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Based in San Francisco, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is a nonprofit charitable organization incorporated in the United States of America, that is registrant of the domain wikipedia.org, owner of the trademark and operator of the wiki platform.[1] The Foundation also runs other projects like Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons, it raises money, distributes grants, controls the servers, develops and deploys software, and does outreach to support Wikimedia projects, including the English Wikipedia. The WMF does not edit Wikipedia content, except for occasional office actions, to avoid damage. "The community" (more specific individual volunteer editors) handle content, because if the WMF did take responsibility for content, it would introduce liability issues per section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The organization grew quickly. In 2006, there were five employees and about $2.7 million in revenue. In 2012, there were approximately 140 employees and a revenue of about $38 million (mostly from donations). In 2016, there were approximately 280 employees,[2] and in 2020, there were approximately 450 employees and contractors.[3]
- ^ Wikimedia did also register many other domains.
- ^ "Frequently asked questions - Wikimedia Foundation". wikimediafoundation.org. 30 May 2018.
- ^ "Staff and Contractors". Wikimedia Foundation.