Wikimedia Foundation encourages the development and distribution of free educational content with projects such as Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF, or simply Wikimedia) is a nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, registered as a charitable foundation under US law. It owns the Wikimedia projects – which are written and curated by thousands of Wikipedians and other unpaid volunteers – and the MediaWiki wiki software.
The Wikimedia Foundation was established in 2003 in St. Petersburg, Florida by Jimmy Wales as a non-profit way to fund Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and other crowdsourced wiki projects which had until then been hosted by Bomis, Wales’ for-profit company. The Foundation finances itself mainly through millions of small donations from Wikipedia readers, collected through email campaigns and annual fundraising banners placed on Wikipedia. These are complemented by grants from various tech companies and philanthropic organizations.
The Foundation has grown rapidly throughout its existence. By 2021, it employed over 550 staff and contractors, with annual revenues in excess of US$160 million, annual expenses of around US$110 million, and a growing endowment, which surpassed US$100 million in June 2021.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia has suspended all crypto donations on its platform, in the aftermath of a three-month-long discussion about the fate of the cryptocurrencies on all of the Foundation’s affiliated websites.
