What NLnet can do with your contribution

There is a lot of value to society we get for free. Many important technologies, like the internet and the world wide web, are not owned by any single company or government. They are part of what makes our modern world run, yet you can't buy or own them. They were handed down to us, generously, by the people who created them. These pioneers had no business model in mind when they created the technologies we now use, and that made just about everything else that happened possible.

A famous quote from Vint Cerf goes "the internet is an experiment that never ended". In order to keep that experiment running, we need to challenge and revisit our ideas continuously - and come up with new ones. And once we have what we think are the right ideas, we not only have to make sure they indeed are right but also that they don't fall between the cracks before they get deployed. Not every idea has a business model to back up its maturation, and outside of publicly funded and corporate research and development there are many important contributions to be made. That is where NLnet lives.

The way NLnet works is as simple as it is effective: we invite talented and intrinsically motivated people around the world to submit their ideas on improving the core technologies the internet runs on, and pick out the very best ideas for funding in a very fast and lightweight procedure. We don't care where the people that do our projects live or what they do. We don't demand new, market-ready stuff or a part of the profit. It doesn't have even to be glorious - sometimes there is much to learn about existing technologies as well - especially when they are broken. All we care about is supporting great ideas that help the internet. And it works.

Over the years NLnet has been providing millions and millions worth of microgrants to many excellent projects, such as NoScript, TOR, Serval project, Unhosted, KSplice, GPLv3, NAT64, Jingle Nodes and many many more. In addition NLnet spawned NLnet Labs, one of the leading not-for-profit internet research labs that focuses on the security and robustness of commercially unattractive yet essential core internet technologies such as DNSSEC and BGP. All results are made fully available by these projects under recognised free and open source licenses.

The internet is all about generous opportunities. With your donation we can keep on fueling new generations of talent around the planet, and keep the experiment running. NLnet Foundation is a registered charity under Netherlands law, which means donations to the NLnet Foundation are tax deductible in some circumstances.

We will gladly accept your donations in any form that makes sense (including hardware and services) or any currency (of course including digital ones such as Namecoin, Bitcoin, Ripple and ZCash). Please contact us if you have some way to help us or our projects. Or donate directly through our bank account.

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NLnet foundation is a recognised charity under Netherlands law, that operates at an international level. Please contact us for a receipt for your donation or have any questions: email or phone (+31208884252).