WMF Annual Plan 2025-2026: Funding, AI, and the Future of Wikipedia
When you think about how Wikipedia stays free and reliable, you’re really thinking about the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports Wikipedia’s servers, staff, and legal protections without ads or paywalls. Also known as WMF, it’s the quiet engine behind the world’s largest encyclopedia. The WMF Annual Plan 2025-2026 isn’t just a budget document—it’s a roadmap for whether Wikipedia stays trusted, open, and human-led in a world rushing toward AI-generated answers.
The plan directly ties to how Wikimedia Enterprise, a service that sells structured Wikipedia data to companies like Google and Amazon. Also known as WMF’s commercial arm, it generates millions in revenue but sparks debate among volunteers who worry about profit overshadowing mission. Will that money fund better tools for editors? Or just more corporate partnerships? The plan also lays out how the Foundation will handle AI literacy, efforts to teach AI companies how to responsibly use Wikipedia’s open knowledge without distorting it. Also known as responsible AI sourcing, this is critical as more search engines and chatbots pull from Wikipedia without credit or context. If AI companies keep scraping Wikipedia but ignore its rules, the encyclopedia’s integrity—and your trust in it—will erode.
Behind the scenes, the plan shapes how volunteers fight bias, fix broken links, and defend editors from harassment. It funds the tech team that keeps Wikipedia running through server crashes and cyberattacks. It supports the copy editors clearing 12,000 articles and the task forces rewriting harmful language about Indigenous communities. It’s the reason Wikidata can sync facts across 300+ languages with one edit. And it’s why the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports Wikipedia’s servers, staff, and legal protections without ads or paywalls. Also known as WMF, it’s the quiet engine behind the world’s largest encyclopedia. can’t just chase trends—it has to hold the line on transparency, accuracy, and fairness.
What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t hype. It’s the real work behind the scenes: how journalists use Wikipedia without getting burned, why AI encyclopedias still can’t beat its source verification, how copyright takedowns erase knowledge, and how volunteers keep the lights on without paychecks. This isn’t about fundraising pitches. It’s about whether the world still believes in a knowledge system built by strangers, for everyone. The WMF Annual Plan 2025-2026 decides that.
WMF Annual Plan 2025-2026: Key Priorities for Wikipedia and Its Global Community
The WMF Annual Plan 2025-2026 outlines how Wikipedia will expand access, fight misinformation, and empower underrepresented editors worldwide. It’s not just about tech-it’s about who gets to write history.
