Frequently asked questions Wikimedia Foundation

Books published by Brookings experts provide in-depth explorations of the issues that matter most to policymakers and the public alike. People who itemize their tax deductions can contribute to the Red Cross and claim the amount donated as a deduction. Taxpayers who use the standard deduction may still claim up to $600 of their 501(c)(3) contributions as a tax deduction in 2021.

• The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.
• Wikimedia Enterprise argues other non-profits control for-profit divisions.
• Boland and his partner, James Carroll, divide their time between San Francisco and Dos Reis Ranch in Sebastopol, Ca.
• [14] Users might place an article in Wikipedia for backlinks, to climb higher in search results.
• You can learn more about the Wikimedia Endowment at wikimediaendowment.org.

Audited financial statements provide important information about financial accountability and accuracy. They should be prepared by an independent accountant with oversight from an audit committee. We check the charity’s Form 990 reporting to see if it meets this criteria. Based on this discussion and our research, we are uniting around a direction that will help us build a more sustainable, resilient, and engaged movement that anyone who shares our vision can join. We will adapt to the shifting trends in technology, to ensure we meet the needs of our users and continue to provide reliable, transparent, and neutral information.

Applying for Tax Exempt Status

Watch this video to see how your donation turns into water, sanitation, and hygiene resources that transform entire communities and impact more people than you know. Please note, only donations made by eligible US taxpayers may be tax-deductible. Our work has inspired changes across the spectrum of issues we cover including environment, education, public health, public safety, governance, natural disaster response, campaign finance, housing, jobs and more.

Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the non-profit Firefox, is attached to the Mozilla Corporation because it was originally spun-off from for-profit Netscape. Linux Foundation operates a for-profit training service which is entirely different from their core mission. The Open Data Institute relies in part upon for-profit businesses for data. None of these organizations rely upon volunteers to the extent Wikipedia does nor do they enjoy the level of funding, relative to operating costs, that Wikimedia is fortunate to have. Critics of the WMF’s fundraising efforts said that only a small percentage of the foundation’s annual budget goes back to the volunteers themselves—that is, the people who produce the content. Then again, many Wikipedians oppose the idea that contributors should ever be paid, since this conflict of interest could distort the content of articles and create bizarre gaming incentives like those that existed on the defunct crypto project Everipedia.

Pence says he wants to ban abortion and support families but hasn’t specified how

In practice, many people – especially subject matter experts – rarely have the time or patience to engage in the sophomoric practice. [3] Wikimedia legal counsel skirted a direct question if Wikipedia Enterprise is for-profit, answering https://turbo-tax.org/ that it is a wholly-owned Delaware-based LLC with one owner, Wikimedia, designed to generate more revenue than it costs to run. [2] These answers come from an open forum on Friday, January 19, 2021 related to Wikipedia Enterprise.

• Content is created entirely by unpaid volunteers and, sometimes, machine translations.
• There is no immediate need for more funds and its long-term strategy plan, Wikimedia 2030, lacks specificity about how additional money might be spent.
• Private foundations are subject to stricter rules and regulations than public charities.
• As Jimmy Wales said, “It’s your own human right to be able to learn with privacy.” The Foundation’s Privacy policy and practices have long upheld this belief.
• Wikimedia Enterprise is a wholly-owned LLC that provides services for third party content reuse, delivered via APIs (application programming interfaces).

The IRS will only say that “applications are processed as quickly as possible” and “are processed in the order received by the IRS.” However, it does provide a list of 10 tips that can shorten the process. A 501(c)(3) could be the lifelong dream of its founder; however, once established as a 501(c)(3), it no longer belongs to its founder. To maintain its favorable tax treatment, it must operate within the confines of the law pertaining to 501(c)(3) organizations. [29] Though not stated by Wikimedia, the impetus for this push may be anticipated changes to US laws that, in part, shield information re-publishers from various forms of liability. If this is the case, Big Tech would be pushing their own liability towards Wikipedia rather than, say, purchasing insurance or paying for content from professional providers.

Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

We are grateful to the generous benefactors who have made significant donations. Large gifts ensure that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects have support for years to come. Following the removal of Fabián Guzmán, Chi Omega members past and present are asking the national organization to provide updated guidance around who can join based on their gender identity and sex at birth.

Our research shows that this particular feature increases the chances of a new Wikimedia user sticking around by about 12%. 501(c)(5) organizations can receive unlimited contributions from corporations, individuals, and labor unions. Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.

Unblocking Wikipedia in Turkey

The existence of a privacy policy of any type does not prohibit the charity itself from contacting the donor for informational, educational, or solicitation purposes. The IRS is significantly delayed in processing nonprofits’ annual tax filings (Forms 990). As a result, the Accountability & Finance score for Wikimedia Foundation is outdated and the overall rating may not be representative of its current operations. Unlike other top websites, Wikipedia is not funded through advertising, nor does it rely on selling data about users for profit.

• YSI fosters conversation among those who wish to engage with new economic thinking and connects young scholars to the Institute’s vast network of economists.
• This problem compounds when Wikipedia information is used to train artificial intelligence agents, an apparently not uncommon use case.
• Minassian is listed as an officer on Clinton Foundation Form 990s in the 2015, 2018, and 2019 disclosures, the last published.[23] The Clinton Foundation website confirms he remains in that role as of 2021.
• In the early days, the WMF operated on a shoestring budget that funded Wikipedia’s servers and technical infrastructure, but paid for very few full-time employees.
• Prior to ThinkCure, Clayton had a distinguished career at the Los Angeles Times as a key member of the newspaper’s leadership team.
• For example, take Wikipedia entries concerning Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the Pablo Escobar of the 1800s.

One of SOPA’s stated goals was to reduce incidents of copyright infringement. But fighting that by forcing places like Wikipedia to find and remove all links to entire websites, even in cases of minor infringement, was a step too far. In response to these concerns about SOPA’s potential impact, English Wikipedia volunteers extensively discussed how they might take action alongside others. After thousands of words of debate, they decided to ‘black out’ the site for 24 hours, a tactic previously used on Italian Wikipedia in 2011. In 2019, the Foundation’s Web team began an effort to update Wikipedia’s desktop interface for a new generation. The Wikipedia apps have been revamped several times to improve their usability and functionality.

Ways I’m Using AI to Make Money in 2023

Altogether more than 400 people work on engineering and product at the Wikimedia Foundation, handling technology infrastructure for more than 16 billion monthly pageviews. However, not all https://turbo-tax.org/501c3-organization-wikipedia/ organizations that qualify for the tax category need to submit Form 1023. For example, public charities that earn less than $5,000 in revenue per year are exempt from filing this form.

This will allow you time to focus on making the world a better place instead of the many administrative requirements detailed below. If it is the right business type for you, follow these steps to get your nonprofit up and running. To create a 501(c)(3), you must define the type of organization and its purpose or mission.