Fundraising
Who are we?
The Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising team cultivates the resources that propel our movement. We engage millions of people from countries across the globe to support Wikipedia and its sister projects. The overwhelming majority of the Foundation's funding comes from individual readers from all over the world giving an average of $11.
Donations help the Wikimedia Foundation maintain server infrastructure, improve the software that supports our projects, and make Wikipedia and its sister projects accessible globally to millions of people. For additional information, please see the 2023–2024 Fundraising Report.
Current fundraising activities
Operated by Wikimedia Foundation
For the Financial Year 24/25 Q1/2 2024/25 campaigns Please note that all banner examples can now be found on the respective community collaboration pages found below. Ongoing Q4 FY 24/25 campaigns:
- Denmark (Banners 1st to 30th of May, Emails 16th to 20th of June). Here are some email examples: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- Portugal (Banners 1st to 30th of May, Emails 16th to 20th of June) Email example: Email
- Austria (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June, Emails 4th to 30th of March). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- Greece (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June). Here is the example email: Email example
- Malaysia (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June, Emails 4th to 30th of March). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- South Africa (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June, Emails 23rd to 27th of June). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- Spain (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June, Emails 13th to 29th of May). Here are some Spanish email examples: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- Sweden (Banners 2nd to the 30th of June, Emails 5th to 21st of May). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- Japan (Emails 7th of May to the 3rd of June, Banners 2nd to the 27th of June). Here are some email examples: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
Q1 and Q2 FY25/26 campaigns:
- Brazil (Banners 5th of August to 3rd of September, Emails 3rd - 29th of July). Here are some email examples: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay (Banners 5th of August to 3rd of September, Emails 7th -11th of July). Here are some example emails: LatAm email general, LatAm Chile email
- The Netherlands (Banners 2nd to 30th of September, Emails 4th to 27th of August).
- France (Banners 1st to 31st of October, Emails 1st to 24th of September).
- English campaign (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, the US). Pre-tests as of July. Emails tbc. Banners in December. More information and space to engage on the community collaboration page (to be published in early July)
| Community collaboration pages around WMF's fundraising campaigns 2022/23 |
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| Community collaboration pages around WMF's fundraising campaigns 2025/26 |
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Contact Us
- We have an FAQ for donors and one for community members.
- Please stay in contact with us on the fundraising talk page.
- IRC channel: #wikimedia-fundraisingconnect (publicly logged)
- To report technical software bugs in Phabricator, follow mw:How to report a bug and use the #wikimedia-fundraising project tag.
- For a breakdown of how fundraising tech uses Phabricator, check out this wikitech page.
- For a calendar of all central-notice banners, including fundraising, see CentralNotice/Calendar.
Fundraising updates
See the full archive
Documents, Reports, Articles, Videos and more
[edit]Articles:
Building a secure financial future for Wikipedia by Lisa Seitz Gruwell
Foundation 360 Building the relationships and resources we need to thrive Interview with Megan Hernandez, Advancement Department
The finances of free knowledge Lessons in transparency and impact by Jaime Villagomez
7 reasons you should donate to Wikipedia by Lisa Seitz Gruwell
Reports and Documents:
Fundraising Content Strategy Overview
2024/25 Q4 Update
[edit]We finished the financial year 2024/25 with reaching our revenue target and would like to thank everyone who made this possible, donors, volunteers, and Foundation staff.
In Q4, we ran fundraising campaigns in many countries in Latin America, Europe, as well as Malaysia and Japan. You can find all the relevant community collaboration pages above. We engaged our local communities beforehand, via the community collaboration pages and a community call.
We also prepared for the new financial year and started July off with launching the English banner fundraising campaign community collaboration page where we will engage with volunteers for the next half year.
Thank you so so much for keeping Wikipedia up and running and adapting to the times and all. I would be a completely different person that I am today (a major nerd on a wide variety of topics) without it, it's an invaluable resource. It should be inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. (Donor from Portugal).
We are looking forward to engaging with several communities in Q1 of the new financial year.
2024/25 Q3 Update
[edit]In Q3 we worked with a range of communities to prepare for fundraising campaigns starting in Q4. We created community collaboration pages with affiliates, engaged communities on wiki, and in community calls.
During Q3 we ran email campaigns in several countries as well as the Thank You email campaign (for donors from the English campaign in Q2).
We also started our campaign in Brazil and Italy at the end of Q3.
Thanks to all of you who keep Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation going! Your Mission is very important for people all over the world, but also for those who do not often consult the encyclopedia, because you guarantee free access to universal knowledge. Every time I consult Wikipedia I realize the great work you are doing every day. Congratulations for your efforts! Keep up the good work and thank you again! Donor from Italy
You are one of the last bastions of free, open and collaborative internet. I wish more people would see the value of that. Keep up the good fight! Donor from Brazil
In Q4 we are launching banner campaigns across many countries and we will also start preparing for the next English campaign by engaging the English Wikipedia communities from Q1 on, with the start of our pre-tests.
See also
- Erik Moeller and Domas Mituzas on fundraising since 2010