Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause

For the failed guideline on notability of royalty, see Wikipedia:Notability (royalty).

Charitable or public-minded intentions, such as this gentleman appears to have, do not obviate the need to show notability in a Wikipedia article.

Wikipedia attracts many people who want to advertise companies or individuals, with a view to increasing their customer base and hence their profits. Inappropriate articles that are blatant advertising are eligible for speedy deletion on that basis; inappropriate external links should be removed, since Wikipedia isn't to be used for spam.

However, inappropriate promotion need not be about profit. It may take the form of promoting a charitable, non-profit, or quasi-charitable organisation, such as a community group. Even when the cause that the group advocates is noble, the usual Wikipedia principles about the acceptability of an article apply. The group must be "notable", with reliable and independent secondary sources to show it. As User:Blanchardb once said,

... nobility is not the same as notability, and [...] non-profit organisations are subjected to our spam and notability guidelines just the same as for-profit companies, no matter how noble their goals are.

However this is just a post of the ordinary Wikipedia user.

Nobility sometimes matters also from the pragmatic point of view, and opinion that it really should not matter at all in Wikipedia is not shared between all people who contribute to it. For instance, majority of scientific journals would accept relevant article about new piece of software that is freely available under open source license but would not accept the press release about the closed source, commercial software of the similar novelty, capabilities and importance in general. Many conferences would as for a fee to advertise commercial product that is sold for serious profit but would similarly would allow to present open source for free. These rules are based on assumption that such material is more interesting for potential readers or visitors. Same way, article about charity may be more interesting for potential readers than an article about commercial company of the similar size and budget. An plane, flying with the help mission receives more attention than the routine scheduled flight, even when the covered distance, number of passengers and other similar characteristics are comparable. However there are always limits for this approach. Also, in some cases formally noble behavior is a part of the marketing strategy, expecting later to get the invested resources back. In other cases even really noble action still may not be notable enough to include into Wikipedia.

Writing about a non-profit organisation

Before starting an article on a non-profit organisation, please keep in mind the following:

1. An article about a non-profit organisation should be about the organisation itself, not about the cause it supports. See coatrack articles. The details of the cause should be covered in the cause's article.
2. It is not enough that the cause be notable: the organisation itself must meet our notability guidelines. The greenhouse effect is notable, but this does not mean Wikipedia should have articles about each local chapter of the Sierra Club, or about other organisations competing with it for attention.
3. Organisations that have a limited scope and work towards a specific local cause (such as the preservation of a local street park) usually fail Wikipedia's notability guidelines if the cause they advocate is not notable in its own right.
4. If an organisation exists solely to support a cause for which there is no article in Wikipedia, it is usually better to start an article on the cause than on the organisation.
5. Contact information and other information on how to donate time, money, etc., to a non-profit organisation is better left on the organisation's website, not in its Wikipedia article (if any). There are scores of free webspace providers out there; Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not one of them.
6. Raw mission statements are often regarded as inherently promotional. In most cases, it is better to state them not in terms of intent, but rather in terms of past achievements.

See also

• Wikipedia:Alternative outlets - places to (possibly) tell the world about your noble cause
• Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions#It contains valuable information
• Wikipedia:Existence ≠ Notability