The Wikimedia Foundation runs Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia billions use every month - without ads, paywalls, or corporate sponsors. But keeping it running isn’t cheap. In 2025, the Foundation’s total budget was $142 million. Where does that money come from? And where does it go? The answers might surprise you.
Where the money comes from: donations from real people
Over 90% of the Wikimedia Foundation’s income comes from small donations. Not corporations. Not governments. Regular people - students, teachers, librarians, retirees - who chip in $5, $20, or $50 a year. In 2025, more than 6 million individuals gave money to support Wikipedia. The average donation was $15. That’s not a lot per person, but when you add it all up, it’s enough to keep the lights on.
Most donations happen during the annual fundraising campaign in November and December. That’s when you see those banner ads on Wikipedia asking you to give. But the Foundation doesn’t rely on those alone. They run smaller campaigns all year long, through email, social media, and even partnerships with libraries and universities. They also accept recurring donations, which help them plan ahead. About 20% of donors give monthly. That steady stream lets them hire staff and invest in long-term projects without worrying about sudden drops in income.
Less than 5% comes from grants - mostly from foundations like the Ford Foundation or the Gates Foundation. The rest is from gifts in kind, like server space donated by tech companies. No corporate sponsorships. No advertising. That’s by design. The Foundation says if you start taking money from advertisers or big companies, you risk losing trust. People need to believe Wikipedia is neutral, not influenced by who pays the bills.
Where the money goes: keeping Wikipedia alive
Almost half of the 2025 budget - $68 million - went to technology and infrastructure. That’s servers, data centers, bandwidth, and the software that keeps Wikipedia running. Every second, thousands of edits happen. Every minute, millions of pages load. All of that needs powerful, reliable systems. The Foundation runs its own data centers in Texas and Virginia, and uses cloud services from companies like Google and Amazon. They also pay for security, backups, and anti-abuse tools to fight bots and vandalism.
Another $32 million went to staffing. The Foundation has about 700 employees worldwide. Most are engineers, product designers, and data analysts. But they also have legal teams, finance staff, and community liaisons who work with volunteer editors. They don’t have a huge PR department. They don’t need one. Wikipedia’s community of editors - over 100,000 active contributors - do the work of promotion and outreach.
Programs and grants made up $25 million. This includes grants to local Wikimedia chapters in over 40 countries. These chapters organize edit-a-thons, train new editors, and run literacy projects in schools and rural areas. In India, a chapter helped train 5,000 teachers to add local history to Wikipedia. In Kenya, volunteers added thousands of articles on indigenous plants and medicinal herbs. These aren’t flashy campaigns, but they make Wikipedia more complete and more useful for people everywhere.
Administrative costs - rent, accounting, legal fees - came to $17 million. That’s less than 12% of the total budget. For a nonprofit of this size, that’s considered efficient. Many charities spend 20% or more on overhead. The Wikimedia Foundation keeps it lean because they know donors care about where their money goes.
Transparency isn’t optional - it’s built in
Every dollar is public. The Foundation publishes its full financial reports online, down to the last cent. You can see exactly how much they paid each employee, which vendors they hired, and how much they spent on travel. They don’t hide anything. Even their board members’ compensation is listed. That’s rare for a nonprofit. Most don’t go that far.
They also release detailed breakdowns of their fundraising campaigns. For example, in 2025, they spent $8.7 million on fundraising efforts - mostly on email marketing, banner ads, and donor thank-you calls. That’s about 6% of the total money raised. Most nonprofits spend 20-30% on fundraising. The Wikimedia Foundation’s efficiency comes from using volunteers and open-source tools. They built their own donation platform, and they let anyone audit the code.
This level of transparency builds trust. People don’t just give because they like Wikipedia. They give because they know their money isn’t being wasted.
Challenges ahead: scaling without compromising
The biggest challenge isn’t raising money - it’s keeping up with demand. Wikipedia gets over 20 billion page views every month. That number keeps growing, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia, where internet access is expanding fast. More users mean more servers, more bandwidth, and more moderation. The Foundation has to hire more engineers just to handle the load.
Another issue is content gaps. While English Wikipedia has over 6 million articles, many other language versions are underdeveloped. Hindi, Swahili, and Bengali Wikipedias have far fewer articles per capita than English. The Foundation is trying to fix that through targeted grants, but progress is slow. Language diversity isn’t just a moral goal - it’s a technical one. The software that powers Wikipedia was built for English. Adapting it for right-to-left scripts or tonal languages takes time and money.
There’s also pressure from misinformation. In 2025, the Foundation launched a new AI-powered tool to detect false edits before they go live. It’s still in testing, but early results show it catches 40% more bad edits than human reviewers alone. That tool cost $4 million to build. It’s not a magic fix, but it helps.
What you can do - beyond donating
You don’t have to give money to help. You can edit. You can fact-check. You can help translate articles. You can join a local chapter. You can teach someone how to use Wikipedia properly. In 2025, over 120,000 people made their first edit to Wikipedia. That’s more than ever before.
And if you do donate? You’re not just supporting a website. You’re supporting a global public good. Wikipedia is one of the few places on the internet where knowledge is free, open, and built by people - not algorithms or corporations.
Does the Wikimedia Foundation accept corporate donations?
No, the Wikimedia Foundation does not accept corporate sponsorships or advertising revenue. They rely almost entirely on individual donations - over 90% - to maintain independence and neutrality. A small portion comes from grants from nonprofit foundations, but never from for-profit companies.
How much of the budget goes to staff salaries?
In 2025, $32 million out of the $142 million budget went to staff salaries and benefits. That’s about 22% of total spending. The Foundation employs around 700 people globally, mostly engineers, developers, and community support staff. Executive salaries are publicly listed and are comparable to other large nonprofits of similar size.
Is Wikipedia’s funding model sustainable?
Yes, for now. The Foundation has raised over $1 billion since 2003, with consistent year-over-year growth in donations. Their fundraising efficiency - spending only 6% of raised funds on fundraising - is among the best in the nonprofit sector. However, rising infrastructure costs and expanding global demand could strain resources. The Foundation is investing in automation and volunteer training to scale without proportional cost increases.
Can I see exactly how my donation is used?
Yes. Every financial report, including detailed line-item spending, is published publicly on the Wikimedia Foundation’s website. You can search for any vendor, employee salary, or grant recipient. They also provide annual audits by independent firms and allow open access to their donation platform’s source code.
Why doesn’t Wikipedia use ads like other websites?
Wikipedia doesn’t use ads because the Foundation believes advertising would compromise trust and neutrality. Ads create pressure to attract clicks, which could influence content. They also risk alienating users who value a clean, distraction-free experience. Since 2003, the community has consistently voted against advertising, and donors support the model because they believe knowledge should be free - not monetized.
