diff --git a/.github/scripts/generate_release_notes_sponsors.py b/.github/scripts/generate_release_notes_sponsors.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..216535e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/generate_release_notes_sponsors.py
@@ -0,0 +1,364 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Generate a "Sponsors since <date>" section for release notes.
+
+Queries GitHub Sponsors and OpenCollective for new sponsors since the latest
+pyenv release or one month ago, whichever is longer. The output is Markdown
+suitable for GitHub Releases.
+
+Requirements:
+* Python 3.8+
+* The ``gh`` CLI authenticated with the ``read:user`` scope.
+* Network access to https://opencollective.com.
+"""
+
+import argparse
+import calendar
+import datetime
+import json
+import pathlib
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import typing
+import urllib.error
+import urllib.request
+
+
+GITHUB_ORG = "pyenv"
+OPENCOLLECTIVE_MEMBERS_URL = "https://opencollective.com/pyenv/members.json"
+
+
+class SponsorDataError(RuntimeError):
+    """Raised when a sponsors data source cannot be queried or parsed."""
+
+
+def parse_date(value: str) -> datetime.date:
+    return datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(value).date()
+
+
+def one_month_ago(today: typing.Optional[datetime.date] = None) -> datetime.date:
+    today = today or datetime.date.today()
+    year = today.year
+    month = today.month - 1
+    if month == 0:
+        year -= 1
+        month = 12
+    try:
+        return datetime.date(year, month, today.day)
+    except ValueError:
+        last_day = calendar.monthrange(year, month)[1]
+        return datetime.date(year, month, last_day)
+
+
+def latest_release_date() -> datetime.date:
+    """Return the publish date of the latest GitHub release."""
+    latest_release_error = None
+    try:
+        result = subprocess.run(
+            ["gh", "api", f"repos/{GITHUB_ORG}/{GITHUB_ORG}/releases/latest"],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            check=True,
+        )
+        data = json.loads(result.stdout)
+        published = data["published_at"].replace("Z", "+00:00")
+        return datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(published).date()
+    except (
+        subprocess.CalledProcessError,
+        OSError,
+        json.JSONDecodeError,
+        KeyError,
+    ) as exc:
+        latest_release_error = exc
+
+    try:
+        tag = subprocess.run(
+            ["git", "describe", "--tags", "--abbrev=0"],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            check=True,
+        ).stdout.strip()
+        date_str = subprocess.run(
+            ["git", "log", "-1", "--format=%cI", tag],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            check=True,
+        ).stdout.strip()
+        return datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(date_str).date()
+    except (subprocess.CalledProcessError, OSError) as exc:
+        detail = ""
+        if latest_release_error is not None:
+            detail = f" GitHub release lookup failed first: {latest_release_error}."
+        raise SponsorDataError(
+            "Could not determine the latest release date. "
+            "Pass --since explicitly or run from a clone with release tags."
+            f"{detail}"
+        ) from exc
+
+
+def compute_since_date(explicit_since: typing.Optional[datetime.date]) -> datetime.date:
+    if explicit_since is not None:
+        return explicit_since
+    return min(latest_release_date(), one_month_ago())
+
+
+def github_sponsors(since: datetime.date) -> typing.List[typing.Dict]:
+    """Return GitHub Sponsors created on or after *since*."""
+    query = """
+    query($org: String!, $after: String) {
+      organization(login: $org) {
+        sponsorshipsAsMaintainer(
+          first: 100,
+          after: $after,
+          activeOnly: false,
+          orderBy: {field: CREATED_AT, direction: DESC}
+        ) {
+          pageInfo {
+            hasNextPage
+            endCursor
+          }
+          nodes {
+            createdAt
+            sponsorEntity {
+              ... on User { login, name }
+              ... on Organization { login, name }
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    """
+    since_dt = datetime.datetime.combine(
+        since, datetime.time.min, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc
+    )
+    sponsors = []
+    cursor = None
+    while True:
+        command = [
+            "gh",
+            "api",
+            "graphql",
+            "-F",
+            f"org={GITHUB_ORG}",
+            "-f",
+            f"query={query}",
+        ]
+        if cursor is not None:
+            command.extend(["-F", f"after={cursor}"])
+
+        result = subprocess.run(
+            command,
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+        )
+        if result.returncode != 0:
+            detail = result.stderr.strip() or result.stdout.strip() or "no output"
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "GitHub Sponsors query failed. "
+                "Check that `gh auth status` shows access to the pyenv org "
+                "and that the token has the scopes required to read sponsorships. "
+                f"`gh api graphql` exited {result.returncode}: {detail}"
+            )
+
+        try:
+            data = json.loads(result.stdout)
+        except json.JSONDecodeError as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "GitHub Sponsors query returned invalid JSON."
+            ) from exc
+
+        if "errors" in data:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                f"GitHub Sponsors query returned errors: {data['errors']}"
+            )
+
+        try:
+            sponsorships = data["data"]["organization"]["sponsorshipsAsMaintainer"]
+        except (TypeError, KeyError) as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "GitHub Sponsors query returned an unexpected response shape."
+            ) from exc
+        try:
+            nodes = sponsorships["nodes"]
+            page_info = sponsorships["pageInfo"]
+        except (TypeError, KeyError) as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "GitHub Sponsors query returned incomplete pagination data."
+            ) from exc
+
+        for node in nodes:
+            try:
+                created = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(
+                    node["createdAt"].replace("Z", "+00:00")
+                )
+                entity = node["sponsorEntity"]
+                login = entity["login"]
+            except (AttributeError, KeyError, TypeError, ValueError) as exc:
+                raise SponsorDataError(
+                    "GitHub Sponsors query returned an unexpected sponsor record."
+                ) from exc
+            if created < since_dt:
+                return sponsors
+            sponsors.append({
+                "login": login,
+                "name": entity.get("name") or login,
+            })
+
+        try:
+            has_next_page = page_info["hasNextPage"]
+            cursor = page_info["endCursor"]
+        except (TypeError, KeyError) as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "GitHub Sponsors query returned incomplete pagination data."
+            ) from exc
+        if not has_next_page:
+            return sponsors
+
+
+def opencollective_sponsors(since: datetime.date, data: typing.Union[str, None]) -> typing.List[typing.Dict]:
+    """Return OpenCollective backers active on or after *since*."""
+    if data is None:
+        req = urllib.request.Request(
+            f"{OPENCOLLECTIVE_MEMBERS_URL}?limit=1000",
+            headers={"User-Agent": f"{GITHUB_ORG}/release-notes-sponsors"},
+        )
+        try:
+            with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=30) as resp:
+                data = resp.read()
+        except urllib.error.HTTPError as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                f"OpenCollective sponsors query failed for {OPENCOLLECTIVE_MEMBERS_URL}: "
+                f"HTTP {exc.code} {exc.reason}"
+            ) from exc
+        except urllib.error.URLError as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                f"OpenCollective sponsors query failed for {OPENCOLLECTIVE_MEMBERS_URL}: "
+                f"{exc.reason}"
+            ) from exc
+    try:
+        members = json.loads(data)
+    except json.JSONDecodeError as exc:
+        raise SponsorDataError(
+            "OpenCollective sponsors query returned invalid JSON."
+        ) from exc
+
+    since_dt = datetime.datetime.combine(since, datetime.time.min)
+    sponsors = []
+    for member in members:
+        if member.get("role") != "BACKER":
+            continue
+        try:
+            last_transaction_at = datetime.datetime.strptime(member["lastTransactionAt"], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
+            profile = member["profile"].rstrip("/")
+        except (KeyError, TypeError, ValueError) as exc:
+            raise SponsorDataError(
+                "OpenCollective sponsors query returned an unexpected member record."
+            ) from exc
+        if last_transaction_at < since_dt:
+            continue
+        slug = profile.split("/")[-1]
+        if slug == "github-sponsors":
+            # Listed separately under GitHub Sponsors.
