**Ghostty Terminal Adopts Non-Profit Funding Model**

The fast, GPU-accelerated, and open-source terminal emulator from HashiCorp co-founder Mitchell Hashimoto has taken a significant step forward in its development. After being adopted by users worldwide as a reliable and efficient way to access the command line, Ghostty is now operating on a non-profit basis.

The project isn't a nonprofit itself but is "fiscally sponsored" by Hack Club, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This means that Hack Club uses its tax-exempt status to accept donations on behalf of Ghostty and manages the compliance, accounting, and financial governance required for the project.

According to Hashimoto, this change in funding model is essential because it ensures that infrastructure of this kind is stewarded by a mission-driven, non-commercial entity that prioritizes public benefit over private profit. By adopting a nonprofit structure, Hashimoto believes that Ghostty can increase trust among users, encourage adoption, and create conditions for the project to grow into widely used and impactful open-source infrastructure.

Hashimoto, who is also the largest donor to the project, intends to remain so. However, with the new non-profit structure in place, the project can now accept donations from others with oversight to ensure that funds are used for the project's benefit, not Hashimoto's personal gain.

**What Does This Mean for Ghostty Users?**

Despite its bold ambition, migrating to a public-first governance model might seem excessive for a terminal emulator. However, it makes sense for Hashimoto, who has already demonstrated his commitment to building a high-quality terminal with native host integration and without the compromises that come with Electron wrappers or lowest-common-denominator UIs.

Ghostty is a cross-platform open-source terminal that uses modern tooling and respects the OS it runs on. It uses GTK4/libadwaita on Linux, making it feel like a native app. While some users might think, "But my current terminal already does that," Ghostty's goal isn't to reinvent the command line experience but to build it properly with fewer compromises.

As Linux users are spoiled for choice when it comes to fast, GPU-accelerated terminal emulators that do what a terminal emulator should, Ghostty's appeal lies in its cross-platform approach and lack of feature creep. For macOS or Windows users who work across OSes often, Ghostty is an attractive option because it's free from the non-native toolkits and VC-backed AI pivots that some rivals opt for.

**Nothing Changes for Ghostty**

According to Hashimoto, "nothing changes" for Ghostty as a result of this new funding model. The technical goals remain the same, with an open-source MIT license and a roadmap focused on improving the GUI and libghostty. The non-profit structure is primarily about ensuring that the project stays focused on users' needs rather than personal gain.

Hashimoto's commitment to Ghostty's success is evident in his decision to transfer "applicable names, marks, and intellectual property associated with Ghostty" to Hack Club. This move lays the groundwork for an eventual future beyond this model, allowing the project to outlive him as a standalone entity.

**Conclusion**

Ghostty's shift to non-profit status means that users can access the terminal emulator without worrying about remote login requirements due to VC-backed investors trying to monetize their user base. The community-driven project provides a stable and efficient way to access the command line, and its new funding model ensures that it remains focused on public benefit rather than private profit.

Ghostty is available for macOS (binary download) and Linux (build from source, use the Nix flake, or grab a community package for Arch, Fedora, Debian – a community project provides Ghostty DEBs for Ubuntu).