The Proton Foundation

Building an Internet where people come before profits

Proton was created to serve the world, and the non-profit Proton Foundation ensures that this can never change. As Proton’s primary shareholder, the foundation exercises its control to ensure that Proton does not deviate from our mission to build a better internet that serves the interests of all of society. Our legally binding purpose is to further the advancement of privacy, freedom, and democracy around the world.

Read the founders’ letter

Our work

Governance for people, not for profit

The Proton Foundation is a Swiss non-profit and does not have shareholders. It is therefore separated from individual financial interests and must act in the best interest of the Proton community in perpetuity. No change of control of Proton can occur without the consent of the Foundation, therefore enabling the Foundation to block hostile takeover attempts of Proton which are not aligned with our legal obligation to serve the community. Our role is to ensure that our community always comes first.

We’re a grant-making organization

In addition to owning shares of Proton, the Foundation’s assets are further supplemented through a resolution to allocate 1% of Proton’s revenues to the Foundation’s charitable activities whenever financial conditions allow. This further commits the financial success of Proton to the public good. Proton makes grants to support organizations which are aligned with our purpose. To date, over 2.7 million CHF in grants have been given to organizations throughout the world. Recipients can either apply, or be nominated by the Proton community.

Learn about our impact

Investing in a better future

The Proton Foundation also makes investments to support the development of technologies which help advance our vision of a free and open internet. We are not a profit-driven investor and work frequently with open-source companies. We measure our return on investment not through financial metrics, but through impact.

Board of Trustees

found here</a>. He is one of the original donors of the Proton Foundation. Andy holds a PhD in particle physics from Harvard University and also has a degree in economics from Caltech. "],"twitter":[0],"linkedin":[0]}],[0,{"image":[0,{"src":[0,"https://delicate-books-39fa188272.media.strapiapp.com/Zk_H1_Yk_FLK_Btr_Wz_g_Rectangle916_7ea2238922.png"],"width":[0,1536],"height":[0,953],"alt":[0,""],"provider":[0,"strapi"]}],"name":[0,"Antonio Gambardella"],"position":[0],"content":[0,"Antonio is the director of the FONGIT, a non-profit foundation supported by the State of Geneva whose mission is to support innovation and economic development. He has a 25 year background in finance and economics and has served on the boards of numerous startup and scale up companies. Antonio holds a degree in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan."],"twitter":[0],"linkedin":[0]}],[0,{"image":[0,{"src":[0,"https://delicate-books-39fa188272.media.strapiapp.com/94be19ff_f683_4edc_ab6f_30de6d097373_test_carissa_donotuse_610d9232db.png"],"width":[0,974],"height":[0,623],"alt":[0,""],"provider":[0,"strapi"]}],"name":[0,"Prof. Carissa Veliz"],"position":[0],"content":[0,"Carissa is a professor in Ethics at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford and is one of the world’s leading experts on the topic of privacy.Her 2020 book, “Privacy is Power” is an Economist Book of the Year and one of the best expositions on why our privacy is worth protecting. Her research and published works can be found <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=https://proton.me/"https://www.carissaveliz.com//">online here(new window)</a>. Carissa holds a PhD in Philosophy from Oxford."],"twitter":[0],"linkedin":[0]}],[0,{"image":[0,{"src":[0,"https://delicate-books-39fa188272.media.strapiapp.com/38640713_36b1_4e0b_84c0_e1e590fba9c2_test_tim_donotuse_2144a8eae4.png"],"width":[0,974],"height":[0,567],"alt":[0,""],"provider":[0,"strapi"]}],"name":[0,"Sir Tim Berners Lee"],"position":[0],"content":[0,"Sir Tim is the CTO and co-founder of Inrupt and invented the world wide web while at CERN in 1989. He co-founded and is President of the Open Data Institute. Sir Tim co-founded the Web Foundation and is the Founder and Director of the W3C. He is a Professor of Computer Science at MIT and Oxford University. In 2017, he was awarded the Turing Prize (considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing")."],"twitter":[0],"linkedin":[0]}],[0,{"image":[0,{"src":[0,"https://delicate-books-39fa188272.media.strapiapp.com/f61a5dc6_bf89_4fc4_94e9_13ee946b04fb_test_dingchao_donotuse_709870632f.png"],"width":[0,974],"height":[0,736],"alt":[0,""],"provider":[0,"strapi"]}],"name":[0,"Dingchao Lu"],"position":[0],"content":[0,"Dingchao is the first employee of Proton and has spent his entire career helping to build the organization from the ground up. Today, he serves as Director of Engineering at Proton and is based out of our Geneva and Taipei offices. Along with being one of the original donors to the Proton Foundation, Dingchao represents the interests of Proton’s workforce at the Foundation. He is a former competitive chess player, and holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Caltech and USC."],"twitter":[0],"linkedin":[0]}]]]}" ssr client="load" opts="{"name":"PeopleGridSection","value":true}" await-children>

Contact us

Proton Foundation
Route de la Galaise 34
1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva
Switzerland