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Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2017-2018/Final/Financials

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FDC questions: upcoming year financials

Revenues: upcoming year

Advancement's detailed description of their revenue goals can be found at Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2017-2018/Draft/Non-Programs/Advancement.

Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan

1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).

Please see tables below.

2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.

Please see tables below.

Wikimedia Foundation financial overview graphics

To help reviewers understand the financials, we have prepared overview graphics. The full details are available in the financial tables below these.

FY17-18 WMF AP department expenses

Note to above: Movement Strategy and Wikimedia Brand and Identity will be funded with Board Designated Funds and are not shown here.


FY17-18 WMF AP program expenses by department staff and non

Note to above: This table shows only operating expenses. It excludes the $2M of expenses that are funded from our surplus designated or conditioned by the Board of Trustees for specific and non-recurring investments.


FY17-18 WMF AP non-program expenses


FY17-18 WMF AP cross-department programs

Wikimedia Foundation financial tables

All tables below are in thousands of USD.

Table #1: Consolidated Financials: Program and Non-Program Expenses
Description FY16-17 Budget FY16-17 Forecast FY17-18 Plan
Program Expenses
Staffing 26,017 26,195 30,986
Non-Staffing
Data Center Expenses 4,689 4,211 4,465
Grants 5,460 7,303 7,360
Endowment Contribution - 5,000 5,000
Outside Contract Services 2,399 4,502 2,826
Legal Fees 1,018 908 918
Travel & Conferences 1,561 1,464 2,277
Other expenses (Wikidata, data center property taxes, etc.) 1,882 2,076 5,361
Sub Total Program Expenses 43,026 51,659 59,192
Non Program Expenses
Staffing 10,222 7,995 9,066
Non-Staffing:
Donation Processing Fees 2,240 3,620 3,228
Outside Contract Services 2,214 1,807 1,947
Legal Fees 622 364 404
Travel & Conferences 289 212 446
Other expenses (Facilities, Insurance, FF&E, All Hands, Recruiting, Staff Development, Personal Property Taxes, etc.) 4,387 4,183 2,516
Sub Total Non-Program Expenses 19,974 18,181 17,608
Total Annual Operating Expenses 63,000 69,840 76,800
Funds available for a specific purpose[a 1]
Movement Strategy - 453
Brand Strategy - - 850
Office Move - - 697
Funds available for a specific purpose - 2,000
  1. These expenses are funded from our surplus for specific and non-recurring investments.
Table #2: Cross-Department Programs - Expenses by Type
Description FY17-18 Plan
Community Health New Readers Privacy and Security Structured Data Movement Strategy[b 1] Wikimedia Brand and Identity[b 1] Total
Staffing Expenses 849 1,239 1,091 1,174 - - 4,353
Non Staffing Expenses - - - - - - -
Data Center Expenses - - - 16 - - 16
Grants - 40 - - - - 40
Endowment Contribution - - - - - - -
Donation Processing Fees - - - - - - -
Outside Contract Services - 263 121 - 445 850 1,679
Legal Fees 150 - 60 - - - 210
Travel & Conferences 22 88 52 23 8 - 193
Other expenses (Wikidata, data center property taxes, etc.) 7 49 140 258 - - 454
Total Program Expenses 1,028 1,679 1,464 1,472 453 850 6,946 
  1. a b Movement Strategy and Wikimedia Brand and Identity will be funded with funds available for a specific purpose.
Table #3: Departmental Programs
Description FY17-18 Plan
Community Engagement Audiences (formerly Product) Technology Communications Advancement: Global Reach and Other Program Exp Legal Governance Finance & Administration Total
Staffing 4,663 9,889 9,133 1,295 680 402 539 94 26,694
Non-Staffing - - - - - - - - -
Data Center Expenses - - 4,449 - - - - - 4,449
Grants 7,320 - - - - - - - 7,320
Endowment Contribution - - - - 5,000 - - - 5,000
Donation Processing Fees - - - - - - - - -
Outside Contract Services 354 369 332 835 76 198 212 - 2,375
Legal Fees - - - - - 708 - - 708
Travel & Conferences 652 509 574 74 83 36 158 6 2,092
Other expenses (Wikidata, data center property taxes, etc.) 942 1,278 579 39 134 89 52 1,102 4,214
Total Program Expenses 13,931 12,044 15,067 2,243 5,974 1,433 960 1,202 52,853
Table #4: Departmental Non-Programs
Description FY 17-18 Plan
Legal Finance & Administration Talent & Culture Fundraising (Advancement and Fundraising Tech) Office Move[d 1] Total
Staffing 1,214 2,525 1,907 3,420 - 9,066
Non-Staffing: - - - - - -
Data Center Expenses - - - - - -
Grants - - - - - -
Endowment Contribution - - - - - -
Donation Processing Fees - - - 3,228 - 3,228
Outside Contract Services 21 357 155 1,480 66 2,079
Legal Fees 404 - - - - 404
Travel & Conferences 40 88 78 240 - 446
Other expenses (Facilities, Insurance, FF&E, All Hands, Recruiting, Staff Development, Personal Property Taxes, etc.) 161 1,985 657 345 631 3,778
