ABOUT
With a dedicated team of sixteen full-time employees, the NLnet Labs foundation develops free, liberally licensed, open-source software for DNS and BGP routing. We also perform research, develop standards and support the Internet community. This work is 100% funded by the Internet industry though donations, support contracts and paid feature development.
Lean and Focussed
NLnet Labs is a non-profit organisation which has a small, focussed team with twelve full-time software engineers, two researchers and two managers. With this flat organisation structure, it is a place where excellent software engineers can do what they are best at.
To fulfill our mission, all industry funding goes towards developing open-source software development and research. There are at least two developers on every project, ensuring stability and continuity.
Learn more about our organisation.
Financial Stability
All of our activities are funded by organisations in the Internet industry, who either support our mission and/or use our software. We are recognised by the Dutch tax authorities as a Public Benefit Organisation (Dutch: Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling or ANBI), which is the equivalent of a 501(c)(3) organisation in the USA.
Dutch tax regulations allow us to have reserves that guarantee two years of continued operations in case all industry funding would disappear. Thus, in the unlikely event that NLnet Labs can no longer commit to maintaining our software projects, we will announce this at least two years in advance.
Learn more about our funding model and software support policy.
Research
NLnet Labs sees the Internet as a constantly changing interplay of open standards, network operators and users. To keep the Internet viable, stable and secure, it is vital to understand how the Internet works and what effects changes in protocols and operational practices have. For this reason, NLnet Labs considers research into core Internet protocols to be an integral part of its mission.
Learn more about our research.
Standards Development
NLnet Labs actively contributes to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) with a co-chair position in the DNS Operations Working Group, as well as co-authoring several drafts and standards in the area of DNS and BGP routing.
Learn more about our standards work.
Community
We actively contribute to the stability and integrity of the Internet, serving on the board of directors of Quad9 and DNS-OARC, as well as the Security and Stability Advisory Committee of ICANN.
Learn more about our community work.