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Sponsor Disclosure

How to disclose sponsor relationships transparently to maintain trust with your community and comply with FTC rules.

Why

Sponsor disclosure is a legal and trust requirement, not a nice-to-have. The FTC requires that material connections between endorsers and sponsors be disclosed clearly and conspicuously — if you tweet 'EZ4Code is great' and a sponsor paid you to say it, you must disclose '#ad' or '#sponsored'. For OSS projects, the disclosure is usually simpler: a 'sponsors' section on the README and website that lists all current sponsors, and a sponsorship page that explains the program. The trust angle is more important than the legal angle: your community trusts you because you are independent, and if they discover a sponsor relationship you did not disclose, the trust is gone — and trust, once lost, does not come back. The most common mistake is burying the disclosure (a tiny 'sponsors' link in the footer) or omitting it on specific content (a blog post that recommends a sponsor's product without noting the relationship). The rule is: if a sponsor paid you, the audience must know, on the same surface where the content appears.

When

Always. Disclosure is not a one-time setup — it must be maintained as sponsors join and leave, and added to any content that involves a sponsor.

How

1. Maintain a /sponsors page that lists all current sponsors with their tier and a link to their site — this is the canonical disclosure
2. Add a 'Sponsors' section to the README and the website footer, linking to /sponsors — do not bury it; make it visible
3. For any content that involves a sponsor (blog post, tweet, conference talk recommending a sponsor's product), add a disclosure at the top: 'Disclosure: Acme is a current sponsor of EZ4Code'
4. For paid placements or affiliate links, use '#ad' or '#affiliate' in social posts and a 'Paid placement' note at the top of blog posts — the FTC requires this
5. When a sponsor leaves, remove their logo from the website within 30 days — keeping a former sponsor's logo implies an ongoing relationship
6. If a sponsor provides a product or service for free (not cash), disclose it as 'in-kind sponsor' — the FTC considers free products a material connection
7. Do not let sponsors influence content without disclosure — if a sponsor asks you to write about their product, the post must disclose the relationship even if they did not pay for the post specifically
8. Review disclosure quarterly: is the /sponsors page current? Are all sponsor-involving content pieces disclosed? Is the README section up to date?

Example

# /sponsors page (canonical disclosure)
# Current Sponsors
## Partner
- Acme Corp — https://acme.com
## Sponsor
- Globex Inc — https://globex.com
- Initech — https://initech.com
## Backer
- [individuals]

# README section
## Sponsors
Thank you to our current sponsors. [Become a sponsor](/sponsors).
[logos]

# Blog post disclosure (top of post)
> Disclosure: Acme Corp is a current sponsor of EZ4Code. This post
> independently evaluates their product; sponsorship does not influence
> our recommendations.

# Social post
"Acme's new deploy tool is fast — tested it on a 10k-line codebase. #ad"

Common Problems

  • ⚠Burying the sponsor list in the footer with a tiny link — this is technically disclosure but fails the 'clear and conspicuous' FTC standard. Put sponsors on a dedicated /sponsors page and link it visibly.
  • ⚠Forgetting to disclose on social posts — a tweet recommending a sponsor's product without #ad is an FTC violation, and the community sees it as deception. Always add #ad or #sponsored.
  • ⚠Keeping a former sponsor's logo on the website — this implies an ongoing relationship that no longer exists and misleads the audience. Remove within 30 days of the sponsorship ending.

Best Practices

  • ✓Maintain a /sponsors page as the canonical disclosure and link it from the README and website nav — this meets the FTC 'clear and conspicuous' standard and builds community trust.
  • ✓Add disclosure to every piece of content that involves a sponsor (blog post, tweet, talk) — the disclosure must be on the same surface as the content, not buried in a separate page.
  • ✓Review disclosure quarterly and remove former sponsors within 30 days — stale disclosure (logos of companies that no longer sponsor) is as bad as no disclosure.