Total Non-Program Expenses 1,840 4,955 2,797 8,713 697 19,001
  1. The Office Move expenses will be funded with funds available for a specific purpose.
Table #5: Expenses by Departments
Description FY16-17 Budget FY16-17 Forecast[e 1] FY17-18 Plan
Advancement 6,722 12,643 13,277
Community Engagement 11,188 12,621 14,302
Audiences (formerly Product) 15,078 15,686 14,595
Technology 13,983 12,659 18,448
Communications 2,344 2,048 2,473
Legal 3,724 3,029 3,627
Talent & Culture 2,493 2,038 2,797
Finance & Administration 6,593 6,307 6,321
Governance[e 1] 875 2,809 960
Total Annual Operating Expenses 63,000 69,840 76,800 
  1. a b FY16-17 Forecast includes $5M Endowment Contribution in Advancement and $2M Movement Strategy Expenses in Governance
Table #6: Outside Contract Services, excluding Cross Departmental Programs
Description Expense Description
Advancement 1,378 WMF fundraising teams operate according to industry best practices and leverage a lean staffing model that relies on significant contractor support, particularly for: donor services (responding to approximately 80,000 donor emails), online fundraising campaign data analysis, email and banner campaign design, matching gifts facilitation. Additionally, contractors will support shipping and fulfillment and translation services
Community Engagement 354 The Wikipedia Library program relies on contract support to continue to expand the quantity and language availability of their resources. In Community Engagement, contractors also support temporary and long-term projects, which this year includes the design of Wikimedia Resource Center, gender diversity program development, coordination of software development between WMF and communities, maintenance of the dashboard, Wikimania coordination, and community capacity development.
Audiences (formerly Product) 369 The Product department continues to make Wikipedia a rewarding experience for the users through a combination of user research, community discussions and user product development. Many projects and initiatives are supported heavily by contract services throughout the year, some of these contract services include CiviCRM system support, PCI compliance support, interfacing OpenStreetMap community & data development, monthly regression testings, support for field user testings, and other 3rd party resources required for the program activities described under Product.
Technology 510 To ensure Wikimedia's sites and services are running reliably, securely while modernizing the infrastructure and improving the current level of services, the Technology department oftentimes leverages contract services to support their goals and long-term projects. This year the required contract services included support for QA services for mobile research, support for benchmarking, research, technical writing, and other assistance required for the program activities described under Technology
Communications 835 The Communications dept relies heavily on contractors and service providers to amplify their capacity in the areas of: public relations consulting to support awareness and positive public messaging of the Wikimedia projects, digital media content production, campaign production and management, design and production of brand materials including the annual report, CRM, blog hosting, communications intern, videography and video editing
Legal 219 The Legal dept requires contract support for trademark protection services, translation services, legal interns, transparency report design
Talent & Culture 155 The Talent and Culture dept requires contract support to supplement Diversity and Inclusion program services; performance management consulting; ongoing salary and benefits benchmarking and consulting.
Finance/Administration/IT 357 The Finance and Administration Dept will leverage part time administrative and operational support, 3rd party contract community finance research and support, operational system improvement
Governance 212 Governance requires contract support for administrative services, meeting facilitation, consulting projects.
Total Annual Operating Expenses 4,389
Table #7: Other Expense, excluding Cross Departmental Programs
Expense Description
1,702 Rent, janitorial, maintenance, and other facility expenses
1,105 Wikidata (excluding an additional $242k that is included in the Structured Data program)
992 Payroll fees, benefits administration fees, and other personnel related fees not included in staffing costs
745 Staff training and all staff meetings
596 Insurance
540 Wikimania event costs
314 Accounting and tax services, banking fees
235 IT desk and office equipment
341 Computer software subscription
209 Volunteer development and other community events
153 Printing, Office Supplies, Postage and other supplies
138 Data center property taxes
107 Telecommunications
99 Subscriptions, reference, membership and registration fees
92 Merchandise, giveaways, promotions and fulfillment costs
70 University affiliation program