Talk:Fundraising/2022-23 Report

Thank you for reading the report. We are happy to share information about fundraising at the Wikimedia Foundation and look forward to your feedback. We will respond to comments and questions to the best of our ability. In some cases, we may not be able to provide all data requested for a number of possible reasons, including the privacy and protection of our users and donors, security considerations, data limitations, and the team's capacity. Emma Hughes (WMF) (talk) 15:32, 08 November 2023 (UTC)

Q from WoJUG

Hi, I'm a member of Wikimedians of Japan User Group. I'm looking for "Donation total by country" and/or The approximate amount of donation from Japan. Do you have the documents somewhere? Or, can you send them to us by e-mail or other means? I would like to use them in our group discussions. --Ks aka 98 (talk) 13:35, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi @Ks aka 98,

Thank you for your question. We do not release country specific fundraising date.

We make fundraising decisions, including decisions about what information we release, based in part on our internal legal assessments in the country. We don't go into our legal assessments publicly, as it may make it difficult to keep legal risks and costs low. We strive to be as open about our fundraising activities as we can. Compared to nonprofit industry standards, we release more information than other non-profits tend to, including continent-level breakdowns of donations, information about revenue channels and testing, and reports from our fundraising research as you can see in the fundraising report overleaf.

I hope this helps. Best, JBrungs (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I will pass this on to the members. If possible, could you please let me know what legal risks are involved and if there are any external articles that I can refer to for general discussion for posterity. Given the size of the Wikimedia Foundation's donation, it seems unlikely that publishing the amount, at least for a country like Japan, would be associated with common legal risks, such as identification of individuals from publicly available information, data leaks, etc.

Regards. Ks aka 98 (talk) 13:19, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi Ks aka 98—I can jump in here. We can’t really get into the specifics of any potential legal risks, or whether there are ones particular to Japan. I can say, though, that we look at a number of legal factors in evaluating and advising on the Foundation’s fundraising activities, including protections for donor (and user) privacy, agreements with payment processors, and local laws regulating nonprofit donations and solicitations. These factors can change year-to-year, as can other factors such as the timing and internal resourcing for individual fundraising campaigns. All of these influences can affect amounts raised in individual countries, as well as the risks involved in publicly discussing fundraising campaigns in particular countries. I’m sorry we can’t provide the information you are requesting, but I hope this explanation at least gives you a better sense of the risk landscape we need to consider. --Charles M. Roslof (WMF) (talk) 21:53, 22 November 2023 (UTC)