The PHP Foundation operates with just one full-time employee and faces serious funding constraints. Beyond executive director Elizabeth Barron, the team consists of 14 service providers, most working part-time. The board is made up of unpaid volunteers, and funding relies entirely on donations.
The organization's limited capacity became stark after the discovery of two critical vulnerabilities in PHP last week—flaws that compromised government websites and services globally. PHP powers an estimated 70% of websites on the internet, making security issues at this scale a widespread concern. The vulnerability discovery underscores the tension between the language's massive reach and the underfunded team tasked with maintaining it.