The Wikimedia Endowment Board will be sharing more about their plans for the Endowment later this fiscal year. In practical terms, this means that investment income from the Endowment can now be used to support Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. With this important milestone, the Endowment will help provide a baseline level of financial support to Wikimedia projects, and better position the movement to tackle long-term challenges. There are more people to bring into our movement, content gaps to be addressed, and new demands of a changing Internet to be met. Yet we also know that our projects have a long way to go before achieving true knowledge equity. People around the world have demonstrated the incredible value they find in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects as trusted, reliable sources of information. While organizations look to annual fundraising and other revenue streams to support their day-to-day operations, they look to endowments to provide support for their goals and mission well into the future. In the nonprofit sector, endowments are considered an important part of proactive financial planning for organizations that aspire to fulfill their mission for the long-term. This milestone was achieved thanks to the generosity of our Endowment donors, who find value in the volunteer-created content on Wikimedia projects and want to protect and support its growth for others to benefit from.
With this milestone, the Wikimedia movement will have a critical base level of funds to continue to flourish and thrive over the long-term. Now in Wikipedia’s 20th year, it is with immense gratitude that we announce that the Wikimedia Endowment has reached its initial $100 million goal ahead of schedule.
We set a target to reach $100 million by 2026, the first 10 years of the Endowment’s existence. In those discussions, we asked ourselves questions like: What purpose would the Endowment serve? How long would it take before investment income from the Endowment could be used? How could we build a fund that maintained the projects’ independence, while still aligning with the values of the movement? We decided to move forward with our plans for an Endowment in 2016 to commemorate the critical role Wikipedia played in the world in its 15th year, and further ensure its sustainability. That launch was preceded by years of thoughtful discussion among Foundation staff and volunteer communities about what needs we would foresee for the projects, and how we could protect them for future generations. Five years ago, we launched the Wikimedia Endowment as an independent, permanent fund to support a strong future for Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
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