Mozilla Foundation chairperson Mitchell Baker has published Mozilla's financial statements for 2007. The organization and its corporate subsidiaries amassed $75 million in revenue, which is 12 percent more than the previous year. Baker believes that Mozilla's efforts will not be significantly disrupted by the current economic downturn.

Mozilla is a mission-oriented non-profit organization that aims to encourage the advancement of a standards-based open web. The central pillar of that mission is the open source Firefox web browser, which provides users with an alternative to Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer. Firefox market share is growing rapidly and has helped accelerate the adoption of emerging web standards.

The organizations' revenue primarily comes from a lucrative search agreement with Google, which has been extended until 2011. Other sources of revenue include the revamped Mozilla store, affiliate programs, and interest on investments. The nature of Mozilla's agreement with Google has attracted the scrutiny of the IRS which is evaluating the organization's non-profit status.

Mozilla uses its resources to cover the cost of its staff and infrastructure. Total expenses for 2007 were $33 million, a 68 percent increase from 2006. Mozilla also shares some of its resources with external organizations; it handed out over $1 million in grants and donations in 2007, which is three times more than they donated in 2006. The recipients this year include the GNOME project, Creative Commons, Oregon State University, and Seneca College.

Mozilla expanded in many exciting ways during 2007. The number of daily Firefox users nearly doubled and the organization launched a new mobile initiative intended to bring the browser to a completely new market. Baker also noted that the project's geographic reach has increased—nearly half of all Firefox users run the browser in a language other than English. We have also seen Europe embrace Firefox in record numbers.

Growth in other countries is enabled by the efforts of community contributors, whose contributions were highlighted. "Our community remains healthy and vibrant. The percentage of code contributed to Firefox by people not employed by Mozilla remained steady at about 40% of the product we ship," Baker wrote. "This is true despite a significant amount of new employees in 2007. Our geographic expansion is powered by active and committed volunteers, from the localizers to Spread Firefox participants to others who introduce Firefox to new people."

Mozilla's Christopher Blizzard, commenting on Baker's report, notes that the inclusiveness of the Mozilla project and the growing diversity of the web ecosystem are both signs that Mozilla is in a very healthy state. He believes that renewed competition and the emergence of compelling new browsers help serve Mozilla's ultimate goals.

"We use the funds that we gather to grow both the user base (which helps us drive our mission) but also to enable and grow a community that also shares the same values that we do," he wrote in a blog entry. "Much of that effect can be felt in direct market share numbers—people directly using Firefox. But Mitchell's post also mentions something else as well. That releases by other market players who have to compete with us also help us meet our mission in keeping the Internet alive and vibrant."

Indeed, the benefits of competition are enormous. Users have watched in awe as the major browser vendors race to reduce memory consumption, boost JavaScript performance, and reach even higher levels of standards compliance.