Mozilla Foundation
American nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping the internet open, safe, and accessible for all
Mozilla Foundation – Meet Mozilla (Official Site)The Mozilla Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in July 2003, headquartered in San Francisco, California (with earlier roots in Mountain View). It was established to support and lead the open source Mozilla project, seeded with $2 million from Netscape. Its mission is to ensure the internet remains a global public resource that is open, accessible, and puts people first.
The Foundation leads Mozilla's movement-building work, while its wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation, handles market-based activities including coordinating releases of the Firefox web browser. The broader Mozilla portfolio also includes Mozilla Ventures, Mozilla AI, and MZLA Technologies Corp (which develops the Thunderbird email client), all supported by a global volunteer community of tens of thousands.
The Foundation's programs include grantmaking, fellowships (200+ fellows supported), and the annual Mozilla Festival. It has distributed more than $20 million in award funds since 2015, and co-launched the $100 million Grant for the Web fund in 2019 alongside Creative Commons and Coil Technologies to support open web standards. Funding partners include the Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Omidyar Network, and others, supplemented by a share of Mozilla Corporation revenues.
As an organization at the intersection of open-source technology, digital rights, and internet policy, the Mozilla Foundation is directly relevant to innovations in AI ethics, open web standards, privacy-preserving technology, and alternatives to extractive digital systems. In November 2024, the Foundation laid off 30% of its staff amid significant organizational change.