GuideStar has
this about the Wikimedia Foundation's programs:
QUOTE
Program: Operate free education websites, including Wikipedia
Budget:
$1,615,343
Category:
Population Served:
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
The Wikimedia Foundation operates the fourth most popular web property
world-wide, Wikipedia.org. In addition to Wikipedia, the Wikimedia
Foundation also operates Wikimedia Commons, Wikibooks, Wikinews,
Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wikispecies, and a
number of related websites.
The Wikimedia Foundation owns and administers the computing
infrastructure allowing these projects to exist. It also makes
available public copies of all content contributed to Wikimedia
projects.
Program Long-Term Success:
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
As of May 2009, Wikipedia serves more than 315 million unique visitors
every month, according to comScore. It is the most comprehensive
reference work ever compiled in human history, written by hundreds of
thousands of volunteers, and available in more than 250 language
editions.
In addition to the direct access to Wikimedia's website, content from
Wikimedia projects is also re-used in numerous ways, ranging from
online mirrors by third parties to offline distribution on DVDs, USB
sticks, computers of educational institutions, and so on. This is
possible due to Wikimedia's policy to allow free re-use of Wikimedia
content.
Program: Support and grow the Wikimedia volunteer community
Budget:
$170,991
Category:
Population Served:
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
The Wikimedia Foundation fosters the development of international
Wikimedia chapter organizations, advises and facilitates various
volunteer activities, develops training materials and resources, and
other programs to engage and support existing volunteers and recruit
new participants.
Program Long-Term Success:
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
The Wikimedia community has managed to scale across many different
languages and countries. This is in significant part due to the
support that the Wikimedia Foundation has provided for developing
structures of international participation. For example, as of July
2009, there are 24 recognized Wikimedia chapter organizations. These
are independent, primarily volunteer-run non-profit organizations
promoting the cause of Wikimedia within a specific geographic region.
The Wikimedia Foundation supports these chapters with grants, advice,
and various resources.
Wikimedia chapters have pioneered various events, such as "Wikipedia
Academies", typically one or two-day events where an audience is
introduced to the Wikimedia world, as well as specific workshops
designed for schools, universities, and other target audiences.
Wikimedia chapters also play a leadership role in developing
partnerships with cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries,
archives, and museums. For example, Wikimedia Germany has negotiated
the release of more than 250,000 copyrighted photographs from German
archives under free content licensing.
Program: Support Wikimania conference
Budget:
$172,662
Category:
Population Served:
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
The Wikimedia Foundation supports the execution of an annual
international conference, Wikimania, which brings together Wikimedia
volunteers and interested newcomers in a single location. Typically
attended by 400-600 people, Wikimania is the largest international
wiki-focused event in the world. It has been organized in Frankfurt,
Germany (2005); Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (2006); Taipei, Taiwan
(2007); and Alexandria, Egypt (2008). Wikimania conferences are
planned for Buenos Aires, Argentina (2009) and Gdansk, Poland (2010).
In addition to providing financial support for the conference (which
is organized by a local planning team and international volunteers),
the Wikimedia Foundation funds and administers travel scholarships for
volunteers.
Program Long-Term Success:
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
Wikimania has brought hundreds of people from around the world
together to discuss topics which are hardly discussed in any other
forum: how online collaboration can help to bridge the digital divide,
how content quality in open wiki environments can be increased, how
wiki technology can continue to innovate, what emergent social norms
can be observed in wiki communities, and so forth. They have also been
used to conduct direct workshops and training sessions on subjects
such as image editing, software development, article writing, etc.
Program: Develop and improve collaboration technologies
Budget:
$469,760
Category:
Population Served:
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
The Wikimedia Foundation employs staff developers and contractors to
help improve and maintain the software that supports all Wikimedia
projects. All software development is open source and open to external
contributors, and the software can be re-used by anyone for any
purpose. The core software is called MediaWiki.
Through these improvements, the Wikimedia Foundation has been able to
add key functionality to Wikipedia over the years, such as quality
assurance tools, improvements to the user interface, improvements to
multimedia handling, print-on-demand functionality, etc. It has also
integrated numerous volunteer-developed features and enhancements. In
2009, the Wikimedia Foundation launched a large-scale usability
initiative funded through a restricted gift of $890,000.
Program Long-Term Success:
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
The success of the Wikimedia free knowledge projects is in many ways
dependent on Wikimedia's ability to maintain and improve the
underlying technology. But in addition to the proof of Wikimedia's own
success, the adoption of the MediaWiki software by thousands of other
companies and organizations, including government organizations, as a
standard technology for building collaborative knowledge databases
underscores the trust that is placed in Wikimedia as a maintainer of
the software, and the impact that its activities are achieving around
the world, far beyond Wikimedia's own web properties.
So, if we add that all up, you get
$2,428,756.
Somebody remind me why they need $10 million (going on $20 million) to execute programs that cost $2,428,756?