Freedombox Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
275003495
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2016
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2124611914
Rating
38
Verdict
REVIEW
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Civil Liberties

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,827
Expenses
$3,223
Assets
$55,500
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • EBEN MOGLEN (DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • EBEN MOGLEN (DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT)
  • YOCHAI BENKLER (DIRECTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provides support to free and open source software community.

What it reported doing in 2025

The freedombox foundation (the "foundation") educates the public about the importance of creating, preserving and protecting personal privacy, security, anonymity, and free speech on the internet. The foundation does so primarily by educating the public on the impact of technology on personal privacy and evaluating existing communications technology for its impacts on personal privacy.the foundation focuses on creating a collection of privacy training materials using freely available software tools that demonstrate to the general public that preserving personal privacy while communicating using the internet and mobile devices is not only possible but easy to do. Through these activities, the foundation encourages the general public to exercise its privacy rights, and to useproducts and services that respect privacy rights and democratic values.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
No current program activity. The filing reports no program spending for the current year.

The verdict

REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.8%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 17.22; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -25% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 30.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -14.1% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.