Wikimedia Foundation
American charitable organization / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short, summarize this topic like I'm... Ten years old or a College student
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws.[5] Best known as the hosting platform for Wikipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia, it also hosts other related projects and MediaWiki, a wiki software.[6][7][8]
 | |
| Abbreviation | WMF |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 20, 2003, St. Petersburg, Florida, US |
| Founder | Jimmy Wales[1] |
| Type | 501(c)(3), charitable organization |
| EIN 200049703[2] | |
| Focus | Free, open-content, multilingual, wiki-based Internet projects |
| Location |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Wikipedia, MediaWiki, Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary |
Membership | Board-only |
Chief Executive Officer | Maryana Iskander |
Revenue | [3] |
| Expenses |
|
| Endowment (2021) | > US$100 million (2021)[4] |
Employees | > around 700 staff/contractors (as of November 2022[update]) |
| Website |
|
The Wikimedia Foundation was established in 2003 in St. Petersburg, Florida, by Jimmy Wales as a nonprofit way to fund Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and other crowdsourced wiki projects that had until then been hosted by Bomis, Wales's for-profit company.[1] The Foundation finances itself mainly through millions of small donations from Wikipedia readers, collected through email campaigns and annual fundraising banners placed on Wikipedia and its sister projects.[9] These are complemented by grants from philanthropic organizations and tech companies, and starting in 2022, by services income from Wikimedia Enterprise.
The Foundation has grown rapidly throughout its existence. By 2022, it employed around 700 staff and contractors, with annual revenues of US$155 million, annual expenses of US$146 million, net assets of US$240 million and a growing endowment, which surpassed US$100 million in June 2021.