”, and open Internet provide opportunities to put your organization’s commitment to these values into action.
Industry-defining standards
IETF RFCs define the building blocks used by the global Internet and millions of services and products used around the world every day. Your sponsorship supports the continued production of IETF standards as Internet technologies grow and evolve.
Sponsorship categories
The IETF has a wide variety of sponsorship opportunities to suit your organization's goals and budget.
Global Hosts
Global Hosts reflect the highest level of commitment and recognition among all IETF sponsors. These sustaining partnerships ensure the continuity of IETF meetings over terms of six or nine years. Within those six or nine year commitments the Global Host selects two or three meetings to host. Meetings provide essential spaces for collaboration that allow the IETF to work smarter and faster. Global Hosts receive distinctive benefits for their sustaining contributions, and—through their ongoing commitment—are uniquely able to provide advanced input into meeting venue selection. The IETF manages the details of hosting for Global Hosts, making the process seamless and easy.
Sponsorship: $130,000 USD per year with a six year engagement, where the Global Host selects two meetings to host or a nine year engagement, where the Global Host selects three meetings to host.
Global Supporters
There’s a lot more to the IETF than meetings. Global Supporters keep the organization running and provide support that allows the IETF to continuously improve the participant experience. Global Supporters receive distinctive benefits and are recognized continually for their support.
Sponsorship: $100,000 USD per year with a three, six, or nine year engagement.
Advancing Core Values
Ensuring broad participation, technical standards based on “running code,” and a global Internet that can continue to scale and evolve are core values of the IETF. Through annual sponsorship opportunities, your organization can demonstrate that it shares these values, and support programs that advance these values on an ongoing basis. Each value can be sponsored at Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels of commitment with varying benefits.
Diversity and Inclusion Sponsorship
Anyone can participate in the open processes used by the IETF, and the technical standards they produce are improved with broader participation. A variety of programs help realize these ideals by providing a path to sustained engagement for those who would otherwise face difficulties participating in the IETF. The IETF’s Diversity and Inclusion sponsorships support fee waivers to lower economic barriers to meeting participation, childcare for IETF attendees, and the IETF Systers program which offers women participants the opportunity to connect, share, and learn with each other.
Sponsorships available at the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
Running Code Sponsorship
"We believe in rough consensus and running code" is an unofficial mantra of the IETF and underscores the value the community puts on getting work done in the real world. The IETF relies heavily on dedicated volunteers to develop tools, design and deploy one of the most advanced networks during meetings, and run one of our most popular programs, the IETF Hackathon. Running Code sponsors are front and center for some of the IETF’s most attended events while supporting essential technology to support the work of the IETF. Your sponsorship supports the Hackathon, Hackdemo Happy Hour and the Code Sprint.
Sponsorships available at the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
Sustainability Sponsorship
As a forward-looking community focused on the Internet’s continued growth and evolution, the IETF recognizes the importance of sustainability in both Internet technologies and our global environment. The IETF community demonstrates strong interest in making all our activities more sustainable. Partner with us as we take steps towards carbon-neutral operations and eco-friendly meetings. Typical conferences take a huge toll on the environment with travel, single use plastics, and food waste. We are making significant changes to IETF meetings by using eco-friendly meeting materials and taking a more sustainable approach to our planning processes.
Sponsorships available at the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
Open Internet Sponsorship
The Open Internet sponsorship supports a long-term future for IETF work, meetings, and vision. This sponsorship will help preserve our ability to meet globally, provide open entry to persons and organizations of all size and industry, and allow the IETF work to continue unhindered by global political and policy tensions. It will also allow the IETF to maintain the RFC series of open technical documents in near-perpetuity. By anticipating future needs today, Open Internet sponsors ensure a high-functioning, diverse, and robust IETF community of tomorrow.
Sponsorships available at the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
Meeting Hosts
Meeting hosts receive a premier level of visibility at IETF meetings, as well as a set of exclusive add-ons only available to the hosting organization. The Meeting Host opportunity is subject to availability as Global Hosts have first option.
Sponsorship: $390,000 USD per meeting.
Welcome Reception Sponsors
The Welcome Reception is one of the first major events during an IETF meeting. Old friends catch up, new attendees are introduced and the work begins. Sponsors have the choice between a standard Welcome Reception at $30,000 USD or an upgraded option at $50,000 USD.