Every so often I give a few bucks(far less than the worth of knowledge I got from it)
Absolutely not. They have way more money than they can sensibly spend, keep begging for more as if they could barely keep the lights on (they could probably easily keep the core mission going with about 10% of the money they’re getting), and then expand their spending to match the donations they collected.
They then created an endowment (i.e. a pile of wealth that generates enough interest to sustain them indefinitely), using both additional donations and some of the money given to Wikimedia (which reduces the apparent amount of money they spend and is not listed as money Wikipedia/Wikimedia has, as it is accounted for separately). The $100M endowment was planned to take 10 years to build, got completed in 2021, five years before schedule. Wikimedia also has a separate cash hoard of almost a quarter billion dollars.
It’s actually all in their article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Finances
Wow I didn’t know about this, thanks for the reading! I always feel morally in debt for using Wikipedia without giving back much and assume they were struggling a bit to operate, but wow they have received millions of dollars already!
edit: I’m still willing to donate though, and I just did, like I’m happy to pay for what I’ve learned from it, even if it doesn’t mean much to them.
This is the most interesting thing I realize(thanks to you) this week so far
Giving 10 bucks a year, even though I use it very little. But sometimes it’s just easy and quick to look something up or read an interesting article, and I know that there are many people (students, etc.) who rely on it more than I do and have less money to spend
I heard that the wiki foundation is pretty well off and the saleries they pay the executives are rising pretty fast. Havent donated myself but in principle I should, eventho the higher ups are earning this much.
Yes, sporadically but usually once I year I give them a donation.
Wikipedia is an insanely valuable resource we as a society just take for granted, especially those that grew up with it. Instant access to nearly infinite information is an absurd luxury we have, and it’s a resource I want to see continue without being tied to corporate interests or abusive government regulation.
It’s never much mind you, but I try to contribute a little around Christmas time if I can.
No because I already donate to the EFF and Internet Archive and I figure that’s enough. And apparently Wikipedia already has enough money according to the comments here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statistics
they could run an extra year on $0 of donations. Whether one considers that enough or not might be down to personal viewpoint.
I think Wikipedia is a valuable common good and should be maintained. Because I can afford it, I donate monthly, even if I only use it a few times each month.
Yes, and I even have it as an automatic scheduled payment so I don’t forget. Even with its flaws, it remains one of the shining gems of the Internet, and a resource I use frequently in both my professional life and my personal one. I remember how it was to suddenly want to learn more about a random topic before Wikipedia and I don’t want to go back.
I also donate to The Internet Archive.
No, because I’m very poor.
What if poor were defined by whether or not you give? What if you could become rich by giving some portion of your tiny amount of money away?
Gee, wouldn’t that be nice. To be clear I’m living below the poverty line right now.
I’ve donated while living below the poverty line. And it made me feel pretty good, as a matter of fact. I funded the development of four organic gardens in central america, and I helped support Doctors Without Borders missions all over the globe. Felt damn good to know I could still help others way further below the poverty line than me.
How did you do that and, you know, still afford basic necessities? I already lean on donations from others to survive. Or was that your situation too, you just “re-donated” a bit.
I was not in the extremely unlikely scenario where the basic necessities cost exactly as much as my income.
A person is either ahead or behind. The probability their income and their expenses actually match, down to the last dollar, is vanishingly small.
Whenever you find in your life that you have no options, you can be sure you are hallucinating that state of affairs.
Read Elie Wiesel’s Night for an exploration of just how deep freedom goes.
Well, I’m behind. Book recommendation noted, I wonder if my public library could track down a copy.
I used to use it for free when I was broke. Now I give a little extra per month to hopefully offset that. It’s invaluable to me. That and public radio.
I can’t realistically afford it due to various factors but if I had a proper “western” wage, I surely would donate.
I have before, but I was crippled by a conservative pedo ran corporation called The Home Depot. So it’s not in the budget currently. Hide yo kids if you go in there.
I did once. Then I don’t because Wikipedia is currently in a stable financial situation so I can donate to another entity that needs resources.
Do you donate to Wikipedia? Why or why not?
I did and ever since have been rewarded with an endless barrage of “you gave once before so do it aga–a-a–aa-a-a-a-a-a-a-in” banners. Given the ecomonics of fundraising I wouldn’t be surprised if donors were badgered more than non-donors.
Absolutely. What a ridiculous amount of information for free, if you use it at all, it deserves $2-3 every now and then to keep it free. If someone buys it, they will fuck it up.
I did once or twice. I also donated to Signal and couple smaller projects I used. I always plan to donate more but a man has to eat and fly on vacations to Canary Islands…