"Mozilla renewed its search deal with Google in 2020 for three years. The organization will receive an estimate of $400 to $450 million per year from the deal alone. "
https://www.ghacks.net/2020/12/10/mozillas-revenue-jumped-to...
(For the record: I'm using FF and actually prefer it over Chrome, especially their DevTools for CSS which I find pretty meh on Chrome, and of course for ad blocking).
It's almost like the Mozilla execs get paid the big bucks no matter how badly they do their jobs. Go figure.
I've worked for nonprofits for most of my career, and have seen the insides of several. The most effective ones tend to have a small team on shoestring salaries and really need money. The least effective ones have a CEO making $5M and an executive team above $400k.
I've seen a lot of people argue that good people cost money, but they don't. I know $5M CEOs, $1M CEOs and $100k CEOs. The $100k CEO was by far the most effective.
That said, the Mozilla 990 doesn't look crazy. Many big nonprofits are bad. It's not an organization I'd donate to myself, but it's not one I'd discourage others from donating to either. CEO makes $3M, which isn't really reasonable, but the next-highest salary is $286k. That said, the whole for-profit Mozilla Corporation bit sketches me out. It feels like it might be a way to dodge IRS reporting regulations. I'd want to do due diligence before donating to a non-profit that has a structure like that (it may be innocuous), but I don't have time for due diligence when there are transparent nonprofits too.
If anyone knows a way to only support Firefox and not Mozilla at large do let me know!
But also, the answer to your question is at https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2019/mozilla-fdn-201... and https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2019/mozilla-2019-fo... (the 2020 numbers are not up yet because the audit starts when the tax return is filed and lasts for several months, so isn't completed yet).
Just for comparison, last I checked Chrome's marketing budget was estimated to be in the ballpark of Mozilla's total budget.
Disclaimer: used to work for Mozilla.
Browser: ~20
Web rendering engine: ~100
Worldwide average senior C/C++ developer salary: $100k/year
So $12M/year should do it. Let's say $20M to allow for management and overhead.
Disclaimer: founder of a browser company
* There are server side components (bookmark sync for instance)
* They need infrastructure to run the tests, do the builds, handle the bug reports, etc...
I don't know where you got your 20% overhead, but from what I heard it's wayyyy off.
Mozilla launches a new idiot side project like once a month. As a Firefox user, it's deeply frustrating to watch bug tickets go unfilled while a multimillion-dollar rebranding rolls out.