Wikimedia Foundation Org

“Form 990, part vi, section a, line 7a: the board consists of at least nine and up to sixteen trustees. Up to eight seats are selected by the wikimedia community, one seat is reserved for jimmy wales as the community founder, and up to seven seats are selected by the board for specific expertise. As with all board seats, the board must independently appoint the candidates for the community- and affiliate-selected seats. The board also appoints non-trustee officers: a chief executive officer, a treasurer, and secretary.”

“The first draft of the 990 was developed by an external accounting firm under the direction of the controller with additional guidance from the chief financial officer (cfo). It was reviewed for accuracy and completeness by the cfo and then by the chief executive officer (ceo). Then a meeting of the audit committee was held at which the cfo and external accounting firm walked through the draft in detail for the audit committee's approval. The foundation provided the members of the governing body 7 days notice to review the complete copy of the form 990 prior to filing with the internal revenue service.”

“The organization's board members, officers, executives, and key employees (covered persons) complete annually a conflict of interest statement the purpose of which is to identify any personal, family and/or business relationships and/or transactions that may pose a potential conflict. The filed conflict of interest forms are submitted to and reviewed by the general counsel and only reviewed by the board if needed. Additionally, covered persons complete annually a pledge of personal commitment that affirms that the individual is in compliance with the conflict of interest policy and that the individual will promptly notify the executive director and the board chair when a conflict or potential conflict arises. Furthermore, in the case of a conflict, the individual agrees to refrain from using his or her personal influence to encourage the foundation to enter the transaction and must physically excuse himself or herself from any further discussions other than to answer questions about the transaction. In the case of potential conflict, the remaining board members review the potential transaction to determine whether said transaction is fair and reasonable to the foundation and legal counsel is consulted as necessary to ensure that such a transaction would not constitute an excess benefit transaction.”

“The wikimedia foundation talent & culture committee, a board committee, is responsible for recommending the compensation of the ceo and assisting the board in performing annual review of the compensation of the ceo and officers, directors and key employees. For 2022 compensation, the board of trustees reviewed the proposed compensation of the ceo and made a decision based on compensation data from comparable organizations. The board of trustees deliberations and decision were contemporaneously documented, including who attended and voted and a description of the comparable documentation used and how it was obtained.”

“The organization's website includes links to its governing documents, its conflict of interest policy and its audited financial statements. Https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/legal:bylaws https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/policy:conflict_of_interest_policy”

“Websites: our core functions include support for wikipedia.org and the other wikimedia websites, which together are one of the world's most popular web platforms, and the world's largest collaborative free knowledge project. The wikimedia foundation provides the servers and electricity needed to keep the websites running, along with dedicated technical resources to build, improve, and maintain the technical infrastructure of wikimedia projects. These ongoing engineering efforts and product improvements require research and design work, as well as legal support. All of this allows for the best experience for our readers and volunteer community, ensuring users continue to access, contribute to and grow the world's largest online free knowledge resource. In addition to our two main data centers and four caching data centers, we maintain the software and infrastructure on which we operate some of the world's most multilingual sites with over 950 separate wiki instances and over 3,350 community-contributed tools, many of which are essential to maintaining the content and quality of wikipedia, as well as seven mobile applications. Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the wikimedia foundation receive more than 18.2 billion pageviews per month. Wikipedia is available in more than 321 languages and contains more than 61 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community.”

“Communities: the wikimedia foundation grantmaking and program activities focus on growing wikipedia in various regions around the world and expanding diversity within the contributor base. These programs and efforts directly support contributors through grants for projects, programs, and campaigns by individuals and organizations. In fiscal year 2022-2023, we increased our grantmaking spend by $5.4 million, with the fastest growth happening in latin america and the caribbean, sub-saharan africa, and east, southeast asia, and the pacific. Together these three regions received 43% of all funding in the fiscal year, up from 28% in fiscal year 2020-2021. The grantmaking and program activities teams also strive to further the missions of wikimedia, such as open access and education, through activities like volunteer support, engagement programs, partnerships, evaluation, research, and communications. Because openness and inclusivity are key to the success of the wikimedia projects, grantmaking and program activities aim to broaden the diversity of voices and expand the reach of our projects to diverse individuals and groups around the world.”

“Return of unused grants 273,983.”