Supporting Creative Cloud Developers with the Adobe Fund for Design

Two years ago, we launched the Adobe Fund for Design, a $10M commitment to support individuals and teams building creative tools and services. Last year, we shared categories of projects we were supporting and, in total, have funded more than 70 teams around the world, including companies like Stark, UI Faces, and zeroheight, which are now being used by creatives everywhere. This year, however, is different. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to send shockwaves through our society and our developer and partner community is feeling its economic effects. Additionally, we’ve always tried to support, elevate and amplify diverse voices, but the events of the last few weeks have thrown into stark relief that society’s existing systemic inequalities are mirrored in our developer community. We know we need to do more to foster diversity, inclusivity and equality, while supporting those that have been impacted by the current economic climate. With that in mind, we’re announcing two important updates to the Adobe Fund for Design: first, moving forward, our goal is for at least 50% of our funds to be deployed to teams and individuals from underrepresented communities – be it by race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic background, disability, or otherwise; second, we’re expanding the scope of the Fund to commission important development projects to provide more opportunities for financial support.

If one of your primary sources of income has been building solutions on the Creative Cloud platform, and you are finding that the current economic conditions are impacting your business, or if you come from an underrepresented minority and have a passion for serving creatives, we’d love to support you and your aspirations through the Adobe Fund for Design. Much like the new Community Fund from the Adobe Creative Residency program, which is hiring people for Adobe-commissioned creative projects, we will start commissioning technical projects, like plugin development, through grants from the Fund.

We encourage you to review the list of projects we are commissioning. This list is broad, but it is particularly focused on the Unified Extensibility Platform (UXP), our new in-app extensibility framework that now powers XD plugins and is available in limited prerelease for Photoshop. To apply for the chance to build a commissioned plugin, select a project from the list that you would like to work on and include it in your Adobe Fund for Design application.

We’re currently building plans to create long-term, sustainable, change and bring more diversity into the community. If you run a meetup, are involved in an organization, or have other thoughts on how to bolster existing or emerging developers in this space that don’t have equal opportunities and resources, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at adobefund@adobe.com.

As before, individuals and teams with their own ideas for plugins and integrations with Creative Cloud or for a standalone product or service that addresses the needs of creatives can continue to apply to the Adobe Fund for Design. Nothing changes with the standard grant and investment application process; we are simply adding another category of grants, these commissioned projects, to provide more opportunities for developers and we are committing to build a diverse and representative community to meet the broad and equally diverse range of creative needs.

Adobe is committed to growing and helping this community in these times of uncertainty. We’re inspired by the level of innovation from the Adobe Fund for Design recipients thus far, and with the tools and services these teams have provided to empower creatives. We look forward to further supporting innovative individuals and teams helping us shape the future of creativity and design.

At Adobe, we believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment, and we also stand with the Black community against hate, intolerance and racism. We will continue to support, elevate, and amplify diverse voices through our community of employees, creatives, customers and partners. We believe Adobe has a responsibility to drive change and ensure that every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. We must stand up and speak out against racial inequality and injustice. Read more about the actions we’re taking to make lasting change inside and outside of our company.

We also know many people are still impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis and our thoughts are with you. The entire Adobe team wants to thank you, our customers, and all creators around the world for the work you do to keep us inspired during this difficult time.