Wikimedia Foundation

Coordinates: 37°47′21″N 122°24′12″W / 37.78917°N 122.40333°W / 37.78917; -122.40333

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
AbbreviationWMF
FoundedJune 20, 2003 (2003-06-20), St. Petersburg, Florida, US
FounderJimmy Wales[1]
Type501(c)(3), charitable organization
EIN 200049703[2]
FocusFree, open-content, multilingual, wiki-based Internet projects
Location
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsWikipedia, MediaWiki, Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary
Membership
Board-only
Chief Executive Officer
Maryana Iskander
Revenue
[3]
Expenses
  • US$146.0 million (2022)
  • US$111.8 million (2021)
[3]
Endowment (2021)> US$100 million (2021)[4]
Employees
> around 700 staff/contractors (as of November 2022)
Website

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF), is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws.[5] Best known as the hosting platform for Wikipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia, it also hosts other related projects and MediaWiki, a wiki software.[6][7][8]

The Wikimedia Foundation was established in 2003 in St. Petersburg, Florida, by Jimmy Wales as a nonprofit way to fund Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and other crowdsourced wiki projects that had until then been hosted by Bomis, Wales's for-profit company.[1] The Foundation finances itself mainly through millions of small donations from Wikipedia readers, collected through email campaigns and annual fundraising banners placed on Wikipedia and its sister projects.[9] These are complemented by grants from philanthropic organizations and tech companies, and starting in 2022, by services income from Wikimedia Enterprise.

The Foundation has grown rapidly throughout its existence. By 2022, it employed around 700 staff and contractors, with annual revenues of US$155 million, annual expenses of US$146 million, net assets of US$240 million and a growing endowment, which surpassed US$100 million in June 2021.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Announcing Wikimedia Foundation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "2014 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990)" (PDF). WMF (Public Inspection Copy). May 11, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "File:Wikimedia Foundation FY2021-2022 Audit Report.pdf - Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki" (PDF). Foundation.wikimedia.org. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Endo100 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Hanson, Jarice (2016). The Social Media Revolution: An Economic Encyclopedia of Friending, Following, Texting, and Connecting. ABC-CLIO. p. 375. ISBN 978-1-61069-768-2.
  6. ^ Jacobs, Julia (April 8, 2019). "Wikipedia Isn't Officially a Social Network. But the Harassment Can Get Ugly". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  7. ^ Cohen, Noam (March 16, 2021). "Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up". Wired. Archived from the original on March 17, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  8. ^ Culliford, Elizabeth (February 2, 2021). "Exclusive: Wikipedia launches new global rules to combat site abuses". Reuters. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  9. ^ "Fundraising report 2020–2021". Wikimedia Foundation.

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