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> There's no way to donate directly to Firefox development.

There is. It is called "restricted funds":

https://www.501c3.org/kb/what-are-restricted-funds/

The more people use restricted funds designation, the less bloated non-profits with wishy-washy missions there would be and the less money there would be to pilfer by the parasite class that lives in the executive roles of the non-profits.




The mechanism may exist, but can you describe how to actually pull this off, including how the money would get sent from Mofo to Moco?

If so, there's a lot of people who would like to do this, I believe.


Donate via check.

Write "Restricted funds - see attachment" on a check. On the attachment list check details and a restriction such as "Direct expenses for <blahblahblah> only." If you just do not want it to go to G&A fluff fund the execs use to live a large life, just exclude G&A: "<blah blah blah> purposes only. No G&A"

Regulations for non-profits aren't a joke. If they took your restricted funds, you bet they are going to follow the restrictions.

Non-profits may hate it but at the end it is money. So they take it. If they decline to cash the check, no skin off your back.

Source: lived in a non-profit land as a tech consultant. Heard constant bitching about big donors being smart and always restricting funds above a few hundred dollars. Execs of every non-profit that pretends it cannot deal with restrictions are taking the donor for suckers and are fleecing them.


Okay, but how does that money get from MoFo to MoCo?

If MoFo made Firefox, this would make sense. But they don’t.


> Okay, but how does that money get from MoFo to MoCo?

It is their problem, not my. They want money. It is restricted. Money is fungible. If they figure out how to use the money that is restricted then they need to spend less unrestricted money.


Okay, so, this is not actually practically possible today.

Thanks for elaborating though! I didn't know about this feature of donations.


"G&A"?


General and Administrative. For example, a catered lunch from a fancy restaurant that will have friends of the execs attend as a part of some presentation would be charged into G&A line.


Interesting, thanks. Do Mozilla really accept restricted funds donations toward Firefox development? What are the steps to make such a donation?

Here's a related discussion on exactly this topic, from 11 months ago. I see that it was you who mentioned restricted funds in that thread, too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20874641




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