Wikimedia Foundation - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Foundation - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Abbreviation
WMF
Founded
June
20, 2003
22 years ago
2003-06-20
Founder
Jimmy Wales
Founded at
St. Petersburg
Florida
U.S.
Type
501(c)(3)
charitable organization
Tax ID no.
20-0049703
Focus
Free,
open-content
wiki
-based
Internet
projects
Location
San Francisco
California
, U.S.
Los Angeles
, California, U.S. (
registered agent
Area served
Worldwide
Products
Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata
Wikifunctions
Wikiquote
Wikibooks
Wikisource
Wikispecies
Wikinews
Wikiversity
Wikivoyage
MediaWiki
Membership
Board-only
Key people
María Sefidari
Chair
of the
board
Katherine Maher
Executive director
Revenue
US$
104.5
million
(2018)
91.2 million (2017)
Expenses
US$81.4 million (2018)
69.1 million (2017)
Endowment
(2019)
US $35 million
Employees
~301 staff/contractors (as of August
8,
2018
update
Volunteers
Wikimedia community
Website
WikimediaFoundation.org
The
Wikimedia Foundation
is an American
non-profit
foundation. Their main
headquarters
is located in
San Francisco
United States
. The Foundation runs many projects with the
Wiki
idea and
MediaWiki
software
with
Wikipedia
being the most famous.
Other sites include
Wiktionary
Wikiquote
Wikisource
Wikinews
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikimedia Commons
Wikifunctions
Wikidata
Wikivoyage
and
Meta-Wiki
The Foundation runs other Wikis that are more closely related to the operations of the Foundation itself. They include the Wikimedia Foundation wiki, the MediaWiki wiki, the
Test Wikipedia
, the Wikimedia
Incubator
Bugzilla
, and the
Wikimania
wiki.
History
change
change source
Founding
change
change source
The foundation's creation was officially announced by
Wikipedia
co-founder
Jimmy Wales
, who was running Wikipedia within his company
Bomis
, on June 20, 2003.
Operation
change
change source
The foundation gets most of its funds from
donations
, as it is non-profit. It also looks for grants. Some
companies
clarification needed
have helped Wikimedia by giving free
computer hardwares
and by hosting its servers. Since people can write the wikis, Wikimedia projects are free to use. Funds are used to run computer
servers
and to pay staff. The Foundation had 700 employees in 2023.
2010s
change
change source
In 2013,
Sue Gardner
was the
executive director
10
In 2015, Patricio Lorente was the Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board.
11
In 2016,
Katherine Maher
became the
executive director
In 2018,
María Sefidari
is
chair
of the board.
2020s
change
change source
In 2022,
Maryana Iskander
became
Chief Executive Officer
, replacing Katherine Maher.
Projects
change
change source
Content projects
change
change source
As of 2021
update
Wikimedia has many content projects. These include:
Wikipedia
: An online
encyclopedia
12
Meta-Wiki
: A place for talking about ideas about Wikimedia projects.
Wikibooks
: A collection of educational books.
Wikidata
: A shared collection of data that can be accessed by other projects.
13
Wikifunctions
: A collection of code.
Wikimedia Commons
: A collection of free images, videos, and sounds. Things there can be used on other projects.
Wikinews
: A collection of news articles.
Wikiquote
: A collection of
quotes
Wikisource
: A library of source texts and documents.
Wikispecies
: A
taxonomic
collection of
species
Wikiversity
: A collection of educational materials.
Wikivoyage
: A travel guide.
Wiktionary
: A dictionary.
Infrastructure projects
change
change source
There are other projects that help the
Wikimedia movement
's infrastructure and interface. They do this by making them work smoothly. These include:
Kiwix
: A community project that allows offline access to the content projects.
14
MediaWiki
: The open-source platform that powers the Wikimedia projects.
15
Toolforge
: A community space that hosts software projects.
Volunteer Response Team
: A community group that handles email inquiries.
Wikimedia Cloud Services
: A platform for shared cloud computing, based on
OpenStack
Wikitech
: A group of developers with a wiki and mailing list.
Public Opinions
change
change source
The United States Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee opened an investigation into the operation of Wikipedia in September 2025. The initiative was initiated by two Republican representatives, who explained their actions in a letter from Congress to the Wikimedia Foundation. The commission's investigation is charged with examining "efforts by foreign entities and individuals within academic institutions funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars to influence American public opinion".
