is a volunteer run, non-profit organization which broadens access and educational opportunities for young people in music and the musical arts. Since 1994, Mockingbird has cultivated intellectual property on Phish and their music through phish.net, making it the leading provider of historical information about the band. Through partnerships, The Foundation contributes content to a dozen other Phis
h related sites and four mobile apps. The Foundation's initial project was the compilation of the most factually accurate, delightfully literary book on Phish’s music available, created through contributions from as many fans as possible. In addition to The Phish Companions, The Foundation produces a wider range of resources and diversions for fans, including ownership of the fan website phish.net. The Foundation formally adopted phish.net as a project on January 17, 2005. The site had begun in 1991 and served Phish fans for nearly two decades as static HTML pages. It was re-launched in the Fall of 2009 as an integrated database - of setlists, song histories, reviews, and more. Unconventional in structure, it exists almost entirely online, allowing a higher percentage of income to be distributed directly to deserving organizations. Mockingbird was born from a Usenet newsgroup and started as a mailing list, and now sustains through online forums and blogs on phish.net, as well as Facebook and Twitter. The Mockingbird Foundation is entirely volunteer based, with no salaries, paid staff, office space, or endowment — thus distributing all possible funds to charity. No member or volunteer benefits financially from the Foundation in any way, and all proceeds from Mockingbird projects are donated to tax-exempt organizations. At the beginning of Summer 2016, The Foundation announced that Phish fans have donated over one million dollars to charity. To learn how The Mockingbird Foundation is impacting the funding of local children's music programs, visit: http://bit.ly/mbird-milestones
