Is Wikipedia running out of money?
I have observed the language they are using to ask for donations has become increasingly pleading, borderline begging. I am a frequent donor, but I haven't logged into Wikipedia account on my mobile. Every time I open any article on mobile, it shows a popup asking me to donate. Nowadays, it has even started showing a counter of how many 'free' articles I have read so far. Is Wikimedia foundation destitute? Why are they pushing to get capital so fervently? Are people who handle the money just looking to make themselves rich?
Wikipedia itself, the website that constitutes 99% of the value the Wikimedia organization provides, costs very little to run, it's like 20% of their budget. The rest is wasteful projects run by a bloated org.
> Is Wikimedia foundation destitute?
No. If you search on HN, there's big discussions of this every year.
> Why are they pushing to get capital so fervently?
Because it works, and they'll find something to spend the money on.
I feel like their language has always been desperate. Maybe they are trying new approaches because the old ones have grown tired. Personally, after a long history of donating to them, I stopped simply because the quality of the content has sunk so far due to all the political warfare on the Talk pages. Given even the founder thinks Wikipedia has become badly biased, maybe it isn’t so bad for them to come under hard times and for other competitors to pop up:
https://larrysanger.org/2020/05/wikipedia-is-badly-biased/
Every year they raise more than they spend and their total assets are equal to about a year and a half of spending. It doesn't look like they're running out, or like they're overstepping with the fundraising; it all seems quite reasonable.
I worked at a PacNN/Ivy type university with a gigabuck+ endowment. They always cried poverty during recessions and did arbitrary, across-the-board cuts to "tighten the belt" when they were wasting absurds amounts of money elsewhere but cutting useful things and people arbitrarily too.
It's not too different than the language used in mailers I receive from other non-profits. I think it's just a strategy that creates urgency and emotions in users. I assume it works or else no one would do it, because it's really annoying to me.
That's why I donate only to my local Wikimedia chapter. They are a separate organisation which does not swim in money and they spend it sensibly.
I wish adblockers would take care of these banners