The open and free Web as imagined and created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee can continue to be a powerful transformative force for mankind and an effective antidote to all forms of political and economic hegemony. Or the Web could be broken into fragmented islands, and its potential weakened. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are increasingly monitoring and controlling people’s online communication. Wireless internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Closed content silos are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. More than half of the world’s population lack any ability to connect with the Web due to persistent barriers of affordability and accessibility. The future success of the Web is far from assured.

We are looking to build a network of passionate and diverse donors who can help foster the future of the Web as a medium for empowerment. Individuals, corporations, and foundations from around the world, who understand the importance and potential of the Web to address major challenges, can now get involved at the early stages of this global effort.

Our Approach

Our approach is to work with individuals and organizations at the local level so that they are able to leverage the Web to build solutions that can scale globally across sectors, regions, actors, and demographics.

For this reason, investment in the Web cannot be thought of as separate from an investment in health, or women’s rights, or institutional transparency, or any other worthy goal or cause but, rather, it is a necessary step towards the collective advancement of all these things.

Supporting the Web Foundation means investing in:

1. Impact and Scalability. This is what the Web is all about. It’s simple: if your goal is to make more information available to more people, you can invest in libraries and impact those within walking distance or you can invest in Web tools and impact billions with access to a Web-enabled device such as a mobile phone. One of the Web’s greatest strengths is its ability to free information by making it available digitally. A new font system could mean hundreds of thousands can reach life-critical services local to their region or an open voice tool could mean that a billion illiterate adults are no longer prevented from accessing educational material. The Web Foundation is based upon the principle of high-impact philanthropy which we believe is a core result of our strategic investment in the Web.
2. Bottom-up Sustainability. By building strong, vibrant communities of NGOs, entrepreneurs, public sector, students, and civil society, and empowering them with the skills and tools to seed the growth of the Web locally, the Web Foundation ensures that incentive and support structures remain long after our projects end.
3. Credibility and a Track Record of Success. The Web Foundation is uniquely positioned to achieve its mission because of its deep knowledge of the Web and global network of technical expertise built up through our relationship with founder and Web inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as his other initiatives: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Science Trust (WST).

Learn more…

If our work resonates with you and you would like more information on how you can support us, please contact our Development team at donations@webfoundation.org.