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Wikimedia Foundation Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Wikimedia Foundation Inc

The mission of the wikimedia foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

$29M
Granted FY2025still arriving
18
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$1.5M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$30MCivil Rights$9.2MEducation$6.8MArts & Culture$5.5MInternational$1.7MScience & Tech$1.3MCrime & Legal$260kHealth$175kOther$0
02FY2025 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 18 grants below total $4,423,356, the rows itemized in this filing. The $29,021,576 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $24,598,220 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $29k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $1.4M
  • $250k+5 grants · $3.0M
$163,100
Median grant
7
States reached
$311M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT$1,490,207
WIKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION$500,000
ARTFEMINISM INC$404,689
WIKIMEDIA NEW YORK CITY$305,340
BLACK LUNCH TABLE$289,000
WHOSE KNOWLEDGE$216,300
WIKI PROJECT MED FOUNDATION$180,000
WIKITONGUES INC$170,913
WRITING DOWNTOWN INC DBA WIKIPORTRAITS$163,100
FRACTURED ATLAS INC$150,000
INTERNEWS NETWORK$150,000
SOFTWARE FREEDOM CONSERVANCY$128,000
WIKI SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON DC INC DBA WIKIMEDIA DC$83,890
HACK HACKERS INC$55,250
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR JOURNALISTS$55,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $163k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%WRITING DOWNTOWN INC DBA WIKIPORTRAITS: $163k → 13%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
CT
CA
CO
WV
MD
NC
DC
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $24M on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 9 regions, $22M to organizations and $2.8M to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$13M · 53% · 1 grant · 250 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

Sub-Saharan Africa$3.6M · 15% · 1 grant · 448 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES · SCHOLARSHIP TO ATTEND ANNUAL WIKIMEDIA CONFERENCE - WIKIMANIA

South America$2.7M · 11% · 1 grant · 72 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

East Asia and the Pacific$2.4M · 10% · 1 grant · 95 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

South Asia$893k · 4% · 1 grant · 33 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

Middle East and North Africa$678k · 3% · 1 grant · 75 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

North America (Canada and Mexico)$647k · 3% · 1 grant · 87 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

Russia and Neighboring States$423k · 2% · 1 grant · 39 people

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES · GENERAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND COMMITTEE STIPENDS, CONFERENCES

Central America and the Caribbean$202k · 1% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: GENERAL SUPPORT FOR ANNUAL PLANS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, TRAVEL AND STIPENDS TO SUPPORT COMMITTEE WORK, CONFERENCES

How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 55% of Wikimedia Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 77% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 37%.

Wikimedia Foundation Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$25M · 25 repeat orgs$877k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +22% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.

25 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
15

Total granted

$25M
$550k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
+16%

Still filing today

96%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $327k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureScience & TechInternationalCivil RightsPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • WE
    WIKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION
    8× · 2017–2025 · $3.3M · revenue +38% · 47% of their budget
  • AF
    ART FEMINISM INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $2.2M · revenue +64% · 99% of their budget
  • BL
    BLACK LUNCH TABLE
    7× · 2018–2025 · $1.5M · revenue +530% · 33% of their budget

Funded once

  • DF
    Data For Black Lives Inc
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue -90%
  • FA
    FILIPINO AMERICAN NATIONAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
    one grant, 2023 · $70k
  • WV
    WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2018 · $53k · revenue +16%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Wikimedia Foundation Inc

The mission of the wikimedia foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. (see schedule…

Education
2
Orcid Inc

Orcid provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. we provide open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their…

Education
3
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Inc

International consortium of investigative journalists, inc.'s (icij) mission is to show people how the world really works through stories that rock the world; forcing positive change.

International
4
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
5
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
6
Open Transformation Lab Inc

The missions is to provide information and resources to counter disinformation, propaganda, and offer a window to trusted content about the events that are going on in the Middle East.

Science & Tech
7
Wikimedia Endowment

The mission of the wikimedia endowment is to act as a permanent fund that can support in perpetuity the operations and activities of current and future wikimedia projects, which are projects that are approved by and advance the purposes of…

Philanthropy
8
Open Technology Fund

The open technology fund aims to advance internet freedom globally by supporting the research, development, implementation, and maintenance of technologies that provide secure and uncensored access to the internet.

Arts & Culture
9
International Center for Research On Women

The international center for research for women (icrw) is a global research institute, with a mission to advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and structurally excluded populations with actionable evidence and solutions.

International
10
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
11
Open Imagery Network Inc

Empowering organizations and individuals globally with open ml and eo data, standards and tools to address the world's most critical international development challenges.

