California · Nonprofit
WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT
WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,679,594 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($8,871,065). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $33M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $9.7M
- Net assets
- $169M
What Wikimedia Endowment does
Mission
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 the wikimedia foundation or its successor if the wikimedia foundation ceases to exist. It aims to create a solid financial foundation for the future of wikimedia projects.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Wikimedia Endowment provides funding to support the operations and activities of wikimedia projects. In fiscal year 2024-2025, the funding focused on providing financial support for technical innovation in the wikimedia projects.
$3,679,208 spentof which $3,396,880 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,679,208.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $144M to $170M (+18%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
36% of WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Annette Campbell-White
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $1k → $9.0M.
7 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.4M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Wikimedia Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT raised.
From the IRS filings of WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 92% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
98% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 55% · 2020 31% · 2021 62% · 2022 100% · 2023 98% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
0% of WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 39% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
98% of WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $238k that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside California, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 452 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 452 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT?
- WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,679,594 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($8,871,065). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $9,679,594 in grants to WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT?
- TIDES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $8,871,065 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WIKIMEDIA ENDOWMENT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 36 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing