Donor frequently asked questions

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with headquarters in the United States.

The Wikimedia Foundation is funded primarily through single or monthly donations from millions of individuals around the world. The average single donation is about $11 USD. We are grateful that so many people find value in Wikipedia and want to sustain its future. The Foundation also receives donations through institutional grants and gifts (please see our benefactors page for more information). A small portion of revenue is also earned through the services operated by Wikimedia Enterprise (more information).

The Wikimedia Foundation has 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in the United States. Donations made from other nations may also be tax deductible (see tax deductibility information below for more details). Visit our donate page for details on how to make a donation via credit or debit card, bank transfer and several other methods. If you have any questions, please contact us at donate@wikimedia.org.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Wikipedia is the only top 10 most-visited website that is run by a nonprofit: the Wikimedia Foundation. The majority of its funding comes from donations, averaging $11, from readers  around the world. It does not rely on advertising, subscription fees, or selling users’ personal data for funding. This helps protect its independence by limiting the influence of any single organization or individual on Wikipedia’s content. 

Here are just some of the ways the Wikimedia Foundation uses donations to sustain Wikipedia and free knowledge:

• Defending and protecting free knowledge around the world: The Wikimedia Foundation’s policy and legal efforts help ensure that everyone has the right to access, share, and create knowledge, while defending our volunteers from threat of reprisal, and upholding our commitment to free expression and open knowledge. We advocate for free licenses and open source software and work to make sure that copyright laws are built and reformed so that people can share and use knowledge more broadly. We also fight against censorship and protect the right of everyone to speak and learn freely. Support for this work is vital to giving users everywhere equal access to Wikimedia projects.
• Providing top-notch technical infrastructure for a global website: Wikipedia is viewed more than 15 billion times every month. To meet the needs of Wikipedia readers around the world, we operate an international technology infrastructure comparable to the world’s largest commercial websites. This includes hosting costs such as keeping our servers running, as well as significant, ongoing engineering work to make sure Wikipedia is reliable, secure, loads quickly, and protects your privacy.
• Ensuring you can access Wikipedia in every language on every device: Donations also allow us to dedicate engineering resources to ensure that you can access Wikipedia in your preferred language, on your preferred device, no matter where you are in the world — from a dial-up modem to a brand new smartphone. Most major websites support an average of 50-100 languages; Wikipedia supports over 300 languages, a number that grows every year.
• Supporting community-led projects to increase access to trusted information: We collaborate with Wikipedia volunteers around the globe to support their ideas and help them bring more free knowledge to the world. Every year, over 10% of our budget is specifically dedicated to supporting community projects that enrich, grow, and improve knowledge on Wikipedia.

Sustaining healthy financial reserves and having a working capital policy is considered a best practice for organizations of all types. The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees defined our working capital policy that is designed to sustain our work and provide support to affiliates and volunteers in the event of unplanned expenses, emergencies, or revenue shortfalls. This creates a 12-18 month buffer and is in line with recommendations made by institutions such as the Charity Navigator. It also enables us to have sufficient cash flow to cover our expenses throughout the year.

Nearly 650 staff work at the Wikimedia Foundation. The majority of staff work in product and technology, ensuring quick load times, secure connections, and better reading and editing experiences on our sites. They handle technology infrastructure for more than 15 billion monthly pageviews. They maintain the software and infrastructure on which we operate some of the world’s most multilingual sites with knowledge available in over 300 languages.  

We know that salaries vary across the world, and we hire in very competitive markets. At the same time, we are a nonprofit. As such, we make an effort to be fair, adjusting for inflation and income inequality, while providing equitable compensation to all.

We do not use advertising as a source of revenue. We do not believe that advertising belongs in a project devoted to free, reliable, and neutral knowledge. Introducing commercial interests could jeopardize Wikipedia’s reliability as a neutral source of information.

We are not against online advertising, nor are we against other organizations that host ads. We simply acknowledge that ads are not appropriate in a project devoted to education and knowledge – and especially one that strives for balance and neutrality.

The Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Report covers highlights, stories, and impact from the previous fiscal year. 

The Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan describes our organization’s strategic goals, financial details, and risk analyses for the current fiscal year.

The Wikimedia Endowment is a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity. It is a 501(c)(3) charity headquartered in the United States. During times of prosperity, the Wikimedia Endowment will serve as a springboard for growth and innovation. During tough economic times, the Endowment will help fund the most critical operations that keep the Wikimedia projects functioning. Based on conversations with donors, grants from the Endowment currently fund technical innovation, so that the Wikimedia Projects stay relevant in a time of rapid technological change. You can learn more about the Wikimedia Endowment at wikimediaendowment.org.

Wikimedia Enterprise is a wholly-owned LLC that provides opt-in services for third party content reuse, delivered via APIs (application programming interfaces). It provides high volume, high reliability access to Wikimedia content, designed for the needs of commercial organizations, such as search engines, voice assistants, and technology startups. Having services that are optimized for commercial users and paid for by those users ensures that any money which is donated to the Wikimedia Foundation goes directly towards supporting services for our volunteer community and readers. You can learn more about Wikimedia Enterprise at enterprise.wikimedia.com.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. 

Wikimedia chapters are independent, nonprofit organizations that support and promote Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in a specific geographic location. While Wikimedia chapters share our free knowledge mission, they are not a legal representation of the Wikimedia Foundation, and each chapter operates independently with its own staff, board of directors, and organization plan. Some chapters also run their own fundraising campaigns, and these are often tax deductible in their country.

See our General FAQs at this link.

There are several ways you can donate to the Wikimedia Foundation to support Wikipedia and free knowledge. The most common methods are using any major credit or debit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express); using PayPal; a bank transfer; Apple Pay, Google Pay; and Venmo. For other ways to contribute, including via an automatic monthly gift, check or money order and payroll deduction, please visit our donate page. Many currencies are accepted.

The Wikimedia Foundation donation pages are extremely secure and powered by GlobalSign. After clicking on a fundraising banner or following a donation link, the page you are taken to is on a secured site (https); all information is encrypted and handled following the highest standard of data protection.

Note that we do not process or store credit card details or bank information. Instead, we work closely with third-party payment processors affiliated with banks to process donations. Please also note that when you transfer to a partner site – if you are donating via Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, or Venmo – we do not store your login credentials, and the full donation process is done from your account on their secure site.

We are committed to protecting the privacy rights of our supporters and will never sell, trade, or rent your nonpublic personal information. Please see our donor privacy policy for full details.

If for any reason you wish to have your donation refunded, please contact us via email at donate@wikimedia.org and include the following information:

• Full name of donor
• Date of donation — All refund requests must be made within 90 days of donation
• Amount donated
• Payment method used — Do not include credit card numbers in your email
• Country of origin
• Reason for the refund

All refunds will be processed as quickly as possible, but processing times may vary depending on the payment method. Please note: Some payment methods may not support refunds or require refunds to be made through the payment method (card) utilized, prompting additional information to process your refund.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Due to our strict privacy policy, Wikipedia does not have access to your prior donation history. Therefore, it will not recognize that you have already made a donation. 

That said, there are a few options available to you to hide the fundraising banners in the future:

• If you click the “Already donated”, “X” or “Close” button on a banner, it will hide banners for one week. Please note this behavior does not apply to the first banner you see, but every banner thereafter.
• If you have cookies enabled, you can return to the “Thank You” page for a cookie that will hide fundraising banners in the future. If you read Wikipedia on multiple devices, please visit this page on each of them to suppress the banners.
• You can also create an account on Wikipedia. Banners are not typically shown to users who are logged into Wikipedia accounts. More information on creating an account can be found here.

If you have received a fundraising email even though you donated recently, this generally is for one of several reasons:

• We have more than one email address for you in our records;
• You donated less than 24 hours before our emails were sent: the scan we use to filter out recent donors is unable to catch donations made just before the email send;
• You donated either via a method that is slower to reach our system, like a check or a bank transfer, or via a method that we receive in aggregate (without your email address), like PayPal Giving Fund or Humble Bundle.

