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| focus = Free, [[open content|open-content]], [[multilingual]], [[wiki]]-based [[Internet]] projects
| products = [[Wikipedia]], [[MediaWiki]], [[Wikibooks]], [[Wikidata]], [[Wikifunctions]], [[Wikimedia Commons]], [[Wikinews]], [[Wikiquote]], [[Wikisource]], [[Wikispecies]], [[Wikiversity]], [[Wikivoyage]], [[Wiktionary]]
| revenue = {{
| expenses = {{
| endowment = >
| num_volunteers =
| num_employees =
| membership = [[Board-only]]
| leader_title = CEO
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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.<ref name="Announcing Wikimedia Foundation" /> (Until then, they had been hosted by [[Bomis]], Wales's for-profit company.)<ref name="Announcing Wikimedia Foundation"/> 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.<ref name="FRReport2021">{{cite web | url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2020-21_Report | title=Fundraising report 2020–2021 | publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref> 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.
== Mission ==
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=== Excessive spending and fundraising ===
In 2014, Jimmy Wales was confronted with allegations that WMF had a poor cost/benefit ratio for "a miserable cost/benefit ratio and for years now has spent millions on software development without producing anything that actually works". He acknowledged that he had "been frustrated as well about the endless controversies about the rollout of inadequate software not developed with sufficient community consultation and without proper incremental rollout to catch show-stopping bugs".<ref>{{Citation |title=User talk:Jimbo Wales |date=2014-08-29 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=623290239 |work=Wikipedia |language=en |access-date=2022-12-03}}</ref>
During the 2015 fundraising campaign, some members of the community voiced their concerns about the fundraising banners. They argued that they were obtrusive and could deceive potential donors by giving the impression that Wikipedia had immediate financial problems, which was not true. The Wikimedia Foundation vowed to improve wording on further fundraising campaigns to avoid these issues.<ref>{{cite news|first=Caitlin|last=Dewey|title=Wikipedia has a ton of money. So why is it begging you to donate yours?|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/02/wikipedia-has-a-ton-of-money-so-why-is-it-begging-you-to-donate-yours/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=December 2, 2015|access-date=July 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710021353/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/02/wikipedia-has-a-ton-of-money-so-why-is-it-begging-you-to-donate-yours/|archive-date=July 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite this, the Foundation has continued to come under criticism for running campaigns seemingly designed to "make[] its readers feel guilty." Such campaigns have additionally been condemned for, in 2021, being run in countries that had been badly affected by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], such as [[Argentina]] and [[Brazil]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Kolbe |first=Andreas |date=2021-05-24 |title=Wikipedia is swimming in money—why is it begging people to donate? |url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=The Daily Dot |language=en-US}}</ref> as well as for sparking fears in [[India]] that Wikipedia might be "dying".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is Wikipedia dying? The online encyclopedia seeks donation from users |url=https://www.freepressjournal.in/technology/is-wikipedia-dying-the-online-encyclopedia-seeks-donation-from-users |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Free Press Journal |language=en}}</ref> This is despite the Foundation being in ownership of "vast money reserves", in 2021 reaching its 10-year goal of compiling a $100 million endowment fund in only 5 years.<ref name=":2" />
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