Racial justice commitments update
In June 2020, spurred by the racist events occurring in the United States and in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, we set our racial justice commitments. These commitments were a first step toward lasting change and were meant to be measured at the end of 2021. Approximately one year after publishing our Racial Justice Commitments, we documented our progress one year in. We set aggressive targets to ignite momentum and encourage innovation. While we did not meet all of our goals, we were encouraged by Mozillians interest in engaging, learning, and taking action within their sphere of influence and beyond. The framework offered by our racial justice commitments — “who we are, what we build, and what we do beyond products” — continues to guide our work.
Who we are: Our employee base and our communities
| Goal | Current status |
|---|---|
| Increase Black representation in the U.S. at the leadership level, aiming for 6% Black employees at the Director level and up at Mozilla Corporation. |
Achieved 9.3% Black representation at Director+ level for Mozilla Corporation. |
| Black representation on Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation boards. |
Achieved Both Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation have a more diverse Board of Directors. |
| Create dedicated and comprehensive recruiting, development, and inclusion efforts that attract and retain Black and Latinx Mozillans. |
Achieved We engaged in recruiting events to strengthen our pool of Black and Latinx talent, and invested in connection, learning, and development opportunities for our Afrozilla and LatinPride resource groups. |
| Double the percentage of Black representation of our U.S. staff. |
Achieved
|
| Double the percentage of Latinx representation of our U.S. staff. |
Not achieved
|
What we build: Our outreach with our products
| Goal | Current status |
|---|---|
| Surface content via Pocket and through Firefox by Black writers and thought leaders. |
Achieved Pocket amplified voices and experiences of communities of color with over 20 collections garnering 217,000 views in 2021 alone. |
| Broadening user research and understanding of our users, their stories, and their problems. |
Partially achieved We led a user research and design project that resulted in a 5-step recommendation for de-biasing our design processes but did not implement as many of the steps as we had hoped in 2021. |
What we do beyond products: Our broader engagement with the world
| Goal | Current status |
|---|---|
| Direct at least 40% of Mozilla Foundation grants in 2020 to Black-led projects or organizations, with specific targets to come for 2021 and beyond. |
Partially achieved We ultimately committed 33% of our Awards and Fellowships team funding (over $480,000) to Black-led projects and organizations in 2020. |
| Develop and invest in new college engagement programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Black student networks. |
Achieved We built partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), deploying three programs at Hampton University, Virginia State University, Spelman College, and the Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative. Our programs featured over 20 HBCU scholars and faculty and $150,000 in grants toward ethical tech, trustworthy AI, and building careers in tech. |
| Focus Mozilla Foundation's social media efforts and the Pocket platform on uplifting people and organizations standing for Black lives and communities, especially where they’re working at the intersection of technology and racial justice. |
Achieved We partnered with multiple organizations to support campaigns and initiatives that addressed racial justice and amplified Black voices. We called on Nextdoor and Amazon Ring to pause their relationships with police departments. We also hosted a Dialogues & Debates series, where a diverse set of panelists discussed the impact of technology and AI on communities of color. |