giving well for a free and secure Internet
When donating funds it's hard to know and choose where they will have the most impact. There are organizations dedicated to researching that for general philanthropy, but none focused on tech.
We hand-picked 10 projects where individual donations can have a direct impact on Internet freedom, underfunded infrastructure and inclusivity.
We judged and scored projects not only by their absolute importance, but also by
In particular, you won't see some of the most popular names not because we don't believe in their work, but because we believe a bump in individual contributions would not affect the world as much as it would if directed to one of the ones below.
Each project comes with a suggested proportion. Decide how much you want to donate in total, and then split funds based on the proportions. All are multiples of 5%.
We recommend monthly donations as they provide a dependable stream for future planning, unless they amount to less than $5 per month, in which case a yearly donation would be more fee-efficient.
Donations to projects which are US nonprofits are potentially eligible for both tax deductions and employer matching. Do look into employer matching!
| Category | Project | Proportion | Nonprofit | |
| Internet Freedom | Freedom of the Press Foundation | 15% | Yes | Donate |
| Internet Freedom | Signal | 5% | Yes | Donate |
| Internet Freedom | The Tor Project | 20% | Yes | Donate |
| Internet Freedom | OnionBrowser | 5% | Donate | |
| Underfunded infra | The Internet Archive | 15% | Yes | Donate |
| Underfunded infra | OpenBSD | 15% | Donate | |
| Underfunded infra | Qubes OS | 5% | Donate | |
| Underfunded infra | Let's Encrypt | 5% | Yes | Donate |
| Underfunded infra | Wireguard | 5% | Donate | |
| Inclusivity | Project Alloy | 10% | Yes | Donate |
Category: Internet Freedom
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 15%
The Freedom of the Press Foundation works primarily to protect and empower journalists, but its work benefits all vulnerable populations in need of security and privacy. An extremely digitally-aware organization, it often sponsors projects like SecureDrop and Secure the News.
Category: Internet Freedom
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 5%
Open Whisper Systems develops the Signal messaging app, which pioneered the protocol now in use by WhatsApp and Messenger secret mode. They keep pushing the state of the art of privacy-protecting tech.
Category: Internet Freedom
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 20%
The Tor Project develops open-source software to protect users' privacy on the Internet and fight censorship. Individual donations are a critical source of diversified and non-earmarked funding that lets the project invest in research that benefits the whole Internet.
Donate — More info — [Amazon Smile recipient]
Category: Internet Freedom
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US Nonprofit: No
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Proportion: 5%
The iOS app store is filled with Tor browsers at varying levels of integrity. OnionBrowser stands out as a solid, audited, and free option, which is critical to keep users safe. The app used to be paid, but now its development relies on donations.
Category: Underfunded infra
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 15%
You might have used the Wayback machine, but that is not the only critical history-preserving service that The Internet Archive provides. It's a modern day library, saving books, media, websites and even programs from the oblivion of bit rot.
Donate — More info — [Amazon Smile recipient]
Category: Underfunded infra
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US Nonprofit: No
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Proportion: 15%
The OpenBSD project brings you OpenSSH. If that's not enough, it also performs research that often drives the state of the art of system hardening. It runs on a stunningly low budget, with fundraiser targets in the low 6 figures.
Category: Underfunded infra
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US Nonprofit: No
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Proportion: 5%
Qubes OS is an operating system that uses virtualization to enable compartmentalized workflows providing a high security everyday platform for at-risk settings. The project also drives important research in practical platform security.
Category: Underfunded infra
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 5%
Let's Encrypt changed the Certificate Authority landscape. Free, automated TLS certificates pushed HTTPS adoption across the Internet, which improves all users' security on multiple levels.
Category: Underfunded infra
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US Nonprofit: No
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Proportion: 5%
Wireguard is a breath of fresh air in the space of VPN software. Simple, with a small attack surface, and a well defined robust protocol, it can become the gold standard. The project is now aiming for mainline kernel integration and cross-platform support.
Category: Inclusivity
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US Nonprofit: Yes
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Proportion: 10%
At conferences it's painfully easy to experience the imbalance of our field. But conferences are also one of the greatest tools of career advancement. Project Alloy aims to use the latter to fix the former, by enabling people from underrepresented groups to attend and offering coaching and resources so that they can make the most out of the opportunity.
You can sign up for this extremely low-volume newsletter to be notified if and when we change the list, or for the occasional impactful fundraising event.
There's a number of reasons a project might not be on the list:
If you feel like a project meets all the criteria and we should know about it, feel free to email us: hello at donating tech.
George Tankersley and Filippo Valsorda. We worked on Internet infrastructure and in the online privacy activism space for some time, and interacted in various ways with a number of projects we wish to see succeed.
No strong reason. We believe we developed a certain level of insight into projects in the space, and built this page while deciding how to direct our own donations. We wished it existed, so now it does, and we hope it will bring some funding to projects we like.
Nothing on this page is tax advice, we recommend talking to your accountant about your specific tax implications.
None of this is the opinion of any of our past, present or future employers or customers.
While we like these projects and personally believe in them, we are not vouching for them or their past, present or future actions. The decision on how to donate your money is ultimately yours and we take no responsibility in it.
We have no affiliations with these projects and organizations, nor did they sanction this advice.
These recommendations are made in good faith and based entirely on personal opinions.