# is wikipedia going broke ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wikipedia-going-broke/774803>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 15, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wikipedia-going-broke/774803 "2016-12-15T19:43:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wikipedia-going-broke/774803/21 "2016-12-19T06:33:33Z")

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Well, you can look up their financial reports … on Wikipedia ([link](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports)).

Summary: the Wikimedia Foundation has net assets of $97 million, up $14 million from a year ago. But that is less than half the increase from the previous year. Also, much of it is in Grants or  
restricted funding, so their cash is only up by $11 million this year.

So overall, they are still in reasonable financial health. But they are seeing increased usage & increasing expenses, while their contributions/income is decreasing. Not a good long-term trend.

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**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wikipedia-going-broke/774803/22 "2016-12-20T01:49:11Z")

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> [@Evan\_Drake](#):
>
> Sadly though — and inevitably, although the model is still valid — a proportion of Wikipedia is fake.  
> And it doesn’t matter if _onlye_ a 100th part of sack of grain is mouldy: it matters if that’s the bit you eat.

Numerous people have done randomized comparisons in the past between Wikipedia and traditional encyclopedias, and Wikipedia generally was determined to be _more_ correct than other encyclopedias.

There’s no such thing as a perfect source or reference. But Wikipedia is a damned good one.

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