Three weeks ago, Mitchell introduced me as a new member of the Mozilla community who would be helping to figure out just how our organization would design a community-giving program. As a newcomer to the open source software world, it has been a tremendous three weeks for me to learn about Mozilla, our community, and what we might consider with this program going forward.

As Mitchell mentioned in her blog post, I have what some might consider a nontraditional background and will need some time to learn just how we come to our decisions and what might be best for our organization. But, I feel strongly that my experiences from the nonprofit and social entrepreneurship worlds will complement our efforts to design something that everyone understands, embraces, and helps succeed.

More on background…I spent several years at a very innovative organization named Ashoka, working to help social entrepreneurs build new ideas to solve really critical social problems. It was an inspiring time in my career because I worked directly with people who were very passionate about what they were doing. In my short few weeks at Mozilla, I find that same gestalt here that was present in Ashoka and the Ashoka Fellows whom we supported. That energy provides a high level of inspiration at Mozilla to help build something that is right for our community and for others.

And so, in this first blog post, I thought it might be best to describe what I have learned so far. Probably most obvious, this community-giving program will benefit greatly if I am able to speak with the as many people as possible in our community to learn more about the unique nature of our organization. I believe that the more discussions I have, the closer I will get to understanding just how our community perceives an effective grant-making program from Mozilla.

In my short time here, I’ve already had extensive meetings with more than a dozen key leaders and contributors. Each meeting offered some new insight for us to consider as we begin. I thought it might be best to relay in this message some of the major points that Mozilla will likely need to consider more deeply:

• Our volunteer community is deeply committed to the Mozilla project and we, as an organization, would greatly benefit if we can figure out the best way to “give back” to that community.
• In addition to supporting the community, is there a way that this program can support other ideas that are or have been critical to Mozilla growth and success? If so, what are those ideas and organizations?
• For Mozilla to create an effective community giving program, it should probably elicit two things from everyone:

1. Consensus on how we move forward, with the openness to iterate throughout the process until we get it right.
2. The specific needs that exist in the community. (i.e. Would our volunteer community benefit from software, hardware, scholarship, professional development, or monetary support? What else could we provide?)

• How is this community giving program different from the grant-making efforts of the Mozilla Foundation?
• What are the best ways to make consistent decisions about who we support and how?
• Do we focus on people who help with adoption of our products?
• How will this community-giving program expand and what impact will it hope to have on our community and on others?

I have also learned that Mozilla has always started simply with what we knew and then built outward. In a way, it is our tradition in developing new ideas. As this program grows, we’ll likely take similar steps to see what develops and grows.

To begin addressing these issues, many people have suggested different tactics to consider. They include the following:

• Surveying the Mozilla community to aggregate the needs of volunteers
• Hosting summits to bring together people who want to participate more deeply in volunteer efforts
• Creating a web portal to allow people to find out community giving program and submit detailed proposals of just how we might support them

As can be imagined, this process will take some time and, probably more importantly, the correct structure. But, it is going to be crucial for everyone to come together around the final iterations of the program and help move it forward just as we have done with several of other successful campaigns at Mozilla.

Look for a list of FAQs and more about this program soon.

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