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Does Wikipedia really need my donations?
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this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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Asklemmy
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I've been a funding member of the Wikimedia Foundation for over a decade. I have looked at their finances several times before and during financing them.
As with a lot of similar non-profits, a considerable amount of donations does not go into "running the servers". You have to judge this by yourself, but they don't embezzle any money and there is a reasonable bottom line. Wikipedia continuously helps tons of people, and the people who run the operation enable that.
You can download a full dump of Wikipedia any day. Compared to other lying companies, they have been true on their promises for some time.
Of all the $1 I could spend in a year, the one I give to Wikipedia is probably the least wrong invested, and that $1 actually already makes a difference
It definitely makes a difference, and putting money into Wikipedia is a great use of funds. The reason I asked the question is because I'm not well off, but I still like to donate to projects from time to time. This means I have a limited (and strict budget), and was wondering if they need my tenner badly enough to send marketing emails over it. Because I'd like to donate to people who actually really need the money, and Wikipedia will do just fine for some time without my money going to them.
Do NOT donate. Believe in yourself. Believe you will one day be well off. At that point in time feel free to pay your "backlog" of payments. Write down todays date somewhere and "start a tab".
Wikipedia will not help you when you need it most. Take care of yourself first... then donate.
Never donate if you don't have the money. You can put a imaginary bill in an imaginary jar and turn those imaginary bills in real ones once you get better off.
Thanks for caring but care for yourself first.
Makes sense. If you're contributing less than $1000 monthly to anything, you're not making a difference. If you want dedicated people to be on the receiving end, who also do a great job, every single person will cost thousands each month. Wikimedia is literally spending millions each year.
Honestly, don't try to hunt for the "best" spot to contribute your exact amount of spare money to, with the hope of having the largest possible impact. It won't happen. Treat a good friend to some food instead.
If you really feel like you already got some value out of a service in the past, give what you can, without limiting yourself financially in the process. If you feel like you don't have the $1 to spend for Wikipedia, don't spend it. Don't guilt trip yourself into donations ever. Your donation today will not prevent a service from turning into shit tomorrow. Pay for what you got
I feel that keeping small streams of charity flowing have helped me see abundance in my life.
I’m not financially rich but I’m pretty happy. And I mean I struggle. Bills often late. But a couple bucks a month is worth it to me for the psychological benefit.
I do give in small streams and I do large annual contributions. I'm entirely not opposed to sharing.
I prefer to keep the small donations to individuals who also prefer a reliable stream of goodwill. Larger organizations also prefer reliable streams, but they also receive millions in donations overall, usually with significant large donors.
If you look long enough, you'll find enough material to not want to contribute to Wikimedia. If your contribution was only a drop in the pool to begin with, maybe this is one of the expenses that is not for you to carry.
Thanks man. I would much rather give my time than my money for OSS projects, but I have a lot to learn and do not match up the quality of contributions needed in said projects. I'll do what I can.
You can contribute by doing code reviews on PRs. Even if your contribution is only to ask “What does this do?” it can help locate places where code isn’t easily readable.
Obviously use your judgment, but code review commenting is a nice way to get up to speed on a project, improve your own coding skills, and is valuable to the project too.
I had an apprenticeship once at a dev shop where everybody was leagues above me. As basically the lowest-level coder both in status and in skill, I was surprised to find out my “curriculum” included doing code reviews on very senior people’s code.
Now I swear by the practice. It’s kinda like anyone can be a therapist if they know how to listen. Anyone can provide value with code review if they keep their eyes open and communicate honestly.
I fully agree with not limiting themselves financially whether it's 1,10,100 etc. Their aim is to bring knowledge in all languages to even the poorest parts of the world. If some Lemmy user's bank account is one of the poorest parts of the world right now, lol...I mean only "you" know how much money you can stand to give while still living comfortably and being entertained in life.
I have to take small disagreement with the money contribution not making a difference though. It's the flip side of the same coin that tells people it's find if they don't vote cause their one vote won't make a difference. The hole in the argument is that we don't vote alone, and we don't donate alone. The specific attitude "my vote won't make a difference" actually costs millions of votes every year, just like "my $20 won't make a difference" could cause millions of dollars of losses.
But anyway, separate argument from the situation here as our Lemmiford here sounds like they're in saving mode till things look up.
I get that, I really do, and I honestly believe you have exactly the right idea.
But on the other hand, you have to realize that not all of the money purely goes to enabling knowledge sharing with Wikimedia. This is not an election, it's a company, non-profit or for-profit doesn't really matter. There are still people paying off business expenses from your donations.
I fully understand the necessity of this, but you might just feel better if your $5 literally bought someone a meal or if it paid for a fraction of a business flight to promote Wikimedia.
Totally agree, the right to choose how best to spend your own charitable donations isn't something I'd ever infringe on.
How do you see the Wikimedia Foundation’s budget?
https://wikimediafoundation.org/support/where-your-money-goes/ might be a good starting point.
https://www.wikimedia.de/2022/en/finances/ has some clear numbers up front, but I'm not sure if these only relate to Germany. I haven't been following the sources recently.