Science & Tech
12
Chancellor Masters & Scholars of the University of Oxford

The principal objects of the University are the advancement of learning by teaching and research, and its dissemination by every means. We work as one Oxford bringing together our staff, students and alumni, our colleges, faculties,…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wiki Education Foundation; the most unlike its peers is WikiJournal User Group. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

42 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 42 of the 48 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

9
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
41/42
Grantees still filing
29/42
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TIDES FOUNDATION: $27,534,002 · PhilanthropyTIDES FOUNDATIONWIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT: $2,356,705 · PhilanthropyWIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENTTIDES ADVOCACY: $9,023,000 · OtherTIDES ADVOCACY+12 more: $601,002 · Other+12 moreWIKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $3,326,723 · EducationWIKI EDUCATION …WIKIMEDIA NEW YORK CITY: $1,020,098 · EducationWIKIMEDIA NEW Y…Yale University: $955,000 · EducationYale UniversityWiki Society of Washington DC Inc: $644,068 · EducationWiki Society of…WIKITONGUES INC: $435,078 · EducationWIKITONGUES INCWiki Project Med Foundation Inc: $325,000 · Education+10 more: $681,118 · Education+10 moreART FEMINISM INC: $2,179,572 · Arts & CultureART FEMINIS…BLACK LUNCH TABLE: $1,469,095 · Arts & CultureBLACK LUNCH…FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $732,313 · Arts & CultureFRACTURED A…WikiJournal User Group: $309,666 · Arts & CultureWikiJournal…QUBIT NEW MUSIC: $269,795 · Arts & Culture+4 more: $430,424 · Arts & Culture+4 moreIdeas Beyond Borders Inc: $415,335 · InternationalPeace Development Fund: $339,080 · InternationalTHE INT'L CENTER FOR JOURNALISTS INC: $155,000 · InternationalSOFTWARE FREEDOM CONSERVANCY INC: $603,500 · Science & TechCODE FOR SCIENCE & SOCIETY INC: $200,518 · Science & TechOPEN ENVIRONMENTAL DATA INC: $40,000 · Science & TechWhose Knowledge Question Mark: $781,612 · Civil RightsACCESS NOW: $58,000 · Civil Rights
Philanthropy$29,890,707Other$9,624,002Education$7,387,085Arts & Culture$5,390,865International$909,415Science & Tech$844,018Civil Rights$839,612

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTIDES FOUNDATION: $27,534,002 over 7y, 1.7% of budgetTIDES ADVOCACY: $9,023,000 over 2y, 5.7% of budgetWIKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $3,326,723 over 8y, 47% of budgetWIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT: $2,356,705 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetART FEMINISM INC: $2,179,572 over 6y, 99% of budgetBLACK LUNCH TABLE: $1,469,095 over 7y, 33% of budgetWIKIMEDIA NEW YORK CITY: $1,020,098 over 7y, 42% of budgetYale University: $955,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetWhose Knowledge Question Mark: $781,612 over 4y, 19% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $732,313 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetWiki Society of Washington DC Inc: $644,068 over 6y, 78% of budgetSOFTWARE FREEDOM CONSERVANCY INC: $603,500 over 9y, 4.0% of budgetWIKITONGUES INC: $435,078 over 4y, 44% of budgetIdeas Beyond Borders Inc: $415,335 over 2y, 9.6% of budgetPeace Development Fund: $339,080 over 4y, 2.7% of budgetWiki Project Med Foundation Inc: $325,000 over 2y, 97% of budgetWikiJournal User Group: $309,666 over 5y, 53% of budgetCODE FOR SCIENCE & SOCIETY INC: $200,518 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $160,424 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHACKS HACKERS: $155,250 over 2y, 7.2% of budgetTHE INT'L CENTER FOR JOURNALISTS INC: $155,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetCREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION: $153,949 over 3y, 9.6% of budgetDIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA: $104,684 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetOCLC INC: $100,625 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetData For Black Lives Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetNATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH: $73,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetCornell University: $61,425 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetACCESS NOW: $58,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetWEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $52,835 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MUSEUM FOR AFRICAN ART D/B/A THE AFRICA CENTER: $50,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University: $40,112 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOPEN ENVIRONMENTAL DATA INC: $40,000 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetTHE LONG NOW FOUNDATION: $20,081 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetNEW VENTURE FUND: $16,100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHELPING GIVE AWAY PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE: $9,992 over 1y, 33% of budgetEMERSON COLLEGE: $7,843 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $6,110 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Ford FoundationThe William & Flora H…John D and Catherine …Mozilla FoundationThe Andrew W Mellon F…New Venture FundOpen Society InstituteCraig Newmark Graduat…Elkes Foundation IIIJohn S and James L Kn…Silicon Valley Commun…Gordon E and Betty I …
The Ford FoundationNY23.8× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Ford Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Mozilla Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · New Venture Fund · Open Society Institute · Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Cuny Foundation Inc · Elkes Foundation III · John S and James L Knight Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Wikimedia Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Digital Public Library of America: 2% of income from government
  • Code for Science & Society Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Emerson College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 48 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Wikimedia’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home