The Wikimedia Foundation is financially healthy and nearing a $100M endowment target five years ahead of schedule, yet fundraising appeals imply it's struggling
The site is way richer than it wants you to know. — The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), the non-profit that owns Wikipedia … Tweets: @iansherr , @sub8u , @kaepora , @davidcovucci , @nixcraft , @marcan42 , @sentdex , @wikiland , @andreworlowski , @wikiland , and @andreworlowski Tweets: Ian Sherr / @iansherr : Raise your hand if you ever got a fundraising letter from a foundation saying it's perfectly fine but please give anyway? https://twitter.com/... Subrahmanyam Kvj / @sub8u : Don't let Wikipedia guilt-trip you. https://www.dailydot.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nadim Kobeissi / @kaepora : “The expenses for operating https://wikipedia.org/ would be around $10M. Their $112M expenses include sky high executive compensation, money sent to the fund, millions spent on fundraising, and financing a host of programs not related to Wikipedia.” https://www.dailydot.com/... David Covucci / @davidcovucci : wikipedia is way, way, way richer than its desperate fundraising banners let on. so why is it always pleading with you for money? https://twitter.com/... @nixcraft : Wikipedia is swimming in money—why is it begging people to donate? https://www.dailydot.com/... Expenses include the sky high 6 figure executive compensation/salaries. So this is where my $5 goes. I am not going to donate anything to them. YMMV. Hector Martin / @marcan42 : Reminder that Wikipedia is swimming in money - more than 10 times what they'd need to run the website. They're employing over 40 people *just* on fundraising. Managers get $400k salaries. Their intrusive donation plea banners are downright deceptive. https://www.dailydot.com/... Harrison Kinsley / @sentdex : TBH for a website the size of @Wikipedia, a rank 13ish in the world website, $125M in the bank isn't really “swimming” in cash is it? That can dry up real quick. It's basically insurance, and Wikipedia is insured to only $125M. I hope they get more. https://twitter.com/... @wikiland : @jaycl96 @Telegraph @AndrewOrlowski Wikipedia and Wikimedia Foundation are not the same thing. It's worth noting that even many Wikipedia volunteers find Wikimedia's fundraising ethics dreadful: https://www.dailydot.com/... Andrew Orlowski / @andreworlowski : If you enjoyed my Telegraph column on Wikipedia today, you *must* read this by @Wikiland on Wikipedia's finances. Mind-boggling. I also drew on some great work by @michael_olenick published last month - https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @wikiland : We need to talk about Wikipedia's fundraising messages. https://www.dailydot.com/... Andrew Orlowski / @andreworlowski : Here's me in the 'Graf @telebusiness on the richest beggars in the world: Wikipedia. Some highlights for those without a sub 1/5 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ...