The .NET Foundation is an organization incorporated on March 31, 2014,[1] by Microsoft to improve open-source software development and collaboration around the .NET Framework.

Members can vote in elections for the board of the directors and will preserve the health of the organization.

[8] The foundation began with twenty-four projects under its stewardship including .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") and the ASP.NET family of open-source projects, both open-sourced by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. (MS Open Tech).

[5] Xamarin contributed six of its projects including the open source email libraries MimeKit and MailKit.

As of June 2024[update], its board of directors consisted of Louëlla Creemers, Mitchel Sellers, Kendall Miller, Chris Woodruff, Glenn Watson, Kevin Griffin and Chris Sfanos.