Wikipedia Asks For Money? Make Sure to Always Do This

If you’ve ever visited Wikipedia, which you probably did a lot of while you were in college as you copied and pasted lengthy passages of text before rewriting them in your own words. You may have questioned why Wikipedia asks for money.

Aren’t the posts made by members of the community? What are they doing with the money, considering that it resembles a university forum from 2003 that has yet to alter all that much in terms of format?

There are a few justifications for why Wikipedia asks for money. Here is Jimmy Wales’ justification for starting the website.

Wikipedia asks for money:

Wales says that Wikimedia is a “nonprofit that depends on donations to stay online and grow, but 98% of our readers don’t give; they just look the other way.” on the page for donations to the group.

If everyone who reads Wikipedia gave even a small amount, we could keep it going for a very long time.

They ask for money since maintaining Wikipedia takes a lot of work. The complex will employ 450 full-time staff members and contract workers by 2020.

Many Wikipedia staff members started as reliable contributors, committed to fact-checking and ensuring that site entries were correctly cited.

According to CareerBliss.com, the average full-time wage in the USA is $66,000 annually, and employees at Wikipedia make an average of $65,000.

The Wikimedia Foundation handles the well-known online encyclopedia’s management, whose assets have held up well over time. Wikipedia has collected assets of $221,177,536, according to the website.

The site saw its biggest increase in asset growth between 2020 and 2021, reaching a staggering $50,861,811.

The Wikimedia Foundation’s former executive director said 2021 that she thought more money should go toward paying Wikipedia’s editors and managers: “I believe that today, a disproportionate amount of the movement’s funds are being spent by the chapters.

Individual editors mostly produce value in Wikimedia projects; when readers find something valuable, they are more likely to support the movement financially.

She went on to say, “I’m not sure that the extra value added by movement entities like chapters is worth the money,” and “I wonder if it wouldn’t make more sense for the movement to spend more on direct financial support for people working in the projects.”

Does Wikipedia need donations from its readers?

Some website visitors worried that the online encyclopedia might be in danger of quitting business when it began asking for donations in India. That is not the case, though, the paper claims.

According to the Wiki page on its fundraising figures, the website raised $28,653,256 between 2018 and 2019, increasing its total assets to $165,641,425.

It received $21,619,373 the previous fiscal year, a significant increase from the $56,666 it received through donations in 2003.

Wikipedia has a huge net worth, and its assets have increased dramatically. So why is it requesting donations?

When The Indian Express questioned the Wikimedia Foundation about the issue, a representative responded, As a website on which hundreds of millions rely, we must ensure that Wikipedia stays accessible, up-to-date, and relevant for its users.

Our messages are prepared in that manner because we want the people in India and other nations to think about contributing to Wikipedia with the same intentions and a focus on the future.

According to a Washington Post article, it isn’t so impossible for major nonprofits like Wikipedia to continually add money to their reserves; in fact, charity organizations are encouraged to retain enough cash reserves on hand to cover any unforeseen circumstances. A large-scale nonprofit website requires a steady flow of funds.

How is Wikipedia Spending the Donations?

According to a comprehensive report released by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2019, the organization spent 49% of its annual revenue directly supporting the website, 32% on providing events, tools, and training for its network of volunteers, 13% on hiring and paying staff members, and the remaining 12% on various fundraising projects.

This website’s contribution drive is not its first; the nonprofit organization it supports relies on donations from readers worldwide to stay afloat. Every year, fundraising drives take place at specific times.

Conclusion

So why wikipedia asks for money, Kolbe contends that this is due to WMF’s desire to grow its clientele and increase its savings to support new initiatives. Consumer donations enable the business to allocate its earnings and savings to various new initiatives.

WMF is also establishing a for-profit business that will use the funding provided for the organization’s charitable endeavors.

This startup would sell API services to major digital firms, like telling voice tools like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant what to say, to make it simpler for them to analyze Wikipedia content.

The volunteer editors of Wikipedia, who spend countless hours maintaining the encyclopedia without payment, are outraged by the plans for a for-profit firm.

On the other hand, several WMF staff are paid six figures.

Furthermore, according to Kolbe, who has described how Wikimedia functions and why asking for donations from Wikipedia users is a vital economic strategy for the firm, the corporation has sufficient cash reserves to conduct its operations smoothly without additional donations. 

Frequently Asked Questions