this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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I noticed that transfer companies usually charge fixed amount for each transaction, so donating $1 can easily incur 30%+ fee.
So I would like to find a rule of thumb to minimize the fees yet cover all projects I like

Any tips?

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[–] SomeBoyo@feddit.de 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wikipedia is a very profitable company. They don't need as many donations as the make it seem.

[–] hstde@lemmy.fmhy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Despite that, I have and will donate to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia foundation, because they host knowledge and quite a lot of pictures. And I love it.

[–] Stochastic@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SalaTris@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Also the Internet Archive? I always wish they crawled more of the web than they did in years past.

Salaries for key people aren’t out of this world given their scale and highest paid person taking a pay cut is a good sign: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943242767

[–] Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Snowcap7567@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago

Wow that's obscene, especially the steep rise over the years. I'll stop donating to them.

[–] Snowcap7567@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Wow that's obscene, especially the steep rise over the years. I'll stop donating to them.

[–] Sentinian@lemmy.one 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Do you have a source to back this? Not to say I don't believe you but I am legitimately curious

[–] ora@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I disagree with the use of the term "profitable" because it's a non-profit and so donations aren't going to investors or anything. Wikimedia is very transparent and efficient with donations according to Charity Navigator. That said, they do take in more in donations every year than they pay in expenses. See the financial reports they make public.

[–] jcg@halubilo.social 8 points 1 year ago

I think it's healthy for them to accrue a decent amount in case donations go away for one reason or another. I looked through that report you linked and I don't know how to make sense of whether or not it's a reasonable amount they've got sitting in the bank, to be honest.

[–] Sentinian@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago
[–] suprjami@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Sentinian@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the article.

[–] wiki_me@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

That is a 8 year old article, plus they are a democratic organisation where the board of director is elected by the editors, If they think they need the money to be the best wikipedia they can be i will take their word instead of some website owned by Jeff Bezos (And if i am reading wikipedia articles and learning, I am not wasting money and resources on amazon).

[–] perviouslyiner@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Go to wikimedia foundation's page, the 'about' menu has a link to the financials.

Mid 2022 they had $239M in assets, up from $231M the year before.

[–] FederalAlienSmuggler@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're german, i can link you a german video which explains it quite well

[–] Sidyctism@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could you still link it? There might be germans interested

[–] Sentinian@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately I am not.