Our Work – Wikimedia Foundation

We are the people who keep knowledge free. There is an amazing community of people around the world that makes great projects like Wikipedia. We help them do that work. We take care of the technical infrastructure, the legal challenges, and the growing pains.

Host free knowledge projects

The Wikimedia Foundation was established as a nonprofit in 2003 to give Wikipedia a permanent home. We now host 14 collaborative free knowledge projects, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, to Wikidata, a set of structured data, and more. We maintain the servers, build the software, and design the technology that keep these projects running.

Deliver grants for good

We partner with Wikimedia communities around the world to provide them with the support they need to do great work. Last year we awarded over 9 million USD in grants to Wikimedia community members, affiliates and nonprofit organizations. We fund editathons, outreach efforts, events, and conferences. We help them get the word out for free knowledge.

Grow community around the world

When more people can access and contribute to free knowledge, the better that knowledge reflects the world. We are committed to helping grow and sustain a healthy community of over 220,000 people across 170 nations. From the community health initiative to ORES and our work in gender diversity, the Foundation is actively working to make our projects more inclusive.

Support education and learning worldwide

We help teachers and students of all ages access and use the full potential of Wikimedia projects for their learning objectives. Key pillars of our education work include promoting knowledge equity and teaching 21st century skills.

Partner for change

Working with partners like Google, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and UNESCO, Wikimedia actively seeks new knowledge, closing systemic gaps in global understanding of science, culture, language, and identity. The Wikipedia Library partners the world’s top publishers with Wikipedia.

Open the Knowledge

“Open the Knowledge” is our call to everyone to promote radical knowledge equity, creating a living record of history, stories, and contexts for and by all people. It aims to make the Wikimedia movement more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.