Thanks, that's helpful. This says about ~70% of the money was paid to employees, ~10% infra costs, the other ~20% various other fees and smaller expenses.
It would be interesting to have a breakdown of what part of the Thunderbird team is working on Thunderbird, Thunderbolt, or other forms of thunder.
Re:Mozilla Thunderbolt
by ryanleesipes on Thursday April 16, 2026 @11:28AM
(#47794677)
No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
No what? That doesn't contradict their comment about Thunderbird.
I think "No, this was not funded by donations".
Re:Mozilla Thunderbolt
by badgersnake on Thursday April 16, 2026 @11:25AM
(#47794623)
Wait what, they took donations to pay a team to build a mail client and had them build an AI thing instead? Or have I got that wrong.
Re:Mozilla Thunderbolt
by ryanleesipes on Thursday April 16, 2026 @11:28AM
(#47794685)
No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
Re:Mozilla Thunderbolt
by badgersnake on Thursday April 16, 2026 @02:49PM
(#47797771)
I don’t know why you’re downvoting, it’s a fair question based on the above comments.
I think a piece of software running on donations is not running off "charity". It's just a business model to not charge every user. Similar to how Twitch streamers operate, or my local theater group.
You can read how they spent money in 2024 [1].
[1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-...