16
Boards
change
change source
Board of Trustees
change
change source
Board members at Wikimania 2009 in
Buenos Aires
The Board of Trustees in charge of the affairs of the Foundation has 10 members:
four who are appointed by the Board itself;
three who are selected by the community of all the different Wikimedia projects;
two who are selected by the local chapters and thematic organizations;
and one emeritus for the foundation's founder,
Jimmy Wales
The Signpost
reported that two new trustees were elected in 2019:
Nataliia Tymkiv, user:antanana (
or
Ukrainian
Shani Evenstein, user:Esh77 (English or
Hebrew
17
Advisory Board
change
change source
The Foundation also has an
Advisory Board
, an international network of experts who have agreed to give the foundation meaningful help on a regular basis in many different areas, including law, organizational development, technology, policy, and outreach.
18
Other websites
change
change source
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikinews has related news:
Wikimedia Foundation
Official website
Governance wiki
Projects
of the
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikibooks
Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata
Wikinews
Wikifunctions
Wikipedia
Wikiquote
Wikisource
Wikispecies
Wikiversity
Wikivoyage
Wiktionary
Meta-Wiki
Authority control databases
International
ISNI
VIAF
FAST
WorldCat
National
Germany
United States
Korea
Poland
Israel
Artists
MusicBrainz
Other
Yale LUX
References
change
change source
"2014 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990)"
(PDF)
. WMF (Public Inspection Copy). September 14, 2016.
"Contact us - Wikimedia Foundation"
Wikimedia Foundation
Archived
from the original on June 25, 2017
. Retrieved
8 June
2017
Wikimedia Foundation (20 July 2018).
"Wikimedia Foundation announces Tanya Capuano as new Trustee, alongside leadership appointments at 14th annual Wikimania"
. Wikimedia Foundation.
Archived
from the original on July 20, 2018
. Retrieved
July 21,
2018
"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, Financial Statements, June 30, 2018 and 2017"
(PDF)
Wikimedia Foundation
. September 26, 2018.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on March 9, 2021
. Retrieved
September 29,
2019
Brent, Marc (24 April 2019).
"Peter Baldwin, Lisbet Rausing give an additional $3.5 million to the Wikimedia Endowment"
Wikimedia Foundation
Archived
from the original on April 25, 2019
. Retrieved
April 25,
2019
With their gifts, the Endowment has now increased to more than $35 million and have moved us that much closer to our goal of $100 million.
"Staff and contractors page (Wikimedia Foundation website)"
. Wikimedia Foundation. September 21, 2017.
Archived
from the original on June 2, 2016
. Retrieved
August 8,
2018
"List of Wikimedia wikis on Meta"
Archived
from the original on 2012-01-23
. Retrieved
2010-11-22
Meyers, Peter (2001-09-20).
"Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You"
New York Times
Archived
from the original on 2022-05-27
. Retrieved
2007-07-31
It's kind of surprising that you could just open up a site and let people work," said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder and the chief executive of Bomis, a San Diego search engine company that donates the computer resources for the project.
Bergstein, Brian (2007-03-25).
"Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia"
ABC News
Associated Press
Archived
from the original on 2009-02-06
. Retrieved
2007-07-31
The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy Ph.D. who counts himself as a co-founder of Wikipedia, the site he now hopes to usurp. The claim doesn't seem particularly controversial
— Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder. Yet the other founder, Jimmy Wales, isn't happy about it.
Chozick, Amy (27 June 2013).
"Jimmy Wales is Not an Internet Billionaire"
The New York Times
Archived
from the original on 2013-06-30
. Retrieved
2019-07-05
Cbrown1023
"Board of Trustees"
. Wikimedia Foundation.
Archived
from the original on August 19, 2017
. Retrieved
July 22,
2015
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
"Wikipedia"
Britannica
. Retrieved
2023-06-09
Reed, Betsy.
"Welcome to Wikidata! Now what?"
The Guardian
. Retrieved
2023-06-09
Sutherland, Joe.
Emmanuel Engelhart, Inventor of Kiwix: the Offline Wikipedia Browser
. In: Wikimedia Blog. 12 September 2014. Accessed on 26 November 2014.
Barrett, Daniel J. (October 2008).
MediaWiki
. O'Reilly Media.
ISBN
978-0-596-51979-7
. Retrieved
April 23,
2010
Republicans investigate Wikipedia over allegations of organized bias
The_Hill
, 2025-08-27
"Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-06-30/Op-Ed"
Archived
from the original on 2019-06-30
. Retrieved
2019-07-16
"Advisory Board"
. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from
the original
on 2018-01-31
. Retrieved
2009-10-07
Retrieved from "
Categories
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2003 establishments in California
Companies based in San Francisco
Non-profit organizations of California
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