As the Christmas lights go up, so do the Wikipedia’s donation drive that asks for money from their visitors to keep the operations running. Guilt-tripped journalists contribute to help fund operating costs while scared students also chip in for the fears of Wikipedia, their courses’ ultimate savior, disappearing forever!
So how much do they need to keep the initiative going? From 2016-2017 Annual Plan Questions and Answers
“The total operating budget for the 2012-13 plan calls for $58.7 million in spending.”
Let’s state that on a monthly basis, so $58.7 / 12 = $4.89 million per month.
The Wikimedia Report Card states that there are nearly 483 million unique visitors (per month) on the website.
Therefore the cost per month is $0.01 per unique user per month. This is probably the best value for charity anywhere in the world since it is less than a penny a month per user, or 12 cents per year. This also means that if you have donated $20 to Wikipedia, you have paid for nearly 250 people who don’t pay at all!
