Nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Funded primarily by individual donations (~94% of $185M+ annual revenue). Provides free access to knowledge through volunteer-edited content. Notable for refusing censorship demands from Russia and Turkey.
The Wikimedia Foundation announced commercial partnerships through Wikimedia Enterprise with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, and Perplexity for structured API access to Wikipedia data for AI training. This formalizes relationships that previously involved unpaid scraping, creating a sustainable revenue model.
Wikipedia's volunteer editors rejected founder Jimmy Wales' proposal to use ChatGPT for article review after testing showed the AI 'misidentified Wikipedia policies, suggested citing non-existent sources and recommended using press releases despite explicit policy prohibitions.' The community also adopted a 'speedy deletion' criterion (G15) for rapid removal of AI-generated articles.
In April 2025, acting US Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation alleging Wikipedia 'allows foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda,' demanding documents to assess compliance with tax-exempt status requirements under Section 501(c)(3). The letter requested materials from January 2021 onward covering content moderation practices, editor misconduct handling, and interactions with search engines and AI companies. Separately, in May 2025, a bipartisan group of 23 US Representatives led by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Don Bacon sent a letter expressing concern about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia. These actions represented escalating political pressure on the Foundation's editorial independence.
The Wikimedia Foundation adopted a formal Human Rights Policy in December 2021 embedding privacy protection into its mission. In November 2024, the Foundation launched temporary accounts to replace IP-based editing, providing better privacy protection for logged-out editors while maintaining accountability. The Foundation practices data minimization, collects very little personal information, and does not sell user data. It maintains a Country and Territory Protection List limiting data publication for at-risk regions, updated in January 2024. The Foundation also adopted differential privacy techniques in partnership with Tumult Labs to release 8 years of pageview data while protecting individual users.
The Wikimedia Foundation launched Project Rewrite and the Wikipedia Needs More Women campaign to address persistent gender gaps in Wikipedia content and editorship. Only about 15% of English Wikipedia biographies were about women when efforts began. By 2024, that number had grown to over 19%, with a 26% increase in women-related content from sub-Saharan Africa between 2022-2024. The community-driven Women in Red project, supported by Foundation grants and staff, created over 130,000 biographies of women. A 2024 study found deletion nominations occur 34% faster for women's biographies than men's, highlighting ongoing systemic challenges.
The Wikimedia Foundation pursued a years-long legal challenge against the NSA's Upstream surveillance program, arguing it violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Wikipedia users and editors. Research had documented a measurable chilling effect on Wikipedia traffic to sensitive topics following the 2013 Snowden revelations about NSA surveillance. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on February 21, 2023, ending the legal challenge. Despite the loss, the Foundation's sustained effort demonstrated commitment to defending user privacy against government surveillance.
The Wikimedia Foundation faced years of criticism from its own editor community over misleading fundraising banners that implied Wikipedia's existence was under financial threat. In 2022, editors held a formal poll rejecting proposed banner language, with community standards adopted stating banners must not imply Wikipedia's survival depends on donations. Despite amassing over $400 million in cash reserves by 2022 and annual revenue exceeding $200 million, the Foundation continued using emotionally charged donation appeals. Critics described banners as 'very misleading' and accused the Foundation of preying on donors' goodwill. By 2025, community members still complained about 'overly large banners that disrupt the reader experience.'
The Wikimedia Foundation refused Roskomnadzor's demands to remove articles about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, accepting cumulative fines of 8.4 million rubles (approximately $100,000 USD) rather than complying with censorship requests.
The Wikimedia Foundation banned seven Wikipedia users and removed administrator privileges from twelve users who were members of the Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC) group for coordinated manipulation and security concerns, protecting the integrity of Wikipedia's content.
The Wikimedia Foundation paid departing CEO Katherine Maher a severance package of $623,286 (about 1.5x her base compensation). Analysis showed total executive compensation from 2017-2022 placed WMF executives 'above the 95th percentile of US wage earners,' raising concerns about nonprofit governance.
After nearly 3 years of being banned in Turkey, the Wikimedia Foundation won a constitutional court case with a 10-6 vote ruling that the block violated freedom of expression. Wikipedia access was restored on January 15, 2020, establishing an important press freedom precedent.
Actions from other entities targeting Wikimedia Foundation
Google donated $3.1 million to the Wikimedia Foundation as part of a partnership to increase knowledge equity online. This was part of Google's larger cumulative donations exceeding $7.5 million to Wikimedia over the years.
Amazon made a $1 million gift to the Wikimedia Endowment, supporting the long-term sustainability of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Amazon's total donations to the Endowment from 2018-2020 exceeded $3 million.