If you would like to unsubscribe an email address, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the fundraising email, or send an unsubscribe request to donate@wikimedia.org. Please note that we send a very low number of emails to donors, relative to other nonprofit organizations.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit charity (tax ID number 20-0049703) established in the United States under the US IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). For that reason, donations from persons or entities located in the United States may benefit from tax-deductible status. This includes donations made to the Wikimedia Foundation for the benefit of the Wikimedia Endowment.

Scan of 501(c)(3) status letter

State Disclosures

In addition to having federal 501(c)(3) status in the United States, the Wikimedia Foundation is registered to solicit donations in all states that have a registration requirement. Below are statements requested by some of those states to let potential donors know how to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation’s registrations.

• Florida: A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE, WITHIN THE STATE, 1-800-435-7352 (800-HELP-FLA), OR VISITING https://www.FloridaConsumerHelp.com. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. Florida Registration #CH17371
• Georgia: A full and fair description of our programs and our financial statement summary is available upon request at our office and phone number indicated above.
• Maryland: For the cost of copies and postage, from the Office of the Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401.
• Mississippi: The official registration and financial information of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. may be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office by calling 1-888-236-6167. Registration by the Secretary of State does not imply endorsement.
• Nevada: Contributions may be tax deductible pursuant to the provisions of sec. 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 U.S.C. ¤170(c).
• New Jersey: INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6215 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT https://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/charfrm.htm. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT.
• New York: Upon request, from the Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005, 1-212-416-8686 or https://www.charitiesnys.com.
• North Carolina: Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 1-919-814-5400. The license is not an endorsement by the state.
• Pennsylvania: The official registration and financial information of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999.
• Virginia: From the State Office of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23218.
• Washington: From the Secretary of State at 1-800-332-4483 or https://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/
• West Virginia: West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305.
• Wisconsin: A financial statement of the charitable organization disclosing assets, liabilities, fund balances, revenue and expenses for the preceding fiscal year will be provided to any person upon request.

REGISTRATION WITH A STATE AGENCY DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION BY THAT STATE.

Because of the Wikimedia Foundation’s 501(c)3 status in the United States, Canada’s tax code will generally permit deductibility of donations to the WMF from the donor’s US taxable income only. A useful reference may be Article XXI, Paragraph 6 of the US-Canada tax treaty. Please contact a tax professional for the details of deducting such a donation.

Donations to the Wikimedia Foundation are not tax deductible in France.

Dutch tax authorities have confirmed that, under Dutch law, the Wikimedia Foundation qualifies as a “public welfare institution” (in Dutch, “algemeen nut beogende instelling” or “ANBI”). This classification means that, if you are a Dutch resident, your donation to the Wikimedia Foundation may be deductible from your income tax, subject to the normal tax rules on donations deduction under Dutch tax legislation. Please consult your tax advisor for specific guidance regarding your eligibility and the applicable rules (1% of your threshold income but at least €60). Importantly, the Wikimedia Foundation does not seek donations from persons or entities located in any jurisdiction that prohibits or restricts fundraising activities by international charities or applies gift taxes on donations made to such international charities. The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit charity established in the United States under the U.S. IRS Code Section 501(c)(3).

Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit charity established in the United States under the US IRS Code Section 501(c)(3), and, for that reason, donations from persons or entities located in the United States may benefit from tax-deductible status. Donations from persons or entities located outside the United States may not be eligible for tax deductions in the United States and elsewhere; in such cases, donors should seek local tax advice. Importantly, Wikimedia does not seek donations from persons or entities located in any jurisdiction that prohibits or restricts fundraising activities by international charities such as Wikimedia or applies gift taxes on donations made to such international charities.

The Wikimedia Foundation supports local independent chapters across the world. Learn more about chapters and their work.

We are sorry that we are currently unable to offer your preferred method of payment. In future fundraisers, we hope to have additional options for donation in additional currencies. Please also see our full list of ways to support on our donate page.

