The Wikimedia Foundation has released the audit report for the fiscal year 2022?2023, prepared by its auditors,
KPMG
. You can read the
full report here
and a
summary on Diff
. The main takeaways are slowed financial growth in line with targets, and record donations income. Here are some key figures.
- The Foundation took
$180 million
in total support and revenue (a new record and up $25 million on the previous year) versus total expenses of
$169 million
(up $23 million).
- The Foundation missed their target for donations from Wikipedia fundraising banners, but were able to compensate for this with major gifts and other donation channels. Overall, donations revenue increased from $164.8 million in 2021?2022 to $168.9 million in 2022?2023, the
Diff post
said.
- Among expenses:
- Salaries and benefits increased from $88 million to
$101 million
.
- Awards and grants increased from $19 million to
$24 million
.
- Hosting costs went up slightly from $2.7 million to
$3.1 million
.
- The Foundation's net assets grew by
$16 million
over the year prior, to
$255 million
at the end of the year.
- This total does not include assets held by the
Wikimedia Endowment
, currently valued at
$119 million
.
The table below shows the development of Wikimedia Foundation finances over the past ten years, as indicated by its audit reports. Annual support and revenue has more than tripled, expenses have more than quadrupled, and net assets at the end of the financial year (not including the Wikimedia Endowment, which is organizationally separate) have increased more than fivefold.
Year
|
Source
|
Revenue
|
Expenses
|
Asset rise
|
Net assets at
end of year
|
2022/2023
|
PDF
|
$180,174,103
|
$169,095,381
|
$15,619,804
|
$254,971,336
|
2021/2022
|
PDF
|
$154,686,521
|
$145,970,915
|
$8,173,996
|
$239,351,532
|
2020/2021
|
PDF
|
$162,886,686
|
$111,839,819
|
$50,861,811
|
$231,177,536
|
2019/2020
|
PDF
|
$129,234,327
|
$112,489,397
|
$14,674,300
|
$180,315,725
|
2018/2019
|
PDF
|
$120,067,266
|
$91,414,010
|
$30,691,855
|
$165,641,425
|
2017/2018
|
PDF
|
$104,505,783
|
$81,442,265
|
$21,619,373
|
$134,949,570
|
2016/2017
|
PDF
|
$91,242,418
|
$69,136,758
|
$21,547,402
|
$113,330,197
|
2015/2016
|
PDF
|
$81,862,724
|
$65,947,465
|
$13,962,497
|
$91,782,795
|
2014/2015
|
PDF
|
$75,797,223
|
$52,596,782
|
$24,345,277
|
$77,820,298
|
2013/2014
|
PDF
|
$52,465,287
|
$45,900,745
|
$8,285,897
|
$53,475,021
|
2012/2013
|
PDF
|
$48,635,408
|
$35,704,796
|
$10,260,066
|
$45,189,124
|
The Foundation also made a belated
correction
to the Endowment figures published a few weeks ago (see previous
Signpost
coverage
). The table provided in late September had erroneously indicated financial years ending 30 June; in fact, the Foundation
said
, the figures provided related to fiscal years ending 31 December, in line with the Tides Foundation's accounting period. ?
NW1223
,
AK
Help wanted: Sockpuppet investigations
A large backlog has developed at
WP:Sockpuppet investigations
, where there are dozens of cases pending in
Category:SPI cases awaiting review
and, at one point prior to publication of this issue, over 140 cases awaiting administrative finalization in
Category:SPI cases awaiting archive
.
Key to keeping this process running are the SPI clerks. Currently, only about a dozen are active. Clerks are an important part of alignment of English Wikipedia with
Wikimedia Foundation Access to Nonpublic Personal Data Policy
, reviewing cases carefully for evidence and endorsing Checkuser use of tools that can reveal users' IP addresses and other private information. Such review and concurrence prior to use of the tools is important to maintain community trust in
pseudonymity
and integrity surrounding use of Checkuser tools.
From the
SPI Clerks page
, this is what the clerks actually do:
- Clerks analyze behavior, make findings, and either impose or decline imposing sanctions.
- Clerks help to ensure the smooth operation of SPI pages, cases and processes.
-
- Ensuring SPI cases and processes stay in good order, including obtaining reasonable and productive conduct by participants;
- Endorsing or declining CheckUser requests;
- Ensuring cases have proper evidence (especially for CheckUser requests) and requesting such evidence when not provided; and
- Assisting with housekeeping tasks, including closing, archiving, merging and formatting of cases.
Any user in good standing is considered qualified to apply at
Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Clerks
, and a talkpage discussion there (begun by this
Signpost
contributor) has indicated interest in new applicants. Applicants go through a semi-formal training process; non-admin trainees
usually show good experience and working knowledge of the community's policies and practices at the point they request traineeship
, and clerking can be a step on the way to adminship for some. ?
B
Help wanted: Election for ArbCom
If you want to run for
a place on the Arbitration Committee
you've got until this Tuesday, at 23:59
UTC
, November 21 to self-nominate in this year's election. Eight editors already have (in random order):
Cabayi
,
ToBeFree
,
Sdrqaz
,
Z1720
,
Aoidh
,
HJ Mitchell
,
Maxim
, and
Firefly
.
Qualifications include:
- a registered account with at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November 2023,
- not blocked or banned,
- meets the Wikimedia Foundation's
criteria for access to non-public personal data
, and willingness to sign the Foundation's non-public information
confidentiality agreement
, and
- all previous or alternate accounts are disclosed in your election statement, or privately declared to the Arbitration Committee (before the close of nominations).
There is one week after the end of the self-nomination period before voting begins on Tuesday, November 28. Editors may use this period to ask questions of the candidates.
You may vote from
Tuesday 00:00, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
until
Monday 23:59, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
if you meet the following qualifications:
- have registered an account before October 1, 2023
- have made at least 150 mainspace edits and 10 live edits (in any namespace) before 1 November 2023 and,
- are not blocked from the English Wikipedia when you vote.
See
WP:ACE2023
for further details. ?
S
Help wanted: Wikimedia New York City (WMNYC)'s first Executive Director
Founded in 2009,
WMNYC
is currently looking to hire its founding Executive Director.
Their duties will include:
- local organizing, as well as coordinating with and sometimes leading wider Wikimedia initiatives on a national and international scale.
- implementing the Strategic Plan of the WMNYC Board of Directors and preparing detailed
reports
for WMNYC’s primary funder, the Wikimedia Foundation.
- building the chapter's community and coordination of fundraising campaigns.
- managing the operations of the Chapter, and
- a whole bunch of other stuff.
Remote workers
are allowed. See
Wikimedia New York City/Jobs
for further details. ?
S
WikiConference North America receives bomb threat
Wikiconference North America 2023 was held from November 9 to 12, 2023 at the
Toronto Reference Library
. The
program
was interrupted on the morning of Saturday, November 11, when the library received a
bomb threat
. According to
local media
, the threat was received at 8:44 A.M. and the building was placed in a hold-and-secure state thereafter while police searched the building. No explosive devices were found, and the hold-and-secure state was lifted by 11:45 A.M., allowing programming to resume following that point.
The bomb threat comes two weeks after the
Toronto Public Library
system, of which the Toronto Reference Library is part, was hit with a
ransomware attack
on October 27. The ransomware attack resulted in staff
social insurance numbers
being compromised
, and has caused prolonged outages in many of the library's digital systems.
On another note, many
slide decks
from conference's various presentations are available on Commons. ?
R
Brief notes