Mozilla Foundation crumbles as third of staff cast off

Firefox overlord to 'revisit' advocacy mission

The Mozilla Foundation is laying off about a third of its staff. The non-profit org, which oversees the corporation that develops the Firefox web browser, insists it will continue its advocacy mission, though its approach may change.

"The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all," said Brandon Borrman, VP of Communications at Mozilla, in a statement to The Register Tuesday.

"That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward. We're not sharing a specific number, but it represents about 30 percent of the current team."

While Mozilla Foundation declined to quantify the number of people being let go, it reported 60 employees on its 2022 Form 990 disclosure [PDF], which was filed November 15, 2023. The Register understands the current headcount is closer to 120, so presumably around 36 people stand to lose their jobs.

Mozilla Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit advocacy organization that runs subsidiaries Mozilla Corporation (the Firefox browser and other consumer products); Mozilla Ventures (a tech-for-good investment fund); Mozilla.ai, an AI R&D lab; and MZLA, which maintains the Thunderbird email client.

The foundation's advocacy efforts follow from the Mozilla Manifesto, which calls for the internet to remain a global public resource that's open and accessible. Thus it pursues policy advocacy, privacy research, and online campaigns in support of its stated mission.

The restructuring affects Mozilla Foundation and it may somewhat limit the organization's advocacy efforts. "We want to clarify that the restructuring has not dropped advocacy; on the contrary, advocacy is still a central tenet of Mozilla Foundation’s work and we are in the process of revisiting our approach to it," said Borrman.

A prior version of that statement – sent to The Register then revised – made a more expansive commitment. The initial wording suggested advocacy would be part of every Mozilla Foundation activity. The adjusted framing suggests that advocacy efforts will be dialed back.

Mozilla Corporation in February laid off about 60 staff, representing about five percent of that software maker's headcount. Those cuts followed then CEO Mitchell Baker's decision to step down and resume her prior role as executive chair of Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla Corporation's current CEO is Laura Chambers, who is leading the Firefox maker toward new sources of revenue, namely advertising.

In its consolidated financial report [PDF] for 2021 and 2022, Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiaries reported more than $1.2 billion in financial assets, up from around $1.1 billion in 2021. Royalties – largely fees from search engines – fell to $510 million in 2022 from almost $530 million in 2021. During this period, revenue from subscriptions and advertising reached about $76 million, up from about $57 million in 2021. ®