Wikipedia is something we always look forward to for gaining information about while we Google. It’s a non-profit foundation so you must be wondering from where do they get the money?
It is visited by more than 330 million people every month, making it the number five most-popular site in the world.
Wikipedia is run by a non-profit organization named Wikipedia Foundation. It supports Wikipedia and also other editing and publishing sites in the world. It’s actually a community of contributors namely Wikimedia which uses reader contributions to pay the expenses of Wikipedia’s operation.
Wikipedia Foundation has an annual budget that has increased from $10 million in 2010 to about $80 million in 2016.
Italy’s video game archive breathes life into gaming history and culture with Wikipedia: https://t.co/8y68uAnxNG pic.twitter.com/FMtTvTfaGz
— Wikimedia (@Wikimedia) July 26, 2017
The number of employees is very less in Wikipedia half of which work on Technology and a large majority of the authors concentrate on fund raising. The amount of money required to keep Wikipedia running is very less.
The majority is done by donations. Donations and grants go to the Wikimedia Foundation. Most of the donations come from individuals, but major benefactors ($50,000) include Alan Bauer, Bing, The Hellman Family Foundation and much more. They accept donations by credit card, check, stock transfer, etc. The minimum donation is $1 for security reasons. The donation is tax-deductible. You can mention the amount you have donated! That’s totally up to you!
Besides money, they accept donations like server space, a developer’s time, a designer’s time, etc. Even the average donation of less than 100 US Dollars is much for the organization to perform as it is not a money making website.
‘Wikipedia Store’ is another source to raise funds. People can find goods like t-shirts, notebooks and pens etc which they can buy. Only 1% of this goes for Wikipedia and others go for Wikipedia Foundation’s sister projects like Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikivoyage, and others.
Samantha Lien, a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson said,
“People make contributions year-round from countries all over the world. We receive contributions of all sizes, but every gift is meaningful. The average donation is just $15. Wikipedia readers will see banners on the site asking for a small contribution. We strive to make sure fundraising campaigns are as short as possible, and that person who has already contributed are not asked again”
