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Where does the money go?
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[[Staff|The staff page]] offers listings of many staff members organized by department. It's a good idea to keep an eye on that page if you're interested in who is doing what at the Wikimedia Foundation. [[Job openings]] will keep you up to date on emerging roles, and [[:Category:Job Descriptions]] includes more in-depth descriptions of some of the jobs already filled. --[[User:Mdennis|Maggie Dennis]] 17:29, 14 September 2011 (UTC)
[[Staff|The staff page]] offers listings of many staff members organized by department. It's a good idea to keep an eye on that page if you're interested in who is doing what at the Wikimedia Foundation. [[Job openings]] will keep you up to date on emerging roles, and [[:Category:Job Descriptions]] includes more in-depth descriptions of some of the jobs already filled. --[[User:Mdennis|Maggie Dennis]] 17:29, 14 September 2011 (UTC)


==Foundation: Where does the money come from, and where does it go?==
::''Where does the Wikimedia Foundation get its money? What does it spend its money on?''
[[File:Fiscal 2011 planned expenditures.jpg|thumb|A pie chart showing planned spending for the [[:en:fiscal year|fiscal year]] 2011-2012]]
The Wikimedia Foundation gets its money from people like you. A non-profit organization, it is sustained largely by donations from hundreds of thousands of individuals as well as through grants and gifts of servers and hosting. It does not accept advertising and is not considering advertising as a source of revenue. It makes occasional formal requests for donations through the [[Our projects|projects]] it helps sustain (read about last year's donation drive at the [[:mw:Fundraising 2010/Report|Fundraising 2010/Report]]), but also receives donations spontaneously and generously offered throughout the year.

The WMF is quite transparent about where its money goes. It publishes an annual plan as well as regular financial reports. While the 2010-2011 annual report is not yet published, [[:Media:FINAL_09_10From_KPMG.pdf|this is a report of fiscal years 2009 and 2010]] and [[:Media:Jul-Dec'10 Mid-year financials.pdf|here is a half-year report from July 2010-December 2010]]. You can review the [[:Media:2011-12_Wikimedia_Foundation_Plan_FINAL_FOR_WEBSITE_.pdf|2011-2012 PDF version (400 KB) of the annual plan]] or view the [[2011-2012 Annual Plan Questions and Answers|questions and answers]] about it.

To put it briefly, your money pays for staff salaries, technology (servers, bandwidth and Internet hosting), the legal defense of the Foundation, and program activities around the world. For the 2011-2012 [[:en:fiscal year|fiscal year]], the Wikimedia Foundation expects to spend $28,281,000. The pie chart to the right shows planned expenditures for that year, based on pages 34 and 35 of the annual plan pdf. (The math and all work are my own, as are any errors.) Of course, in the real world (where prices vary and unexpected situations may arise), plans don't always pan out. On that same page range, you can see the difference between last year's plans and the final, actual expenditures. For one example, the biggest variance was in the project staff salaries, which were 20% less than anticipated. Rather than push to meet the plan, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to slow hiring in order to ensure that the staff members added were right for their roles. --[[User:Mdennis|Maggie Dennis]] 20:03, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

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