Technology

Operating expenses don't necessarily equate to total expenditure. The article also mentions that fifteen executives took home a six-figure salary in 2015; that doesn't strike me as particularly efficient.

Notwithstanding, what I originally said was not prescriptive. People are free to spend their money as they see fit. Even I have donated to the Wikimedia Foundation in the past and still believe that they provide invaluable resources for the common good.

Where I take issue is the fact that the messaging in their campaigns often gives the impression that the organization is scraping by on user donations, whereas in reality they're sitting on a pile of assets that would ostensibly be in the 99.9ᵗʰ percentile of household net worth in the US.

Here is their FY 24–25 Audit Report. To wit, their net assets were $296.6 million, while their total internet hosting expenses were $3.5 million. So the claim that hosting expenses make up a trivial fraction of their total assets would appear to hold true even moreso today than a decade ago.

Granted, the FAQs for the report state that "The vast majority of […] revenue came from donations […], as well as investment income, Wikimedia Enterprise revenue, and other revenue primarily related to a cost sharing agreement with the Wikimedia Endowment".

I remain suspicious of the large increases in "Salaries and wages" year-over-year compared to other expense categories.