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"some of which goes to some dubious places."

As Wikipedia would say... [citation neeeded].




Things like this, for example: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/09/08/wikimedia-fo...

If users support these organisations, they can donate directly, especially given that most Wikimedia donors have no idea their money is not being spent on Wikipedia itself.


What is dubious about Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), the Borealis Philanthropy Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, Howard University School of Law and the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice (IIPSJ), InternetLab, STEM en Route to Change (SeRCH) Foundation, or the Media Foundation of West Africa? I've poked around to each of them and haven't found any scandals. Do you just not like the values of these organizations? I wouldn't think "dubious" is the right word then. Also, if you didn't like their values, it doesn't make sense to donate to wikipedia, an organization that implements the same values.


I wasn't a fan of those grants but it was a one time thing they did that was a relatively small portion of their budget.


According to tax forms just released last week, the outgoing Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher got $623,286 in severance pay in 2021:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/14/Wikim...

She made a total of $798,632 that year.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/14/Wikim...

Another manager who had been there for less than two-and-a-half years got $324,748 in severance, more than 100% of her salary in her last full year of employment ...

Discussion on the Wikimedia mailing list:

https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@list...


Also, $100 million have gone into an "Endowment" that has never to this day, in nearly a decade of existence, published audited accounts. Report in Wikipedia's community newspaper:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2...

Promises have been made for years that the Endowment, held by the Tides Foundation, would "soon" be registered as a separate 501c3 nonprofit org and start filing public accounts ... still hasn't happened.




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