GitHub Sponsors Discovery Scraper

Discover public OSS sponsorship prospects, funding tiers, goals, featured work, and creator links from GitHub Sponsors.

What does GitHub Sponsors Discovery Scraper do?

Discover public sponsorable developers and organizations from GitHub Sponsors Explore, or enrich known sponsor logins. The Actor turns public profile pages into consistent records ready for research, monitoring, and outreach planning.

Who is it for?

DevRel teams can find maintainers aligned with their ecosystem. Open-source program offices and foundations can map funding needs. Sponsorship agencies can build prospect lists. Investors and researchers can monitor public OSS funding signals.

Why use this GitHub Sponsors scraper?

GitHub Sponsors pages vary by creator and many fields are optional. This Actor deduplicates accounts, normalizes public identity and funding details, and preserves missing values without failing the run.

What data can you extract?

Each row can include login, display name, account type, sponsor and GitHub profile URLs, avatar, bio, location, website, social links, categories, featured work, funding goal, progress, public tiers, source URL, and crawl timestamp.

How to scrape GitHub Sponsors

Create a task, keep the prefilled Explore URL, choose a result limit, and run. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or another supported Apify format.

Input options

Use startUrls for Explore or sponsor profile URLs. Use sponsorLogins when you already know accounts. maxItems is a global deduplicated cap. includeProfiles controls detail enrichment. proxyConfiguration is optional.

Output example

A result contains login, displayName, sponsorProfileUrl, bio, tiers, featuredWork, and scrapedAt. Arrays preserve multiple links, works, and public funding tiers.

How much does it cost to scrape GitHub Sponsors?

The Actor uses pay per event pricing: a $0.005 run-start charge plus a tier-dependent charge for each saved sponsor profile.

Plan tier	Price per saved profile	Example: 100 profiles including start
FREE	$0.00013575	about $0.0186
BRONZE	$0.00011805	about $0.0168
SILVER	$0.000092075	about $0.0142
GOLD	$0.000070827	about $0.0121
PLATINUM	$0.000047218	about $0.0097
DIAMOND	$0.000033053	about $0.0083

Actual totals depend on the number of profiles saved. The Apify Console shows the exact charge before and after each run.

Scheduling and monitoring

Schedule weekly or monthly runs, export by login, and compare snapshots to detect new creators, tier changes, goal changes, or newly featured projects.

Integrations

Send records to Google Sheets for review, Airtable for sponsorship pipelines, Slack for change alerts, webhooks for automation, or your CRM through the Apify API.

API usage

Call automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper with the Apify JavaScript or Python client. You can also POST JSON input to the Actor task or run endpoint with cURL.

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper').call({ maxItems: 25 });

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper').call(run_input={'maxItems': 20})

$curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~github-sponsors-discovery-scraper/runs?token=TOKEN' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"maxItems":25}'

Use with MCP and AI agents

Connect through https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper. Ask Claude to discover maintainers, compare public tiers, or summarize OSS partnership prospects.

Tips for reliable results

Start without a proxy for small runs. Use conservative limits. Enable an Apify Proxy for repeated large crawls. Treat goals and tiers as optional because creators decide what to publish.

Legality and ethical use

The Actor collects public profile information only. Follow GitHub terms, applicable privacy rules, and outreach laws. Do not use results for spam, harassment, or sensitive profiling.

FAQ

Does it need a GitHub token? No. It targets public Sponsors pages. Why is a field empty? The creator may not publish it. Why are fewer rows returned? The public page, limit, or transient throttling may constrain discovery.

Troubleshooting

If a run returns fewer profiles, retry later or configure a proxy. Validate direct URLs use /sponsors/<login>. Keep enrichment enabled when you need tiers, goals, and featured work.

Related scrapers

Combine this Actor with other automation-lab GitHub actors for repository, contributor, release, or security context. Sponsor-specific public funding fields remain the focus here.

Support

Open an Actor issue with the run ID, input, expected behavior, and a safe example URL. Avoid sharing private credentials or personal sponsor relationship data.

Practical workflow examples

DevRel partnership pipeline

1. Run Explore discovery weekly with profile enrichment enabled.
2. Filter profiles by bio, external links, featured work, and public tier availability.
3. Import shortlisted accounts into a CRM keyed by login.
4. Compare each new dataset with the previous run before contacting anyone.
5. Keep outreach relevant, human-reviewed, and compliant.

OSPO ecosystem mapping

1. Seed known maintainers through sponsorLogins.
2. Add Explore pages to discover adjacent sponsorable accounts.
3. Join records with repository or contributor datasets using the GitHub login.
4. Review public funding goals and featured work as optional context.
5. Refresh monthly to identify changed public information.

Foundation sponsorship review

1. Run direct sponsor URLs for applicants or existing grantees.
2. Export normalized public profile and tier information to a review sheet.
3. Preserve the sourceUrl and scrapedAt fields for traceability.
4. Have reviewers visit source profiles before making funding decisions.

MCP setup for AI assistants

Claude Code

Add the Apify MCP server with the Actor-scoped URL:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper

Example prompt: “Discover 20 public GitHub Sponsors profiles, then group them by the ecosystems mentioned in their bios. Cite every source URL.”

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code

Add an HTTP MCP server named apify. A typical JSON configuration is:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Use the same scoped URL in clients that offer a form instead of JSON:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/github-sponsors-discovery-scraper

Example prompts:

• “Enrich the public Sponsors profiles for pypa and eslint.”
• “Create a table of public monthly tiers and profile links for these logins.”
• “Compare two exported datasets by login and summarize changed public fields.”

Troubleshooting guide

Why are optional goals or tiers empty?

Creators control which information is public. Empty optional arrays do not imply a failed request. Check the source profile before assuming a parsing issue.

Why did the Actor skip a profile?

The Actor rejects responses without meaningful public identity/profile content rather than charging for a skeletal row. Retry transient failures, lower concurrency, or configure Apify Proxy for repeated larger jobs.

Why are there fewer results than maxItems?

maxItems is a ceiling, not a guarantee. The supplied Explore pages may expose fewer unique profiles, duplicates are removed by login, and invalid responses are skipped.

Interpreting funding intelligence

Treat each profile as a public snapshot, not a complete financial record.

• tiers captures only options visible on the Sponsors profile at scrape time.
• fundingGoal and fundingProgress may be absent when a maintainer does not publish a goal.
• featuredWork identifies projects the account chose to highlight; it is not a complete repository list.
• categories and social links help segment partnership candidates without inferring private attributes.
• scrapedAt lets scheduled workflows compare snapshots in chronological order.

For monitoring, key rows by login rather than display name. A maintainer can rename their public display name while retaining the same GitHub login. Store prior exports in a dedicated dataset or external warehouse, then compare normalized arrays before creating alerts.

Responsible outreach workflow

A practical sponsorship pipeline keeps human review between discovery and contact:

1. Discover or enrich accounts relevant to your ecosystem.
2. Review the creator's bio, featured work, and public sponsorship options.
3. Verify technical relevance through public repositories and contribution history.
4. Select a public contact route provided by the maintainer.
5. Personalize the proposal around concrete open-source work.
6. Record opt-outs and avoid repeated unsolicited messages.

The Actor does not supply private emails or relationship data. Pair public funding signals with respectful review rather than bulk messaging.

Related Automation Lab actors

Combine sponsorship intelligence with GitHub Contributors Scraper, GitHub Trending Scraper, and GitHub Security Advisories Scraper. These links add repository, contributor, trend, and security context while this Actor remains focused on public Sponsors data.