We support smart people and bold ideas at the intersection of technology and society.
The internet, and especially artificial intelligence (AI), are at an inflection point. The technology is unlocking major benefits, from scientific discovery to new modes of creativity. But its harms have never been more pressing: AI can be used to deceive and harass, perpetuate bias, and deepen surveillance.
We urgently need structural changes that unlock the technology’s benefits and confront its harms. But Mozilla cannot do that alone — no one can.
Through our Fellowships and Awards, Mozilla supports smart people and bold ideas making AI more trustworthy and our digital world healthier.
Current Funding Opportunities
We are not currently accepting any applications for funding.
Our Approach
We provide funding, mentorship, and community to leaders and organizations, fueling a movement that can shift the internet and AI in a better direction. Our funding mechanisms are nimble — from small grants to full-time fellowships to donor collaboratives — to suit the movement’s needs. And our funding learnings are open-source, so like-minded thinkers can build on them.
We take an ecosystem approach to building the movement at the intersection of technology and society that is grounded in these values -
Movement Complexities and Geographic Issues
We recognize that the global majority are disproportionately impacted by disparities in technological developments and power. We seek to align with existing movements using a geography-focused commitment to contextualize our grantmaking in a relevant, intersectional and impactful way.
Open Source Movement
Grounded in our open source values, we seek to more equitably redistribute power by supporting open technologies and investing in people who are mitigating ‘closed’ technologies’ harms. As a movement and methodology, the practices of openness, transparency and community stewardship guide our work and that of our awardees and fellows.
Human Rights
Human rights provides a powerful approach to all of our grant making: it provides a framework to guide our interactions, underscores the assertion that technology plays a vital role in exercising rights for everyone, and intersects with other justice movements.
Reframed Community Justice
Our work is framed through a commitment to community justice, which includes where and how inequality manifests globally and how different issues intersect in specific communities. This encompasses, but is not limited to, racial justice, decolonization, indigenous justice, economic justice, anti-caste movements and gender justice and recognizes the complex history of migrations, colonialism, economic colonization and systems of power.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality as a lens and method that is dynamic, evolving, internal and external facing, that recognizes different identities and realities, acknowledges the way those are interconnected, and the ways in which power impacts those interactions, or power relates to those interconnections.
Long Term Alignment
Our long term commitment to a healthy, open internet informs our philanthropic investments: we support both nascent and emerging issues while centering sustainability, opportunity, and movement building. We recognize change can be iterative and dynamic for all the movements with whom we partner. We want to show up as a responsible funder. We hold true to a clear, shared North Star: that the internet must remain a global, public good -- open and accessible to all.
Our Community
Mozilla Fellows and Awardees have briefed legislatures, shaped public policy, pushed the largest tech companies to improve their products, and more. Mozilla Fellows and Awardees are policymakers in Kenya, journalists in Brazil, engineers in Germany, activists in the United States, researchers in Namibia, and data scientists in the Netherlands. They are reimagining new norms, policies, infrastructure, and technologies — every single day.
Birhane is a cognitive scientist researching human behavior, social systems, and responsible and ethical AI. Her research examines the challenges and pitfalls of computational models from a conceptual, empirical, and critical perspective.
Amaury is a co-founder of CheckFirst, a pioneering enterprise in combating misinformation. He is a technologist, developing open-source research and investigative instruments to address the challenges posed by the dissemination of false information.
Kathleen is an AI Researcher who has focused on Natural Language Processing for African Languages. As a Fellow, she supported the development of a Kiswahili Common Voice dataset and speech recognition models in the agricultural and financial domains.
Posts from our Community
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Gearwurkingen & Prizen Oct. 2, 2024
Introducing Our 2024 Tech and Society Fellowship Cohort
We are thrilled to introduce our newest cohort of public interest technologists working with civil society organizations based in the Global Majority to embed meaningful technology expertise into their missions.
Mozilla
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Gearwurkingen & Prizen Aug. 12, 2024
We Submitted an Open Letter to the African Union. Here Is What We Learned About AI Policymaking in Africa
The task to equitably reap the benefits of AI whilst mitigating risks requires collaboration from as many actors as possible - and so we, the signatories, extended a hand to African policymakers and the African Union.
Kristophina Kiito Shilongo
Opportunities
Mozilla Fellowships provide resources, community, and amplification to internet health leaders building a more humane digital world.
How We Fund
Rooted in our experience as an AI grantmaker, Mozilla's AI Funding Principles explores how foundations can support more trustworthy artificial intelligence and guide our approach to grantmaking.
Open Source Auditing (OAT) Project
A new project focused specifically on audit outcomes and the tooling, methodologies and resources required to support those engaging in this kind of work.
Have questions about funding opportunities at Mozilla?
Please check out our FAQs or contact us.