The Tor Project is the group behind the privacy-focused Tor browser. Like many others, it's also affected by the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic.
As a way to increase the diversity of its income sources to fund The Tor Project, the group that laid off a third of its employees amid the crisis is launching a The Tor Project Membership Program.
Through the program, The Tor Project can ask other companies and organizations to join its membership program by offering them benefits at a variety of tiers, for a price.
Founding members include Avast, DuckDuckGo, Insurgo, Inc., Mullvad VPN and Team Cymru, all of which are companies working on privacy and cybersecurity products.
On a dedicated page, Tor wrote that:
The Tor Project offers three different membership tiers, each with different level of benefits and public promotions:
- Shallot Onion Member: In this tier, companies or organizations will have a link back to their website, along with their quote that motivated them for joining the Membership Program. They will be featured on The Tor Project's Membership Program page, and will be engaged with on social media, events and promotional mechanisms.
This tier costs ≥ $100,000 per year.
- Vidalia Onion Member: Companies and organizations will have a link back to their site, featured on The Tor Project's Membership program, and will also be engaged with on social media platforms for promotion.
This tier costs $50,000 - $99,999 per year.
- Green Onion Member: The cheapest tier allows companies and organizations to have a link back to their website, and featured on The Tor Project's Membership Program page.
This tier costs $10,000 - $49,999 per year.
"At Tor, we love all of the onions, but shallots are the tastiest!" wrote the team.
When other companies or organization join The Tor Project’s Membership Program, they become direct contributors to supporting The Tor Project and its development.
In return, members become a closer part of The Tor Project's community.
Members of all tiers receive the same community benefits: access to The Tor Project’s 'Onion Advisors' group.
The Tor Project's Onion Advisors group can help them integrate Tor into their product, as well as "inclusion in conversations and exclusive meetings with The Tor Project team to learn about what we are cooking at Tor, and public promotion of your membership," wrote the team at Tor.
“For a while, we have been thinking about how to continue to increase the diversity of funds in The Tor Project’s budget and, more importantly, how to increase unrestricted funds,” said The Tor Project Executive Director Isabela Bagueros.
“This is a type of funding that allows us to be more agile with software development of Tor and other tools."
“We decided to create a program inspired by what Tor is based on, community,” continued Bagueros.
“Our goal is to build a supportive relationship between our nonprofit and private sector organizations that use our technology or want to support our mission.”