Wikimedia Foundation

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
AbbreviationWMF
FoundedJune 20, 2003 (2003-06-20), St. Petersburg, Florida, US
FounderJimmy Wales
Type501(c)(3), charitable organization
EIN 200049703
FocusFree, open-content, multilingual, wiki-based Internet projects
Location
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsWikipedia, MediaWiki, Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikifunctions, Wikimedia Commons, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary
Membership
Board-only
CEO
Maryana Iskander
Revenue
  • $180.2 million (2023)
  • $154.7 million (2022)
Expenses
  • $169.0 million (2023)
  • $146.0 million (2022)
Endowment> $100 million (2021)
Employees
> around 700 staff/contractors (as of November 2022)
Website
ASNs14907, 11820 Edit this at Wikidata
[1][2][3][4]

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., abbreviated WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as a charitable foundation.[5] It is best known as the host of Wikipedia, the seventh most visited website in the world. However, the foundation also hosts 14 other related content projects. It also supports the development of MediaWiki, the wiki software that underpins them all.[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.[1] (Until then, they had 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. As of December 31, 2023, it has employed over 700 staff and contractors, with annual revenues of $180.2 million, annual expenses of $169 million, net assets of $255 million and a growing endowment, which surpassed $100 million in June 2021.

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ "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.