Wikimedia Foundation
More info
- Creator
- Jimmy Wales
- Released
- 2003
- Type
- Nonprofit foundation
- Website
- wikimediafoundation.org
The San Francisco nonprofit that runs Wikipedia and its sister projects, and pays for the servers with fundraising banners.
Jimmy Wales set up the foundation in 2003 and moved Wikipedia's domains and servers over from his company Bomis. It also runs Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary and the MediaWiki software that thousands of other wikis use.
The foundation doesn't write the articles — volunteers do — but handles operations, legal and engineering. Its budget has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, mostly from small donations, and the annual banners pleading for money have drawn criticism for sounding more urgent than the balance sheet. No other site in the global top ten gets by without ads.