What Is the Wikipedia Gift Charge on Your Bank Statement?

A “Wikipedia gift” charge on your bank statement is almost certainly a donation you (or someone with access to your card) made to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia. Many people don’t recognize the charge because they gave impulsively in response to a banner on the site, or because they didn’t notice they had selected a monthly recurring option. You can request a full refund within 90 days, and you can cancel a recurring donation at any time, in both cases by emailing donate@wikimedia.org.¹

What the Charge Is

The Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (Tax ID: 20-0049703) headquartered in San Francisco. It funds Wikipedia and its sister projects almost entirely through reader donations, and the average gift is roughly $11.¹

When a reader clicks one of the donation banners on Wikipedia, they land on a payment form that accepts credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and other methods through third-party processors. The resulting charge shows up on a statement under a descriptor referencing the Wikimedia Foundation or Wikipedia. The form also offers a monthly recurring option, and it is easy to select without meaning to, which is why some donors see the same charge appear again the following month.

How to Get a Refund

The Foundation’s policy allows a full refund within 90 days of the donation. To request one, email donate@wikimedia.org and include:

Your full name
The date of the donation
The amount
The payment method used
Your country of origin
The reason for the refund request

Two limits apply. Some payment methods don’t support refunds, and the Foundation cannot reimburse foreign-transaction or cross-border fees your bank tacked on.¹

If you’re past 90 days, or you don’t get a timely response, you can dispute the charge with your card issuer or bank under standard consumer protections.

How to Cancel a Recurring Monthly Donation

Recurring donations are canceled through the same address. Email donate@wikimedia.org from the address you used when donating, and include your full name, the donation amount, the currency, and a note requesting cancellation.¹

One thing worth knowing: replacing your card doesn’t reliably stop the charges. Some credit card processors automatically forward updated card details to merchants when a card is reissued, so a recurring donation can keep going through even after you get a new number.¹ Send the cancellation email rather than relying on a card change.

If the Charge Doesn’t Look Like a Completed Donation

Sometimes a charge appears on a statement for a transaction that didn’t actually go through. The Foundation describes these as temporary holds that banks typically release within three to five business days. If it hasn’t cleared after that, contact your bank.

Why the Charge Catches People Off Guard

Wikipedia’s donation banners are large, brightly colored, and interrupt reading with urgent-sounding language, which is part of why so many readers give quickly and then don’t recognize the charge later. The banners have drawn criticism from Wikipedia’s own volunteer editing community. In a formal discussion closed in November 2022, an administrator recorded a “broad, near-unanimous consensus that these fundraising banners should not be run on the English Wikipedia in their current form,” after editors objected to phrases like “support Wikipedia’s independence” and “without reader contributions, we couldn’t run Wikipedia the way we do.” The Foundation later replaced the disputed language with softer alternatives.²

For your purposes, the practical takeaway is simpler. If a “Wikipedia gift” line on your statement is unwelcome, the refund window is 90 days, cancellation is by email, and your bank remains a backup if the Foundation doesn’t respond.

1
Wikimedia Foundation. Donor Frequently Asked Questions
2
Slate. The Huge Fight Behind Those Pop-Up Fundraising Banners on Wikipedia