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For some historical perspective, this is what the Wikimedia Foundation VP of Engineering and Product Development said about Wikipedia's money needs in 2013, les
by akolbe 4y ago
For some historical perspective, this is what the Wikimedia Foundation VP of Engineering and Product Development said about Wikipedia's money needs in 2013, less than 10 years ago:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-March/124621.html https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-March...
"WMF has operated in the past without staffing and with very minimal
staffing, so clearly it's _possible_ to host a high traffic website on
an absolute shoestring. But I would argue that an endowment, to
actually be worthwhile, should aim for a significantly higher base
level of minimal annual operating expenses, more in the order of
magnitude of $10M+/year, to ensure not only bare survival, but actual
sustainability of Wikimedia's mission."
$10M+/year! Even if you double that to $20M/year, the Wikimedia Foundation has about twenty times that in the bank today, and factoring in the interest this money earns, as well as tens of millions in planned gifts already lined up (people leaving them money in their wills), they could basically run Wikipedia in perpetuity without ever asking for another penny.
Instead, they now have an official revenue target of nearly $150 million (and are on course to exceed that by tens of millions, as usual).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimedia_Foundation_2nd_Quarter_2021-2022_Tuning_Session_-_Advancement.pdf&page=6 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimed...