Mozilla Foundation

Mozilla Foundation was launched on July 15, 2003, as the nonprofit steward of the open-source Mozilla project, originally spun out of Netscape with a $2 million donation from AOL. It is the parent organization of Mozilla Corporation (which develops Firefox and related products), but operates independently with its own board, staff, and mission focused on internet health and trustworthy technology.

Since 2019, the Foundation has concentrated a majority of its work on making artificial intelligence more trustworthy, open, and accountable. It works with researchers, technologists, advocates, and communities to diagnose harms in AI products, pressure companies to improve, and support the builders of ethical alternatives. Its trustworthy AI framework emphasizes five pillars: privacy, fairness, transparency, safety, and human agency.

The Foundation's key programs include: the Mozilla Technology Fund (grants for open-source AI and internet infrastructure), Senior Fellowships (supporting experts advancing trustworthy AI and digital rights), the Responsible Computing Challenge (integrating ethics into undergraduate computing curricula, reaching 15,000+ students), the Democracy x AI Cohort (10 projects over 24 months addressing AI's effects on democratic institutions), the Mozilla Incubator (helping values-aligned tech move from prototype to sustainability), Common Voice (open-source voice data for AI), and the Mozilla Data Collective (rebuilding the AI data ecosystem around community ownership).

In November 2024, the Foundation laid off approximately 30% of its staff and eliminated its advocacy division, restructuring to focus more sharply on grantmaking, incubation, and ecosystem-building. As of the FY2024 Form 990 (filed November 2025), the Foundation reported revenues of approximately $37.2 million and expenses of approximately $41.2 million, with total assets of $123.3 million. The broader Mozilla organization, including the Corporation, holds approximately $1.4 billion in reserves with no debt, and has made $125 million in philanthropic investments since 2020.

Mozilla Foundation is headquartered in San Francisco, California, having moved its official headquarters there from Mountain View in 2020. It accepts donations through donate.mozilla.org and has tens of thousands of individual donors globally.