Mathesar Foundation

Founded in 2022, the Mathesar Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was established by a group of industry veterans with extensive experience in open-source software development and a commitment to improving accessibility in data management. The Foundation’s mission centers on democratizing database technology by removing technical barriers to working with relational databases, enabling non-technical users across various organizations to effectively manage data.

The Foundation’s primary offering is Mathesar, an open-source, self-hosted, spreadsheet-like no-code interface built directly on PostgreSQL. This tool is designed for non-technical teams, small and medium-sized businesses, non-governmental organizations, academic researchers, and other data-driven groups lacking dedicated IT resources. Mathesar Foundation operates under a nonprofit business model funded entirely through philanthropic grants and donations, with no commercial licensing or paid SaaS plans. The organization actively promotes openness, inclusion, and transparency, sustaining development through a community-driven approach supported by a core team of 5 to 10 employees and over 100 open-source contributors.

With funding of $3 million primarily from philanthropic sources including individual donors such as Reid Hoffman, the Mathesar Foundation prioritizes software that is free, transparent, and self-hostable. Its commitment to community collaboration and open access reflects its broader goal of empowering a diverse range of users to utilize database technology without advanced technical skills.