Finances
See also: wmf:Financial reportsThe Wikimedia Foundation relies on public contributions and grants to fund its mission. It is exempt from federal income tax and from state income tax. It is not a private foundation, and contributions to it qualify as tax-deductible charitable contributions. The continued technical and economic growth of each of the Wikimedia projects is dependent mostly on donations but the Wikimedia Foundation also increases its revenue by alternative means of funding such as grants, sponsorship, services and brand merchandising. The Wikimedia OAI-PMH update feed service, targeted primarily at search engines and similar bulk analysis and republishing, has been a source of revenue for several years, but is no longer open to new customers. DBpedia was given access to this feed free of charge.
Since the end of fiscal year ended 2004, the Foundation's net assets have grown from $57K to $24.2M at the end of fiscal year ended June 30, 2011. Under the leadership of Sue Gardner, who joined the Wikimedia Foundation in 2007, the Foundation's staff levels, number of donors and revenue have seen very significant growth.
| Year | Total Support and Revenue | Total Expenses | Increase in Net Assets | Net Assets at End of Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003/2004 | $80,129 | $23,463 | $56,666 | $56,666 |
| 2004/2005 | $379,088 | $177,670 | $211,418 | $268,084 |
| 2005/2006 | $1,508,039 | $791,907 | $736,132 | $1,004,216 |
| 2006/2007 | $2,734,909 | $2,077,843 | $654,066 | $1,658,282 |
| 2007/2008 | $5,032,981 | $3,540,724 | $3,519,886 | $5,178,168 |
| 2008/2009 | $8,658,006 | $5,617,236 | $3,053,599 | $8,231,767 |
| 2009/2010 | $17,979,312 | $10,266,793 | $6,310,964 | $14,542,731 |
| 2010/2011 | $24,785,092 | $17,889,794 | $9,649,413 | $24,192,144 |
| 2011/2012 | $34,800,000 (prelim.) | $27,200,000 (prelim.) | $7,600,000 (estim.) | $31,800,000 (estim.) |
Charity Navigator gave Wikimedia three out of four possible stars for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, which improved to four-stars in 2010.
There are both supporting and opposing arguments regarding whether Wikimedia should switch to an advertising-based revenue model.
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