[newscracker]

It’s possible for users to donate money directly for Thunderbird development (since it’s a separate for-profit subsidiary under Mozilla Foundation). All donated money goes into developing and supporting Thunderbird.

But it’s not possible to donate money to support Firefox development because that’s under Mozilla Corporation (another for-profit entity under Mozilla Foundation). This, I believe, has resulted in multiple monetization strategies and offerings, such as Mozilla VPN (which is actually reselling Mullvad), MDN Plus (not sure about how this money is used), etc.

With Google’s antitrust lawsuit going on and the real possibility of Google not being allowed to pay for being the preferred search engine (this was the main source of income for Mozilla Corporation), Firefox is at a bigger risk of not having enough money. Unless Mozilla restructures the organization and finds ways to get money for Mozilla Corporation, Firefox as it exists now will probably have to find a new home with a new name.