+            continue
+        sponsors.append({
+            "name": member.get("name") or slug,
+            "profile": profile,
+        })
+    return sponsors
+
+
+def render(
+    since: datetime.date,
+    gh_sponsors: typing.List[typing.Dict],
+    oc_sponsors: typing.List[typing.Dict],
+) -> str:
+    lines = [f"## Sponsors since {since.isoformat()}", ""]
+
+    if gh_sponsors:
+        lines.append("### GitHub Sponsors")
+        for sponsor in gh_sponsors:
+            lines.append(
+                markdown_link(
+                    sponsor["name"],
+                    f"https://github.com/{sponsor['login']}",
+                )
+            )
+        lines.append("")
+
+    if oc_sponsors:
+        lines.append("### Open Collective")
+        for sponsor in oc_sponsors:
+            lines.append(markdown_link(sponsor["name"], sponsor["profile"]))
+        lines.append("")
+
+    if not gh_sponsors and not oc_sponsors:
+        lines.append("*No new sponsors in this period.*")
+        lines.append("")
+
+    return "\n".join(lines)
+
+
+def markdown_link(text: str, url: str) -> str:
+    escaped_text = escape_markdown_text(text)
+    escaped_url = url.replace(")", "%29")
+    return f"- [{escaped_text}]({escaped_url})"
+
+
+def escape_markdown_text(text: str) -> str:
+    escaped = text.replace("\\", "\\\\")
+    for char in r"`*_{}[]()#+-.!|>":
+        escaped = escaped.replace(char, f"\\{char}")
+    return escaped
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description="Generate a sponsors section for GitHub release notes."
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--since",
+        type=parse_date,
+        metavar="YYYY-MM-DD",
+        help="Include sponsors created on or after this date.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--output",
+        metavar="FILE",
+        help="Write the section to FILE instead of stdout.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--skip-opencollective",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Skip OpenCollective backers if the members endpoint is unavailable.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--opencollective-data",
+        metavar="FILE",
+        help="Take OpenCollective API reply from FILE.",
+    )
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    try:
+        since = compute_since_date(args.since)
+        oc_sponsors = []
+        if not args.skip_opencollective:
+            manual_data = (
+                pathlib.Path(args.opencollective_data).read_text()) \
+                if args.opencollective_data \
+                else None
+            oc_sponsors = opencollective_sponsors(since, manual_data)
+        section = render(since, github_sponsors(since), oc_sponsors)
+    except SponsorDataError as exc:
+        print(f"error: {exc}", file=sys.stderr)
+        return 1
+
+    if args.output:
+        with open(args.output, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            f.write(section)
+    else:
+        print(section, end="")
+
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/MAINTENANCE.md b/MAINTENANCE.md
index db53f178..0dfed2b8 100644
--- a/MAINTENANCE.md
+++ b/MAINTENANCE.md
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@ Release checklist:
 * Start [drafting a new release on GitHub](https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/releases) to generate a summary of changes.  
 Type the would-be tag name in the "Choose a tag" field and press "Generate release notes"
   * The summary may need editing. E.g. rephrase entries, delete/merge entries that are too minor or irrelevant to the users (e.g. typo fixes, CI)
+* Add a sponsors section to the release notes by running:
+  ```bash
+  .github/scripts/generate_release_notes_sponsors.py
+  ```
+  Paste the output at the end of the release notes.
+  * This lists new GitHub Sponsors and OpenCollective backers since the last release or within the last month, whichever is longer.
+  * The GitHub Sponsors query requires the `gh` CLI with the `read:user` scope.
+  * If OpenCollective is unavailable, pass `--skip-opencollective` and add those backers manually.
 * Update `CHANGELOG.md` with the new version number and the edited summary (only the changes section)
 * Push the version number in `libexec/pyenv---version` and `plugins/python-build/bin/python-build`
   * Minor version is pushed if there are significant functional changes (not e.g. bugfixes/formula adaptations/supporting niche use cases).
@@ -14,4 +22,4 @@ Type the would-be tag name in the "Choose a tag" field and press "Generate relea
 * Commit the changes locally into `master`
 * Create a new tag locally with the same name as specified in the new release window
 * Push the changes including the tag
-* In the still open new release window, press "Publish release". The now-existing tag will be used.
\ No newline at end of file
+* In the still open new release window, press "Publish release". The now-existing tag will be used.