maybe redirect that to archive.org
I feel like they need it more... they've just been hacked and they might need more resources to upgrade their security.
But both are good causes. But make sure you have enough emergency funds saved for yourself first.
Edit: Another argument for archive.org over wikipedia is that wikipedia is mostly a text based site. archive.org , in contrast, can store photos, videos, software, and various media thay requires more storage. The entire English wikipedia is only about 100GB (excluding videos), but archive.org is probably in the Terabytes or more.
Their software collection alone has reached the petabyte mark: https://archive.org/details/software?tab=about
I don't anymore.
they do not need your money, and it's disingenuous of them to imply they do.
The manipulative aspect of their annual fundraisers is very unsettling.
here are some numbers from 2022:
https://unherd.com/newsroom/the-next-time-wikipedia-asks-for-a-donation-ignore-it/
they have at least 400 million in reserves now and the estimate is $10 million a year to maintain the site and pay all their employees.
their higher executives are each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
they're not struggling to keep the lights on for the next half century.
https://wikimediafoundation.org/annualreports/2022-2023-annual-report/
They have approximately $80 million in cash, and it costs them about $100 million to pay their staff. They have $274 million in total assets, counting endowment investments.
It's extremely unclear where that site came up with $400 million.
I'm not sure why you'd link to a two year old opinion piece on it, when all of their financials are publicly available and provided without commentary.
They received cash in excess of expenses of about $6 million, and including non-cash assets their total assets increased by about $16 million in 2024.
Their CEO makes about $500 thousand a year, and the rest of their executive team ranges in salary from $300 to $100 thousand.
It's not a small salary, but it's not preposterous for one of the most visited sites in the Internet that also operates as a charity to have decently compensated executives.They are not in financial trouble, but it's not accurate to say they can keep the lights on for the next 50 years.
"a two year old opinion piece on it,"
it's the first article that popped up with reliable numbers, but there are plenty of articles criticizing the amassed wealth of wmf while they're asking for money every year.
unsurprisingly, the WMF reports that WMF are spending their money responsibly and are barely managing to sustain themselves, while every journalist that looks into it confirms that WMF have plenty of money and have not needed to do these fundraising drives for years, and will not have to for decades.
$100 million is purely cash on hand, it doesn't take into account any otger WMF assets.
it's nice that you're excited about Wikipedia, and it can be a useful resource, but these are not contentious facts.
Wikipedia has plenty of money, they spend it irresponsibly, and every year they are taking and millions of dollars that they add to that stack.
important to note, Wikipedias value to the end users is contributed two and maintained by unpaid volunteers.
here's another good article;
https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/wikipedia-wikimedia-foundation-donate.html
I made sure it was also 2 years old because I think it's funny your ageist about facts.
I'll talk to you in 50 years and we can settle this.
Yeah I no longer donate as well for this same reason. They are not hurting for cash
Yes definitely. Anything that spreads knowledge should be hugely supported.
Be very suspicious of anyone advocating for less support of knowledge sharing.
this is my take also. def be suspicious of anyone trying to hide or gatekeep knowledge, transparency is key. it doesn't hurt anyone to be properly informed. I say "properly" because look at MAGA bullshit.
we all do better with real, legit knowledge.
BRAWNDO! it's what plants crave!
Read this and then decide for yourself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer
This is why I just block their fucking "we're in trouble and need your help" banners. Their income is public knowledge. They don't actually need help.
Right now, I'm leaning towards "no" on account of them allegedly being awash with money.
In the vein of alternative places to donate, consider your Fediverse instance(s). If you're a Linux user, a few pennies towards your distro of choice wouldn't go amiss either. (I'd also say archive.org, but someone else suggested that already.)
You may already be donating to these places, but this comment is also for the handful of other people who might see it, and like one of those arcade coin waterfalls, might trickle down into the conscience of someone who has cash to donate.
I worked for them ten years ago. I was excited to do something important for once. And it was better than competing with Amazon for book sales. I was really helping.
I eventually left because I didn't think we were being a great steward of donor money. And I didnt have the best relationship with my boss. Nice guy, but we didn't clock.
Back then they spent like half their money on donations and programs trying to get more editors. That included supporting projects in smaller languages and diversity on current projects. Mostly good stuff as far as I could tell.
