Wikipedia had a record-shattering day this week. On Tuesday afternoon, the Wikimedia Foundation posted a personal appeal from its founder, Jimmy Wales. In that, Wales said:
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization I created in 2003 to operate, grow, nurture, and protect Wikipedia. For ten million US dollars a year and with a staff of fewer than 35 people, it runs the fifth most-read website in the entire world. I’m asking for your help so we can continue our work.
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s where we’re headed. And with your help, we will get there.
Thank you for using Wikipedia. You’re part of this story: please make a donation today.
That’s only part of it. The entire thing can be read here. It features a nice “donate now” call-to-action, which certainly helped Wikimedia get some help.
“The results blew away all expectations,” a representative for the foundation tells Murdok.
Within just 24 hours, Jimmy’s appeal generated over $430,000 from about 13,000 individual contributors. “This is the most money ever raised by Wikimedia in a single day and almost twice as many unique contributors in a single day, as well,” the representative says.
It’s quite interesting to see that the Wikimedia Foundation has managed to generate so many donations during such a tough economic climate. Read our recent interview with Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, who talks about raising money, goals, and the future of Wikipedia.
Related Articles
