vaguerant,
vaguerant avatar

Welcome!

While I'm not discouraging you from donating to the Wikimedia Foundation, it's worth knowing that it's not really a situation of Wikipedia needing your money to survive. Last year's fundraising drive provoked something of a revolt among contributors (they seem to be going around). While it's spread across several pages, the English Wikipedia Request for Comment discussion is probably a good place to start.

In short, the Wikimedia Foundation runs those fundraising drives, previously presented as if they were coming from Wikipedia itself, asking for donations to "keep the site running". In reality, these donations go to the Foundation and are used to fund its "sister projects", leading to a situation where "Wikipedia" is asking for donations that are neither necessary for Wikipedia to survive, nor in most part, going toward Wikipedia at all.

I'm not suggesting the Wikimedia Foundation is off committing acts of evil with your donations, but the Foundation has significant wealth, to the point where they themselves actively donate large amounts to other charities like the human rights org Tides Foundation, with which it shares some current or former staff.

tl;dr: Wikipedia isn't actually struggling financially, isn't asking for donations, and your donations to Wikimedia are in reality going largely to other causes.

If you're a former Redditor, I hope this multi-paragraph "Akshually" screed makes you feel at home.

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