[abdullahkhalids]

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-...

[tux3]

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.

[ryanleesipes]

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

[debugnik]

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

[Vinnl]

I think "No, this was not funded by donations".

[badgersnake]

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]

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

[badgersnake]

I don’t know why you’re downvoting, it’s a fair question based on the above comments.