Talk:Wikimedia Deutschland/Decentralized Fundraising, Centralized Distribution
Current spending by regions[edit]
A couple of months ago I had a look at the WMF's Form 990 to see where its revenue currently goes. I reported the results in the en:Wikipedia:Signpost. I'll reproduce the report here, for reference:
Where does the Wikimedia Foundation spend its money?[edit]
The WMF's 2020 Form 990, released last month, enables some interesting insight into where the Wikimedia Foundation has been spending its money, especially in light of claims by the Foundation that "a lot" of the money raised through donations is flowing into the Global South (see this issue's In the media section). Firstly, page 1 of the Form 990 shows that the WMF reported:
- Total revenue of $158,987,065 (
up from $120,919,258). - Total expenses of $111,669,959 (
down from $112,162,122).
According to the Form 990, $92 million of the total expenditure – that is, all but $20 million of it – was spent in the United States. This includes $5.5 million that the Wikimedia Foundation did not actually spend, but added to its own endowment at the Tides Foundation.
As for expenditure in the rest of the world, the Form 990 divides this into expenses for "Program Services" (mainly technical and legal support for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia websites) and "Grantmaking" (to grow global reach and increase contributor diversity). Of the $20 million spent on "Program Services" and "Grantmaking" outside the United States, most of it – around $15 million (9% of total WMF revenue) – went to Europe and North America outside the US (i.e. Canada and Mexico). This left a little over $5 million – or about 3% of total revenue – for the entire rest of the world. The two main regions in the rest of the world that saw funding for Program Services and Grantmaking in 2020 were Africa and East Asia/Pacific. The regional breakdown was as follows:
| World regions (excl. North America and Europe) | Spending (US$) | % of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 2.0 million | 1.3% |
| East Asia and the Pacific (Australia, Korea, Taiwan, etc.) | 1.3 million | 0.8% |
| South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, etc.) | 0.6 million | 0.4% |
| Middle East and North Africa | 0.6 million | 0.4% |
| South America | 0.5 million | 0.3% |
| Russia and neighbouring states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, etc.) | 0.1 million | 0.06% |
| Central America and the Caribbean | 0.1 million | 0.06% |
Total spending in the Global South (understood to comprise the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, South America, Central America and the Caribbean), therefore, amounted to just $3.8 million. That is 2.4% of total revenue – or 3.4% of global expenditure.
The Form 990 also gives a detailed breakdown for "Grantmaking" alone, without the expenses classed as "Program Services". According to this breakdown, grants given outside the United States totaled $3.5 million, of which $1.2 million went to Europe ($666,875 to organizations and $496,615 to 32 individuals). As for grants given to organizations (page 32–33 of the Form 990) and individuals (page 34) in the Global South, these were mainly focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, with the amounts going to South Asia – home to almost 2 billion people – looking particularly small by comparison:
| Global South regions | Grants total (US$) | % of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 1,368,343 | 0.9% |
| South America | 418,934 | 0.3% |
| Middle East and North Africa | 84,969 | 0.05 |
| South Asia | 78,537 | 0.05% |
| Central America and Caribbean | 2,925 | 0.002% |
Overall, the "Grantmaking" amounts reported in the Form 990 for the above regions of the Global South totaled $1,953,708, or 1.2% of WMF revenue in 2020 – a very minor part of the WMF budget, especially bearing in mind that the Foundation enjoyed an effective surplus of more than $50 million. It will be interesting to see how these figures will develop in the years to come. See also the Foundation's own 2020–2021 grantmaking report on Meta.