They have tried to move away from Google. The problem is none of their other ideas have worked out.
It might not make millions, but I'd donate in a heartbeat if I knew that my money would actually go to Firefox and not to one of the dozens of random side quests that Mozilla keeps picking up.
I've head that there are tax problems with that. So maybe there needs to be a paid "Firefox Pro" or whatever?
I mean, isn't that the problem? They made 500m this quarter so a <1m donation box won't shift things. Hell, it may not even pay for more than a few devs given the compensation I've seen.
There simply isn't enough goodwill to maintain the living of even a single person operation without some sort of incentive (which ceases to be a "donation", but a subscription with a fancy coat).
Browser engines are not a money making business (if it was Microsoft would still be in the game)
If I was aiming to set up a company like Mozilla, I'd want all earnings to go into such a fund, and all costs to come out of buffered investment returns... Yes, significantly slows down the rate you can spend, but it also significantly increases the odds of longevity and independence.
Of course that presumes the goal is to build the organization, not to get personally rich off it.
I don't think they actually ever expected any of these ideas to work. In the meantime you can't even donate to firefox if you want to, only to the foundation.
I mean, I give money to KDE every month and they manage to build a whole desktop environment. Why can't I do that with Mozilla? Oh wait, how much money does KDE waste on a CEO?