Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to non-Wikimedia projects

Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by wmf on Friday August 18, 2023 @02:18PM (#37179879)

Wikipedia is totally overfunded and couldn't spend all their money if they wanted to. I guess giving some away is more interesting than letting the money accumulate.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by amadeuspagel on Friday August 18, 2023 @02:21PM (#37179927)

They could also slow down fundraising.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by wmf on Friday August 18, 2023 @02:40PM (#37180184)

I think they're worried about losing non-profit status.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by fakedang on Friday August 18, 2023 @02:44PM (#37180256)

Unless I'm missing something, trusts can still keep nonprofit status without fundraising.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by CameronNemo on Friday August 18, 2023 @03:19PM (#37180719)

How would that happen? I'm not familiar with the peculiarities of nonprofit law.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by wmf on Friday August 18, 2023 @03:44PM (#37181082)

They need to get 1/3 of their revenue (over $50M) as donations from the general public to qualify as a charity. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizatio...

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by amadeuspagel on Friday August 18, 2023 @07:14PM (#37183375)

My god what a terrible rule. But thanks for pointing that out, something I (and most people) would never have considered.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by IshKebab on Friday August 18, 2023 @03:10PM (#37180619)

They definitely could spend all their money. If it becomes national news that your Wikipedia donations aren't really spent on Wikipedia then people might stop donating.

They spend $145m/year and raise about $155m/year, so they're basically spending everything they get.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by readthenotes1 on Friday August 18, 2023 @03:14PM (#37180669)

Hm. If I had $10m surplus a year I wouldn't call it "basically spending everything".

Even if you ignore the fact that size matters, 93% isn't basically everything either.

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Re:Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to... by IshKebab on Friday August 18, 2023 @05:05PM (#37182092)

If your revenue is based on $155m in donations then yes it is basically everything. You think that can't go down by $10m in a year?

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