What We Do

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s pressing challenges.

In order to achieve our mission, we:

  • Provide Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works
  • Work closely with major institutions and governments to create, adopt and implement open licensing and ensure the correct use of CC licenses and CC-licensed content
  • Support the CC Global Network , a community initiative working to increase the volume, breadth, and quality of openly available knowledge worldwide
  • Steward the Open COVID Pledge , which calls on organizations around the world to make their patents and copyrights freely available in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Develop technology like CC Search that makes openly licensed material easier to discover and use
  • Offer the Creative Commons Certificate , an in-depth course for people interested in becoming experts in creating and engaging with openly licensed works
  • Produce CC Summit , an annual event that brings together an international group of educators, artists, technologists, legal experts, and activists to promote the power of open licensing and global access
  • Support global Open Education and GLAM communities

Learn more about Creative Commons through our collection of public reports and financials . For information about CC’s funding agreements, please see our Contributions Policy . Certain states require written disclosures for nonprofit organizations soliciting contributions. CC’s individual state disclosures are available here .