Mozilla Foundation

The Mozilla Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that helps and leads the open source Mozilla project. It started in July 2003 to take care of the work, buildings, and marks of Mozilla products. The foundation owns two parts: the Mozilla Corporation, which makes and shares the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and MZLA Technologies Corporation, which works on the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.

The Mozilla Foundation was made by the Netscape-affiliated Mozilla Organization and is based in Mountain View, California, a city in the Silicon Valley. It wants to help make the Internet open, new, and easy for everyone to join. The foundation follows the Mozilla Manifesto, a list of ten ideas that guide its work and show how important the Internet is for everyone.

History

On February 23, 1998, Netscape created the Mozilla Organization to help build the Mozilla Application Suite. When AOL, Netscape's parent company, gave less support, the Mozilla Foundation started on July 15, 2003, to keep the project going. AOL helped by giving tools, property, and money to the new foundation.

In September 2019, the Mozilla Foundation worked with Creative Commons and Coil Technologies to start a $100 million fund called Grant for the Web. This money aimed to support new technologies and ideas. By 2021, managing this fund moved to the Interledger Foundation.

Subsidiaries

Mozilla Corporation

Main article: Mozilla Corporation

The Mozilla Foundation made the Mozilla Corporation in 2005. It helps make products, do marketing, and work with partners. This company looks after the Firefox web browser and its work with other companies. For a long time, Google was the main search engine in Firefox. But in 2014, Yahoo took this job in the US. Then in 2017, Mozilla ended its deal with Yahoo to try new things.

Mozilla China

Main article: Mozilla China

Mozilla China was a part of the Mozilla Corporation. It was based in Beijing.

MZLA Technologies Corporation

In 2020, the Mozilla Foundation began MZLA Technologies Corporation. This company takes care of the Thunderbird email program. It also helps Mozilla try new products and services and earn revenue through partnerships.

Mozilla Ventures

In 2022, Mozilla started Mozilla Ventures. This is an impact investing fund. It helps small new companies that match the values in the Mozilla Manifesto. The fund started with $35 million to support these young companies.

Financing

The Mozilla Foundation gets money from donations and from the Mozilla Corporation. In 2016, it had more than US$8.3 million.

At first, it got money from AOL and Mitch Kapor. It is a tax-exempt group under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. For many years, Google Search was the default search engine in Firefox. Later, Yahoo! Search was the default, but then it changed back to Google. In some countries, like Russia, the default search engine was Yandex, and in China, it was Baidu.

People

Nabiha Syed became the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation on May 15, 2024.

As of May 2025, the Mozilla Foundation board of directors had nine members: Nicole Wong (Chair), Brian Behlendorf, Helen Turvey, Amy Keating, Mark Surman, Alondra Nelson, Edwin Macharia, Raffi Krikorian, and Zain Habboo.

Donations

In 2006, the Mozilla Foundation gave $10,000 to help make OpenSSH better. This money came from Google and helped keep developers' work safe.

In 2010, the Mozilla Foundation worked with the Knoxville Zoo to help people learn about red pandas that are in danger. Two red panda cubs, named Spark and Ember by online voters, joined the Mozilla community. Mozilla showed a live video of the cubs for several months.