Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline.

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-...

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tux3 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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ryanleesipes 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.

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debugnik 6 hours ago | parent [-]

No what? That doesn't contradict their comment about Thunderbird.

	▲	Vinnl 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think "No, this was not funded by donations".

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badgersnake 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

	▲	ryanleesipes 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
	▲	badgersnake 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don’t know why you’re downvoting, it’s a fair question based on the above comments.