Do I understand correctly by interpreting that to mean:

"Mozilla is allocating funding to The Thunderbird Project to hire a developer to work on Mozilla Thunderbird"

i.e. the distinction is only relevant in terms of the direction of day-to-day work on the project. Or are Mozilla not funding this at all?

The following quotes seem to indicate that the distinction isn't really relevant in the context of the hiring process at least:

> send us your resume with a cover letter to apply@mozillafoundation.org.

> The successful applicant will be hired as freelancer (independent contractor) through the Mozilla Foundation’s third-party service Upwork

> By applying to this job, you are agreeing to have your applications reviewed [...] by staff members of the Mozilla Foundation.

No, the funds are Thunderbird's alone, originating from donations. Mozilla Foundation is just their fiscal home. Thunderbird Council went shopping for a new fiscal home for a while, even considering The Document Foundation, but decided to stay with MoFo: https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-fu...

Isn't it Upwork are hiring a programmer to work a contract for Thunderbird?

Incidentally there was a post that was heavily critical of Upwork but is now "dead", it included points like:

>Then they take a 2.75% cut from the client, a 20% cut from the freelancer //

It seemed, factual, apposite, and informed; definitely strange it was killed.

> Isn't it Upwork are hiring a programmer to work a contract for Thunderbird?

The Mozilla Foundation just forces Thunderbird to use Upwork as the channel to hire people. I think it's obvious that if Thunderbird Council was able to decide, they would never use Upwork.

Good to know. The post really isn't too transparent about this...