The Real Reason Behind The Sudden Need For Donations
For millions across the world, it is a no brainer that Wikipedia is a one stop solution for all that we need to know about anyone and anything and a site to share information as well!
Wikipedia went online first in 2001 and has grown seemingly since then. If you search something on Google there’s a 90% chance that the first link the search engine shows is going to be that of a Wikipedia page and this is recognised all over the world.
Wikipedia had 5.2 billion visits in the month of July this year ,making it the eight most popular site in this world and India is one of Wikipedia’s leading markets.
In 2019, the number of Indian visitors on Wikipedia was over 771 million, the fifth highest number of views it received from any country. Since so many Indians check Wikipedia on a daily basis it was alarming when a red and white banner was projected on all the Wikipedia pages asking for donations as low as 150 rupees so that the site could keep running consequently, this left all its Indian viewers in a state of shock and some even questioned whether one of the world’s most popular websites really needed donations to stay afloat?
This led to debates being held among people whether Wikipedia would go dark if people didn’t donate and this led to curiosity and when Wikipedia’s fundraising statistics were examined, a wiki page exhibited that the website was in fact minting money and was able to raise $28,653,256 in one year. The Wikimedia foundation was criticized to no bounds firstly because of the demand of donations and secondly due to the doomsday-esque tone it used in the banner.
Pat Pena, Director of Payment and Operations for Wikimedia Foundation, offered a few clarifications about the fundraising campaign launched in India saying ,although Wikipedia is a free website, all of the content on it is collated, managed and edited by a group of volunteers (who don’t charge money) around the world. Wikipedia does not run any advertising incentives nor has any shareholders and is only able to run due to the donations from the millions of readers and funds from philanthropists. Wikipedia receives the fifth highest number of views from India causing traffic to the webpage and due to this the foundation wanted to ensure that the Indian viewers had the same experience just like viewers from any other country. Besides that there is substantial capital required to run the servers, maintain the site, keep the site secured, make sure that the data loads quickly and user data is protected, since they operate an international technology infrastructure comparable to the world’s largest commercial websites this is why the foundation needs monetary help thereby giving the donation banner a mellow tone.
Apart from this, donations also help to pay the salary of the staff and employees.
The Wikimedia foundation also explained that due to covid-19 pandemic the amount of people checking the website for reliable information regarding health resources had ticked up to a great extent and this was only going to increase in the near future hence the servers would require more assistance. But this isn’t the first time Wikipedia has started asking for donations. Back in 2015 Wikimedia foundation asked for donations hoping to raise $25 million to keep the site online and growing.
It is not uncommon for large non-profits like Wikipedia to continuously add funds to its reserve, which acts as a safety net if required, a Washington Post report stated. Charitable organisations are encouraged to maintain an adequate cash reserve in excess of their annual expenditure in case of an adverse situation. So if a donor suddenly pulls out or if costs increase, the non-profit isn’t left high and dry. This is considered to be a good practice but when the Wikimedia Foundation follows this model it gets reprimanded since Indian viewers are realising the heavy cost involved in keeping knowledge free. People have also expressed alarm over ballooning of the foundation’s cash reserve, whether these donations are for a good cause or not and according to a detailed report shared by Wikimedia Foundation in 2019, about 49% of its annual financial gains was spent as direct support to the website; 32% was used for training, tools, events, and partnerships for its network of volunteers; 13% was spent to recruit and pay its staff members, and the remaining 12% was used for its various fundraising initiatives yet people still ask if the extra millions are allocated properly and can’t comprehend that this reserve is a safety net to protect Wikipedia.
Without such practices Wikipedia could theoretically go dark! Our one stop solution could disappear for good!
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