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Case studies/Mozilla Foundation Financial Comparison

From Strategic Planning

This page lists excerpts from the Mozilla Foundation's Financial Statement in comparison to Wikipedia's.

Revenues

The Mozilla Foundation's revenues were $78.6 million in 2008, up approximately 5% from 2007. 2008 revenues include a reported loss of $7.8 million in investments in the Foundation’s long-term portfolio (approximately 25%) as a result of economic conditions and investment values at the end of 2008. Excluding investment gains and losses, revenues from operational activity were $86.4 million compared to $73.3 million in 2007, an annual increase of 18%.

Sources

Total grants, donations, and contributions in 2008 were approximately $1 million matching the approximately $1 million of 2007.Total grants, donations, and contributions in 2008 were approximately $1 million matching the approximately $1 million of 2007.

Expenditure

Mozilla consolidated expenses for the Mozilla Foundation and all subsidiaries for 2008 were $49.4 million, up approximately 48% from 2007 expenses of $33.3 million. Expenditures remain highly focused in two key areas: people and infrastructure. By the end of 2008, Mozilla was funding approximately 200 people working full or part-time on Mozilla around the world. Expenditures on people accounted for roughly 58% of our total expenses in 2008. The largest concentrations of people funded by Mozilla are in the U.S, Canada, and Europe with smaller groups in China and New Zealand and individuals in many parts of the world.

Mozilla supported projects such Mozdev, Software Freedom Conservancy, and accessibility support for the jQuery library, HTML 5 video, and Firebug.

Assets

Total assets as of December 31, 2008 were $116 million, up from $99 million at the end of 2007, an increase of 17% to our asset base. Unrestricted assets at the end of 2008 were $94 million compared with $82 million in 2007, a 15% increase. The restricted assets remain the same as last year: a “tax reserve fund” established in 2005 for a portion of the revenue the Foundation received that year from the search engine providers, primarily Google.

Comparison with Wikimedia Foundation

Below is the prima-facie comparison of the two Foundations.

  • The Wikimedia Foundation Revenues for 2007-08 was 10% of the Mozilla Foundation.
  • The majority of Wikimedia Foundations Revenue comes from small individual donations while it makes up less than 1.5% of Mozilla Foundation's funding at $1 million.

References