this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025
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ah okay, I think sharing that entire article is kinda endorsing all the weird stuff in it, but thanks for specifying.
I know those are large numbers, but like, Wikipedia is one of the most visited sites on the internet? "$97.6 million in assets" is peanuts to that (compare it to any other website in a similar range!). The fact that they don't have that much operating costs is a good thing, right? It means they're efficient, which is what people love to complain about with non-profits.
Anyway, it's not like they ask for much--I think the last fundraiser I saw they were asking for $2.75 a year, if you felt like they provided you that much value over the year. I certainly do, and I donate $10/year to them. If you don't feel like Wikipedia is worth that cost to you that's fair--but I think telling other people that they shouldn't donate because it objectively(?) isn't worth it is a strange thing to do.
Operating expenses don't necessarily equate to total expenditure. The article also mentions that fifteen executives took home a six-figure salary in 2015; that doesn't strike me as particularly efficient.
Notwithstanding, what I originally said was not prescriptive. People are free to spend their money as they see fit. Even I have donated to the Wikimedia Foundation in the past and still believe that they provide invaluable resources for the common good.
Where I take issue is the fact that the messaging in their campaigns often gives the impression that the organization is scraping by on user donations, whereas in reality they're sitting on a pile of assets that would ostensibly be in the 99.9ᵗʰ percentile of household net worth in the US.