Just curious if any of you gave money to Wikipedia pleads for funding.
When I first got a checking account back in 2007, I wanted my first-ever check to be something meaningful. So I wrote the Wikimedia Foundation a check for $25. This wasn't in response to any particular fundraising drive, I just used the site a lot so it seemed like a good idea to give back.
My understanding is that in the years since, the money has not really gone to the most noble of causes—while it does indeed keep the servers running, much of the excess goes to flying the Foundation executives around to various events.
No
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 19, 2025, 07:59:57 PMQuote from: Max Rockatansky on October 19, 2025, 07:59:32 PMNo
Oh, I guess I was mistaken, then.
All it means is that your $25 went to a different part of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Don't give your money to Wikipedia. They got more than enough.
I don't have that kind of disposable income for this kind of stuff. Maybe in 30 years.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 19, 2025, 08:52:53 PMI don't have that kind of disposable income for this kind of stuff. Maybe in 30 years.
I prefer to reinvest in myself; the things go see and write about.
No, nor have I given in to anybody else's pleas for donations. Local PBS stations and NPR radio stations have been trying to get my money for decades and my resistance has been steadfast.
I do make monthly donations to a couple well-known organizations that align with my social values. I'm not a politically active person, but I did seek these particular organizations out in response to political developments I disagreed with. It wasn't a response to some ad campaign trying to grab money, it was on my own initiative.
My suggestion is, put a hard budget ceiling on what you're willing to give as donations. It might be $50/month. If you have five causes you believe in and give them each $10/month, that works. If you then see Wikipedia's beg campaign and think, gee, I should give them $10/month, then give one of those other $10/month donations the boot to hold yourself at $50.
My late father used to chip into Wikipedia from time to time. He said he got enough entertainment out of it that it was worth a few bucks.
I've donated to the Wikimedia Foundation a few times over the years. I've also donated to the Internet Archive as well.
At the moment, I think that I'm on the reverse side of the accounting ledger. Given the travel scholarships that I've received to attend WikiConference North America in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025, and that those scholarships are funded by the grants the WMF gives to WCNA, therefore I've received more from the foundation than I've donated to them at various times over the years.
(To be pedantic, you can't donate money to "Wikipedia", per se. You'd be donating to the WMF, which is the non profit that owns and operates the infrastructure that keeps Wikipedia and its sister sites running. The AARoads Wiki relies on one of those sites, Wikimedia Commons, to host all of the imagery and map data used on the wiki. AARW also uses Wikidata for various things, and we've contributed roads content to Wikisource for preservation.)
Yes, I have given some money in the past to the WikiMedia Foundation. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the contribution is tax-deductible on your United States tax return (https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tax_deductibility).
A long long time ago, when Star Trek: Generation was in first-run, I did donate and volunteer at the Sacramento PBS station. Part of the reason was that they aired Doctor Who. However, when one of their long-time key volunteers whose one-of-several roles was to organize which groups appeared on-air during pledge drives passed away, and none of the station upper management or board members bothered to attend her funeral, my support and viewing of that station stopped along with multiple other volunteers. It should be noted that, in general, the pledge follow-through rates (people actually paying for the pledges) for the station in general was 85%, but for the Doctor Who fans, it was 97%. I also did give in the past to the Sacramento NPR station for Classical music. However, the media landscape has changed since the early 1990s, and there are alternatives available whether it was through physical or streaming media without all the commercials or "beg-a-thons".
I used to do so every year, but I haven't since 2022, or one of those Covid years.
I tithe to my church, but I don't really give that much money elsewhere, and especially not to Wikipedia. I just don't have that kind of disposable income.