NLnet Receives Large Donation from Proton Foundation

Each year in December Proton Foundation runs the Lifetime account fundraiser for online freedom. The proceeds of the drive are distributed among ten organisations which contribute to digital freedom. As one of these ten beneficiaries, NLnet will receive 100.000 euros. We want to give a big thanks to the Proton community for raising this money and choosing NLnet as a recipient. We will direct the donation toward our main mission: working toward a free, open, resilient and human-centered internet for all.

Fundraiser for online freedom

The fundraiser for online freedom is an initiative of the Proton Foundation, the governing non-profit organization behind secure email provider Proton Mail. The campaign raised a total of $1,273,800, selling raffle tickets to more than 50,000 participants from the Proton community. The Proton Foundation donated an additional $200.000. The annual drive is named after the price participants can win: one of ten Proton Lifetime accounts. The campaign that runs during the December holiday season first started in 2018 and has since raised over $5 million for online freedom.

The work of NLnet

NLnet invites people to come and work for the internet. Anyone who identifies a problem and has a viable solution for a fix, can apply for a grant. To those selected we provide financial and practical support so they can work on the building blocks of the digital commons. All project results must be free and open source to ensure the outcomes can be used, shared, studied and moderated by anyone. We operate across the entire technological stack, from open hardware, to open standards, to applications that promote user autonomy. We welcome contributions from anyone, be they a non-profit, SME, individual, collective, or knowledge institution. We have a large network of expert organisations that offer support services to our grantees to improve the quality and maturity of their projects such as accessibility & security audits, mentoring and advice on licensing.

Ten champions for online freedom

Each year, the Proton community is invited to nominate organisations for the fundraiser for online freedom. This year's recipients are European Digital Rights (EDRi) the Brussels-based advocates for digital rights, the Swiss Société Numérique (Digitale Gessellschaft), proponents of civil rights, consumer protection, and digital self-determination, the global human rights organisation WITNESS, Hack Club which helps young people to create technology rather than consume it, the Center for Humane Technology which fights attention-grabbing technologies, the global anti-corruption coalition Transparency International, the nonprofit investigative journalism organisation Lighthouse reports, the Open Markets Institute which strengthens democracy and counters monopolisation, and the independent investigative journalism outlet The Insider. We are honoured to count ourselves among them and together we will work on a fair and inclusive digital society.