Supporters & finances

Last year, we were able to count on the support of a net total of 355 new donors, bringing our total to 3,591 donors. The growth in our donor base is partly due to the lawsuit we filed against Meta, a major public campaign to become independent from Big Tech, a multimedia year-end campaign aimed at recruiting new donors, and increased visibility in national media.

We met with donors and corporate supporters at the Big Brother Awards and during our anniversary celebration at Multiple Identities in Amsterdam, where we launched a unique so-called Collectors Scarf for our supporters.

The following companies supported us in 2025:

Freedom Internet

BIT, Greenhost, IB-Vision, Unc Inc, en Voys

Cryptography in Context, Hunki Enterprises, Intermax Cloudsourcing, Root Legal, en Yourhosting

Breedbandwinkel.nl, Considerati, Filosofie in actie, GeoCat, Green Mini host, Het Rooster, iCulture, Internetvergelijk.nl, m7, Mark Verhijde Advies en Projecten, Mijndomein, NederHost, Nijweide, PrivacyLab, Sooda internetbureau, Summit Legal, Talksome, Theory7 en Zygomatic

Mindshards, DevNomads, Leemshop, en Van Berkum management & advies

DMARC Analyzer, Hosting.nl, Mollie, Passbolt, Rick Pastoor, Smoose

For some of our work, it is difficult to find (enough) financial support from individuals. Foundations therefore play an important role for us. They help secure the sustainability of our work and support the development and growth of the organization. Sometimes they make it possible to take a big step forward at a crucial moment, for example by funding a new role or research into a new work program.

In 2025, our core costs were supported by the following foundations.

We also received funding from the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund for our collaboration with Amnesty, the Open State Foundation, Waag, Setup, and Public Spaces, as well as from the Creative Industries Fund NL.

As of this writing, our 2025 financial statements are not yet ready for publication. We expect to make them available by June 2026 at the latest. For the second year in a row, the financial statements are being audited by the accounting firm Coney Minds. All figures listed below are preliminary results. Adjustments may still be made following the audit and publication of the final 2025 financial statements.

Thanks to widespread media coverage of our work and the launch of several donation-focused campaigns, we have achieved a steady increase in donor revenue. However, the recruitment of new corporate donors continues to lag significantly behind. The loss of a major corporate donor and the absence of one-time corporate donations in 2025 resulted in a lower-than-expected outcome.

The 2025 budget projected a deficit, and we intended to use our designated reserve to cover deferred personnel costs. This has largely been achieved. As of this year, Bits of Freedom has a two-person executive board that facilitates the organization’s growth. Working hours have been reduced to 36 hours per week as planned. All of this explains the increase in personnel costs compared to 2024. However, due to the delayed filling of positions, total personnel costs are slightly lower than budgeted. A renovation or move to a new office was budgeted but has not yet taken place and is now scheduled for mid-2026.

We therefore close the year with a negative result, as expected, which means we are drawing down our designated reserves. The exact amount of our reserves and the percentage of funds allocated to specific purposes will be available in our published financial statements by the end of June 2026 at the latest.

For Bits of Freedom, it is crucial to maintain a sustainable financial situation and remain fully independent. Our financial planning looks ahead five years. In recent years, we have seen growing interest from private foundations in our work. Meanwhile, contributions from individual donors are growing more slowly. This means our funding mix is shifting slightly: the share of our income coming from foundations is increasing. In 2026, we expect to raise 20% of our income from donors, 4% from companies, 64% from foundations, and 12% will be allocated towards specific projects or programs, mostly from foundations. Since project funding carries risks for effectiveness, good employment practices, and safeguarding knowledge and expertise, it is not the ideal form of income.

Regarding asset management and financial reserves, Bits of Freedom aims to maintain a continuity reserve of at least 25% of our annual costs for the coming year. Due to growing global political uncertainty and the impact of this uncertainty on our financial backers, we aim to gradually increase our continuity reserve over the coming years. We expect the continuity reserve to grow by 2026, with our ultimate goal being a continuity reserve of at least 40%.