If your donation attempt was unsuccessful, please check your debit/credit card for the following cases:

• Your credit/debit card should be enabled for International use. Cards that can only be used in-country (a.k.a. domestic cards) may not be accepted at this time. Please call your bank and request international access to be enabled.
• There is an increased security focus in the EU/UK where some banks require a pin to be associated with your credit card (3D Secure). This may be a reason for a decline if the pin is absent or is mismatched and you may wish to take this up with your issuing bank.
• Not all virtual cards may be accepted at this time. Virtual cards are frequently used for online purchases to protect your physical card’s sensitive information. However, rest assured that our donation processing is backed up by professional, fully compliant processors and your information is extremely secure. So if your virtual card gets rejected, please try to use a traditional credit/debit card instead.
• If you are using your debit card, please notice that the security code (CVV) is optional. If your debit card doesn’t have a CVV just skip that field.
• Your bank may have flagged the transaction. This is particularly likely if this is the first time you are donating to Wikimedia. Please call your bank and request they unblock future transactions to Wikimedia so that your future donations will be processed. If your bank or credit card company is not able to identify the cause of your issue, please contact us at donate@wikimedia.org. For your security, please do not include credit card numbers in your email.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

If your PayPal donation was rejected, or your recurring subscription donation was canceled, please contact PayPal customer service for more information. You may also call PayPal directly at 888-221-1161 or 402-935-2050 if you’re calling from outside the US. Here are some common reasons why donations fail:

• PayPal sometimes requires a backup payment method for various reasons, such as hitting a monthly spending threshold or performing a transfer. You can solve this by adding a backup payment method to your account.
• PayPal can occasionally give an error saying we do not process donations in a given country. However, you may be receiving this message because PayPal needs some additional personal identification information from you. Please contact their customer service department and inquire further. This is especially common in some parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Please note that due to in-country regulations, we no longer can process PayPal donations from Singapore.

If you received an error message stating that your transaction could not be accepted, your donation may not have been processed or accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Please contact us at donate@wikimedia.org for more information about your donation. Please do not include credit card numbers in your email.

A charge may show up on your card as a temporary hold from your bank, which is standard operating procedure for any online transaction. If your donation was unsuccessful, your bank will release these funds in about 3-5 business days, depending upon their rules and regulations. If you would like to attempt a donation again, please visit our donate page for a full range of options.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Please ensure that your browser is up to date, that you have JavaScript enabled, and that you are not whitelisting certain domains. Please also check to ensure you have entered information into all fields correctly, such as the spelling of your email address or number of digits in your credit card number. Note that extra spaces in these fields may generate an error.

If you see a certificate warning/error while trying to donate, it is likely due to an outdated version of your browser. Please update your browser to a newer version or use a different browser.

The donation link you clicked is set up to geolocate based on the IP address provided by your internet service provider. However, there is an option to change your country and select a new one from a dropdown at the top of the donation form. A small number of donors run into trouble with geolocation via IP and need a donation link specific to their home country – this tends to be an issue if you are traveling. If this is the case, please send our Donor Relations team an email at donate@wikimedia.org. Please be sure to include the name of your intended country and/or currency so that we can send you the correct donation URL.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Neither the Wikimedia Foundation nor the companies we use to process credit cards apply transaction fees to donations. However, in some cases, banks may apply cross-border and foreign transaction fees. We strive to minimize this phenomenon and we apologize if such charges have been applied to you. As we do not collect these fees, we are unable to refund them to you, but if you would like a refund of your donation to offset them, please email donate@wikimedia.org.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The fundraising team at the Wikimedia Foundation is small, so please be sure to read through the common questions above. If you need help resolving a donation problem, please contact donate@wikimedia.org. Please let us know which browser and donation link you are using, and provide a description or, if possible, a screenshot of the error. Please do not include credit card numbers in your email.

Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we use Zendesk as a donor response platform. By emailing donate@wikimedia.org, you understand that your information will be processed by the Zendesk Group in accordance with Zendesk’s terms. Users from the following countries should consult Section A of Zendesk’s privacy policy for more information about Zendesk’s country-specific practices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.