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 2022–2023 Fundraising Report.
Current fundraising activities
Operated by Wikimedia Foundation
For the Financial Year 23/24 Q4 2023/24 campaigns and Q1/2 2024/25 campaigns Please note that all banner examples can now be found on the respective community collaboration pages
- Japan fundraising campaign (Email 2nd to 21st of May, Banners 28th of May to 25th of June - changed). Here are some examples of the Japanese Emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- Sweden (Emails 1st to 24th of May, Banners 28th of May to 25th of June). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- Portugal (Emails 13th to 31st of May, Banners 28th of May to 25th of June) Here is an example email
- Spain (Emails 13th to 31st of May, Banners 28th of May to 25th of June). Here are some examples of the Spanish emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- Greece (Banners 28th of May to 25th of June)
- Malaysia (Emails 13th of February to 2nd of March, Banners 28th of May to 25th of June). Here are some example emails: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3
- South Africa (Emails 1st to the 24th of May, Banners 28th of May to the 25th of June). Here is an example email: Email
- India (Emails 22nd of July to the 15th of August, Banners 13th of August to the 10th of September). Here is an example email: Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4
- The Netherlands (Emails 29th of July to the 17th of August, Banners 3rd of September to 1st of October)
- France (Emails 9th of September to 4th of October, Banners 3rd to 31st of October)
- English campaign in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US (Emails September - November, Banners December) - community collaboration information will be added in Q1.
| Community collaboration pages around WMF's fundraising campaigns 2022/23 |
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Swedish fundraising campaign community engagement page Czech fundraising campaign community engagement page |
| Community collaboration pages around WMF's fundraising campaigns 2024/25 |
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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
Articles, videos etc. (here you find relevant articles about Wikimedia fundraising and finance)
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
Annual Plan Conversations - Advancement and Finance and Administration Departments watch Lisa Seitz Gruwell and Jaime Villagomez take questions around the 2021/22 annual plan.
Five reasons Wikipedia needs your support (post supporting the 2021 English banner fundraising campaign) by Pats Pena
7 reasons you should donate to Wikipedia by Lisa Seitz Gruwell
2023/24 Q4 Update
We wrapped up the last fiscal year successfully and are thankful for everyone’s contribution and engagement. You will find more information on how the year went in our forthcoming fundraising report.
During Q4 we ran banner fundraising campaigns in a wide range of countries and created community collaboration pages for each of the campaigns. You can find all the collaboration pages above. Additionally we hosted community calls and engaged with our communities on talk pages to hear their feedback and work with them on banner messaging.
Spotlight Japan:
We worked with the Japanese community on refining our banner message in Japan and were able to adopt a new message which was based on community conversations.
We also used Q4 to prepare for our new financial year starting in July. We launched collaboration with the Indian communities around the upcoming India campaign and engaged with community members on the talk page. We also kicked off our collaboration with the English community around our English fundraising campaign. With pre-tests that started from mid-July, we want to collaborate now to ensure feedback and suggestions are heard and to improve the campaign this year.
2023/24 Q3 Update
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.
We had plenty of email campaigns during Q3, which included the Thank You email campaign (for donors from the English campaign in Q2), an email sent to Austria, Norway, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and Belgium, an email sent to Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, as well as and email sent to some of our English campaign donors about the Endowment.
We also started our campaign in Brazil at the end of Q3.
Some highlights from the Brazil campaign:
Brazil payments improvements: Last year we worked on reintegrating DLocal, our LATAM payment processor. Modernizing our payments integration had a significant impact on the Brazil campaign leading to a 32% increase in payments conversion rate and an increase in recurring giving! This newer integration is having a lasting impact. Donors are also sharing their appreciation for Pix as a payment option (see donor quote below!). Pix is the most popular way donors like to contribute from Brazil!
Finally, I'm thrilled to share that Brazilian donors are incredibly grateful for the Pix payment option, allowing those eager to donate to finally contribute!
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