Why we make grants
The internet has the potential to uplift society — it can promote democracy, open markets, and free expression. But it can also promote polarization, mass surveillance, and misinformation.
More than ever, we need a movement to ensure the internet remains a force for good. Mozilla’s Fellowships and Awards fuel this movement by supporting individual and collective actions that advance a more human-centered internet. We provide funding, mentorship, and amplification to innovators of all types — from technologists and scientists to activists and artists. In turn, these individuals pilot ethical computer science curricula at leading universities. They track the spread of online disinformation and present their findings to top U.S. policymakers. They connect the unconnected in rural Tanzania using television white-space technology. And far more.
What we fund
Mozilla finds, supports, and connects movement partners building a more open, inclusive internet and more trustworthy AI. Through fellowships and awards, we bolster people and bold ideas that can shape a more human-centered internet.
These leaders build new technology, develop toolkits and curricula, run campaigns, prototype solutions, and influence policy around the globe to:
Reimagine new norms, policies, infrastructure, and technologies that protect and empower individuals and communities online.
Reconstitute more — and more diverse — groups in the development, deployment, and management of the technologies that make up the web.
Rebalance power online, shifting it back to individuals and communities.
What We Fund: Mozilla's Fellowships and Awards Programs
How we fund
Mozilla works with partners and allies to fuel a movement of internet users, academics, artists, technologists, thought-leaders, and activists fighting for a healthy internet. Funding is made via fellowships and awards to support individual and collective actions to help nurture an intersectional community, incubate emerging technologies and models, and build the long term infrastructure needed for a more open, secure, and inclusive internet.
Mozilla also hosts, contributes to, and are active members of a number of donor collaboratives. We do this as part of an ecosystem level approach to fuel a movement for a healthier internet, and as a way to work with others to have broader and more meaningful impact.
Read Mozilla's AI Funding Principles
Rooted in our experience as an AI grantmaker, Mozilla's AI Funding Principles explore how foundations can support more trustworthy artificial intelligence.
Who we’ve funded
Mozilla Fellows and Awardees represent a range of disciplines and geographies: They are policymakers in Kenya, journalists in Brazil, engineers in Germany, privacy activists in the United States, and data scientists in the Netherlands. We seek fellows and awardees who are mission-driven, are masters of their trade, and have bold, new ideas that can catalyze lasting change.
Anouk Ruhaak | Mozilla Fellow
Anouk creates new models of data governance for the public good. As an architect and advocate of data trusts, she promotes governance models that safeguard privacy and protect society from the negative externalities of data sharing.
Survival of the Best Fit | Previous Award
Built by Gabor Csapo, Jihyun Kim, Miha Klasinc, and Alia ElKattan, Survival of the Best Fit is an educational game about hiring bias in AI. It aims to explain how the misuse of AI can make machines inherit human biases and further inequality.
Where we’ve funded
The challenges facing the internet are complex, and we know that there are few one-size-fits-all solutions. Mozilla is committed to supporting diverse innovators around the world to imagine solutions that will work for their communities.
Mozilla has distributed $22 million in award funds since 2015 and supported more than 200 fellows. This funding has supported organizations and individuals in 46 countries across six continents.
Fellowships
Mozilla Fellowships provide resources, community, and amplification to internet health leaders building a more humane digital world.
Awards
Mozilla Awards provide funding, peer support, and mentoring to projects that address the most pressing challenges facing the internet and its users.
Data Futures Lab
An experimental space for instigating new approaches to data stewardship challenges.
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.
Become a Partner
Our funding partners help us grow our fellowships and awards program, reaching new parts of the globe and exploring new intersections of civil society and the internet.