Several years ago, in response to a post that encouraged contributions to Wikipedia, tacit argued that they had already accumulated an unreasonable amount of cash and weren't necessarily in need of more.
When I looked at the numbers, I saw that he was perhaps correct in his assessment, and I've followed them on and off since then. Here are their most recent available numbers:
In their
2016-2017 Annual Report, Wikimedia, Wikipedia's parent organization, reported having
$105 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short term investments, approximately $20 million of which derived from that year's donations and contributions.
They've been accumulating cash at an astonishing rate for the past bunch of years (they had $25 million in June 2012.), and they continue to unabashedly solicit more with neither a particular current need for it nor a specific future spending plan, and while they're certainly a worthy organization, it sure looks like they're overplaying their need for support dollars, and people should perhaps consider redirecting theirs to organizations that REALLY DO need them.
It's looks like Wikimedia is caught up in a "there's never enough and no such thing as too much" syndrome.
I'd love to think that their solicitations aren't gratuitous, but I haven't found any evidence to the contrary.
