HACKER Q&A
📣 unixhero

Is Wikipedia in trouble (December 2023)?


Wikipedia is displaying banners stating that:

"Wikipedia still can't be sold - We're sorry we've asked you a few times recently, but it's Wednesday, December 20, and it will soon be too late to help the nonprofit behind Wikipedia in this end-of-year fundraiser in the United States. Wikipedia is free and doesn't rely on ads. Just 2% of readers donate, so if Wikipedia has given you $2.75 worth of knowledge, please give. Any contribution helps, whether it's $2.75 or $25."

Is Wikipedia in dire financial straits?

  👤 h2odragon Accepted Answer ✓
Holidays are a prime fundraising season.

They got enough they're making grants.

> The Wikimedia Foundation's Equity Fund Committee has announced a community call concerning the upcoming third round of grantmaking from the controversial, $4.5 million Knowledge Equity Fund that provides grants to charitable and advocacy organizations. Concerns have focused on the fact that Wikipedia donors may not be aware that the Wikimedia Foundation spends several million dollars funding organizations outside the Wikimedia movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2...

👤 boplicity
No. They're just being dramatic with their sales copy. Note, they're not saying it will be too late to help Wikipedia. Rather, they're saying it will be too late to help with the "end-of-year fundraiser in the United States."
👤 willcate
They literally do this every December
👤 slater
No.
👤 s1artibartfast
not at all. They are just getting more and more scummy in their advertising.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#/media/Fi...

Not included in this graph is their endowment, which also grew by 100million in 2022 alone.

Hosting costs of wikipedia are somewhere around 3 million per year. salaries have gone from ~3 million in 2010 to 60 >100 million in 2022.

edit: bases on 2022 audit report https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/W...