Wikimedia Foundation
Keeping Wikipedia and its sister projects free, ad-free, and accessible to everyone
Our editorial assessment
The Wikimedia Foundation sustains Wikipedia — one of the most visited websites in the world — and its sister projects, keeping them free of charge and free of advertising for billions of readers. Its role is largely infrastructure and stewardship: hosting, software, legal defence of free knowledge, and support for a vast volunteer community that does the actual editing. Charity Navigator gives it a four-star rating (99% overall), with a program-expense ratio around 77%. For donors who value open access to knowledge as a public good, funding the Foundation supports a resource used by much of humanity.
The problem they're solving
Free, reliable information is a foundation for education everywhere, and Wikipedia provides it to billions of people at no cost and with no advertising. The Wikimedia Foundation keeps that resource running and independent — a rare piece of digital public infrastructure that belongs to no company or government.
About Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia and its sister free-knowledge projects, maintaining the technology and supporting the global volunteer community that makes one of the world's most-used reference resources free and ad-free.
Where your dollar goes
What your donation could do
Your $100 funds evidence-based programs at this charity.
Illustrative estimate based on published cost-per-outcome figures. Actual impact varies by program and year.
How this score was produced
The GiveWise score is our own editorial assessment, produced with a weighted rubric covering program spending, transparency and governance, evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and leadership. It draws on publicly available reports from independent evaluators such as GiveWell, Charity Navigator, and CharityWatch, but it is not a rating issued or endorsed by any of those organisations. Read the full methodology →