Where they invested their money for tech was where I disagreed. But even so, I've donated since then. They are supporting important work. Everyone makes mistakes.
Ultimately, I dunno.
I used to donate, but I haven't for at least 10 years.
Their financing is public. They would have enough cash to keep the lights on for decades.
They've been investing to be reliant on donations in the future. I see a conflict of interest there and I'd rather have them be relying on donations.. especially since they have received enough cash to do so.
TL;DR, I'm happy to donate for running Wikipedia, not happy to donate for them to become a fund.
I am not sure whether the wikimedia foundation actually needs money from individuals. From what I could find by searching "Does Wikipedia need donations", they seem to have plenty of money. I've also seen from people that after donating, they like to haunt your email inbox for more money.
I myself prefer donating elsewhere instead. In my opinion a good alternative is archive.org. It's hard to track how much they get sued, and now they even were hacked recently.
I donate a bit each year, and I wouldn't say they are bothersome. I get an email once a year where they ask if I'd like to donate again, not counting the receipt from the actual donation. It seems disingenuous to complain about the receipt.
Yeah I'll give em $20 some years and never got hit with emails. EDIT: just checked i have 2 solicitation in my inbox this year
You’re better off shooting your instance the money, but Wikipedia has remained a genuinely good quality company. If you want to give them money in recognition of this fact, no one sane will call you a dumb dildo with hairy feet.
If you use it frequently, and have money to spare for that (after maybe considering other projects that may better align with you personally), yes.
I donate a small amount every year. Before now, I had not given much thought about its internal politics or whether they really need it to stay afloat (my contribution is too small to make a difference anyway).
To me, it's more of a way of being thankful for having ad-free content with a good enough material.
You have my permission
yes
Yes
I have in the past, but at this point I need my money more than they do, and even if I get a job where it becomes financially possible to donate, there are other organizations that need it more than Wikipedia
Do you use Wikipedia? If so, yes.
I barely have two dollars to rub together and I still try to
I guess I'm probably overdue to make a donation myself
If you can afford it, yes. If you use it, yes.
Maybe not each year. I mean, I donate a couple hundreds every few years because back in those days I certainly was not paying for a brand new printed encyclopedia every single year either ;)
I do not. Not as long as Jimmy Wales is involved with it. I strongly disagree with his objectivist philosophy.
There are certainty worse places to send your money, though.
If you do, their e-mails asking you to donate again are a bit weird and manipulative. Their subject lines are like "FIRSTNAME - I've had enough", "Our final email" (got several of those), "It's non-negotiable".
i think it's mostly for maintaining the servers, the actual article writers are random people on the internet, who probably recieve no money
Yes.
You know how people will donate money to streamers if they do stupid stuff? If you can do that, you can do this.
Not really. They haven't been giving me a good reason. I've seen too many broken articles, formats that aren't consistent and an abundance of editing issues. Those are not good reasons for me to be donating to them over.
Yeah, fuck them, right? Fucking assholes building a database with everything we learned and did as a species, making it accessible for everyone for free with their inconsistent editing. Let Wikipedia go broke with it's abundance of editing issues! Who will miss this piece of shit site everyone can add to, edit and correct even without an account. Not us, right!
May I...... oh wait, not that.
Yes, yes you should donate.
They use most of the money for other activities. I’d look towards those, if you don’t like them don’t waste it.
They have millions to spare every year, yet their hosting costs is just a couple thousand.
And yet they insist on community moderators, who aren't trained, paid or impartial. A lot of the information on the site has been quite terrible recently.
Meanwhile, they beg and beg for more money. Where that cash goes? Well a big chunk of it is labeled "other" and "community projects". They currently have about 250 million sitting in the bank. Enough to keep their hosting services running for over 400 years if their funding were to abruptly stop.
And then still, they accept grants on top of donations.
Their hosting is a couple million a year, and they have $80 million in cash, not $250.
Their cash flow from donations after expenses is about $6 million.
They absolutely cannot keep running for 400 years without further funding.
If nothing else, people are needed to run the servers and actually manage the basic operations of the foundation.They're definitely not in a dire financial situation, but they're not centuries of hands off operation by any means.
Why the pizza are there wikipedia articles about this disagreeing? And their info page?
Welp, either way I've found them unreliable recently
Fuuuuck no.
No.
I don't but I'm cheap
