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 keeps free knowledge online, ad-free, for billions of readers.
Illustrative estimate based on figures this organisation publishes about its own programs — not a statement from the charity itself. Actual impact varies by program and year.
What donors say about Wikimedia Foundation
Donors signed in with Google can rate Wikimedia Foundation from one to five stars and share a short review of their experience — whether as a donor, volunteer, or beneficiary. Community ratings are displayed as their own criterion alongside our editorial metrics; they never alter the editorial 0–100 score.
Sign in with Google to rate this charity and read donor reviews.
How this score was produced
The Charity Ranking 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. The community rating shown above is a separate signal contributed by signed-in donors; it is displayed alongside our criteria but never feeds into the editorial score. Read the full methodology →