- Program description
- Benefits of joining the CNCF Community Groups Program
- Best practices
- How to apply/get started
- Communication
- Marketing Best Practices and Resources
- Naming your chapter
- Chapter Activity
- Code of Conduct
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation supports the worldwide community of Cloud Native Community Groups (CNCGs) - community.cncf.io. CNCF is currently working on expanding the Cloud Native community worldwide, and we are happy to accept any new local communities to join our network. If you are interested in joining the list of official CNCF Community Groups, please review the information below. As of 2026, Cloud Native Community Groups program is powered by the Open Community Groups, and managed by the CNCF staff.
A Technical Community Group is focused primarily on identifying and discussing a particular technical subject and knowledge base.
A Regional Community Group is the long-standing, traditional type of community group in CNCF. This type of group is primarily focused on building relationships among cloud native end users and contributors.
For all Cloud Native Community Groups, CNCF offers the following benefits:
- One-time complimentary swag coupon of $100 USD to the CNCF Store provided to each community group (not to each organizer), is available after hosting 2 successful (over 10 people attended) in-person events.
- Joining the CNCF organizer-exclusive Slack channel for collaboration
- Boosting the visibility of your community group and events. See below under the "Communication" section for more details.
- 25% discount to Linux Foundation training exams for CKAD and KCNA.
- Discounts to KubeCon + CloudNativeCons around the world
- Service coverage for the hosted community platform, Open Community Groups
- This includes support from CNCF (Audra Montenegro and Helena Spease).
- Office Hours hosted once a month by a regional CNCF Ambassador.
- Credly badges for organizers! We would like to recognize your efforts for helping make Cloud Native ubiquitous. To qualify, each December we will see if you have been an organizer for the duration of the year.
- 5 free certification vouchers for remaining an active chapter year-round. This means at least one (1) in-person event each quarter with more than 10 attendees (not just registrations). So keep track of your event attendance!
✒️ NOTE: With over 200 active global chapters, we cannot monetarily support your community group with sponsorships outside what is listed above, but we are always looking into adding more incentives.
Please check out our best_practices.
Applications can now be submitted via a GitHub issue.
Please use "Cloud Native CITY NAME" when naming your chapter. We ask that you avoid using "CNCF" in the naming convention, as it can mislead people into think CNCF has employees in that location. You can use "CNCF" within the description of the community group to provide additional context.
"CNCG" is an internal acronym we currently use at CNCF and among organizers, but it has not yet gained traction. So we encourage people to avoid using it in the names of their chapters, as of 2023.
We strive to keep all organizers as up to date as possible when it comes to program updates and changes. Here are a few ways you can stay in the loop:
- Subscribe to our global organizer newsletter by going to your community profile and then "updates". There you can opt-in by marking the "Global Organizer Newsletter" checkbox.
- For current organizers, please reach out to inquiries on the #community-group-organizers channel in the CNCF slack Workspace. Please avoid using direct messages and use the public channel whenever possible.
- It's best if you use a public communication channel whenever possible; however, if you need to communicate in private, please feel free to send the program admins a note via community-groups@cncf.io.
We encourage each chapter to create their own social media accounts on the platforms that are most relevant in their local area, in addition to LinkedIn so CNCF can properly help amplify your announcements.
CNCF is present on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn with over 100,000 followers on each platform.
IMPORTANT: Every LinkedIn page created should be created as a company page, and must add CNCF's core community program manager, Audra Montenegro or Helena Spease as an admin.
- Speakers and their content! This is the most attractive thing to your audience
- The details! Tell people when, where, and the location of your meetup
- Food and beverage! What refreshments will you will be providing
- Promote your sponsors! They will appreciate the shout out. You do this by thanking them for sponsoring your event and showcasing their logo. They also appreciate you linking to their website or social media.
- Giveaways! Not everyone will have this opportunity, over time you will generate sponsors for this, or earn a voucher from us.
Here we have some templates in Canva that will at least help you with sizing and placement of key content:
This is acceptable, as long as it is a general tech community or open source community. Usually the exchange is presence at their events, and your brand recognition. CNCF just asks you do not market them as affiliated with CNCF unless they are official CNCF groups.
If your group has more than 90 days of inactivity in the number of events/meetups being held, then you will be deemed an "Inactive" group via the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and removed from the community.cncf.io site.
Technical Community Groups that fail to meet at least six times in a calendar year will also be considered inactive.
There are many ways to keep your chapter active outside of regular in-person, speaker-to-audience meetups. Examples are:
- Co-hosting a meetup with a neighboring chapter. Learn about the Co-Host feature in Open Community Groups.
- Host a study group for one of the many Kubernetes certifications
- Use Open Community Groups' virtual feature to host a virtual meetup or study group
Should a community group violate vendor neutrality — a CNCF core value — the following path towards deactivation will occur.
- 1st offense = a written violation via email
- 2nd offense = a community meeting with organizers for final warning
- 3rd offense = disabling your chapter
Cloud Native Community Groups follow the CNCF Code of Conduct.