I’ve heard that and decided to look myself. According to their fundraising report for fiscal year 2021/22, they received $165.2m from 13m people. Removing “major gifts,” $20.8m (only 18,000 people), it comes out to a bit over $11 per person. Additionally, they got $13.5m to their trust, the Wikimedia Endowment (average donation of $13.91/person). So definitely, most of their income comes from small donations.
As to whether they need it, according to their FY 21/22 financials statement, they’re sitting on $198m in assets ($51m of which is cash), with an additional $52m they can’t touch because they’re long-term investments. However, their expenditures made up $154m. In total, they’re reporting they netted $8m last year for additional assets, but assuming that everyone stopped donating, Wikipedia would probably die in a year, even with liquidation of short-term assets.
I’ve heard that and decided to look myself. According to their fundraising report for fiscal year 2021/22, they received $165.2m from 13m people. Removing “major gifts,” $20.8m (only 18,000 people), it comes out to a bit over $11 per person. Additionally, they got $13.5m to their trust, the Wikimedia Endowment (average donation of $13.91/person). So definitely, most of their income comes from small donations.
As to whether they need it, according to their FY 21/22 financials statement, they’re sitting on $198m in assets ($51m of which is cash), with an additional $52m they can’t touch because they’re long-term investments. However, their expenditures made up $154m. In total, they’re reporting they netted $8m last year for additional assets, but assuming that everyone stopped donating, Wikipedia would probably die in a year, even with liquidation of short-term assets.
thank ya! I appreciate the effort you made for my silly comment. Ill read those links too.
Time to make the yearly offline copy of the English Wikipedia. It’s always handy to have an offline version.