Wikipedia raises $6.2M needed for its operations

January 2, 2009 (IDG News Service) The Wikimedia Foundation has raised the necessary funds to operate Wikipedia until the end of June, the nonprofit organization announced Friday.

personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, posted in December on the web sites of Wikipedia and The Wikimedia Foundation, raked in $2 million from over 50,000 contributors in just eight days. The financial support will allow the foundation to cover its operating costs for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2009.

In his thank you letter, Wales specifies that donations will go towards the foundation’s day-to-day operations, including servers and bandwith and improvements to open source software, as well as the salaries of its small staff of 23 people. Funds will also go towards supporting Wikipedia’s international network of volunteers and outreach events like Wikipedia Academies, in-person workshops that help attendees learn more about how to use and edit Wikpedia. I’m especially excited about Wikimedia producing online video tutorials to help those who can’t attend Wikipedia Academies.

"This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement.

A personal appeal from Wales -- Wikimedia's chairman emeritus -- posted on the organization's Web site on Dec. 23 triggered a boost in donations: More than 50,000 contributions totaling $2 million were made in the next eight days.

Wikimedia's goal was to raise $6 million to fund its operations through the end of its fiscal year on June 30 of this year.

If advertisements were plastered all over the site, people would likely feel the need not to donate, and Wikipedia would feel too corporate, like MySpace or YouTube — an identity at odds with its free culture ethos. Wales has blogged about his belief that advertising is not right for Wikpedia, preferring that donations come directly from supporters who have a stake in the community.