Just wonder how the fabulous "Wiki" operate

Maybe these articles have the answers, they run it by donation.

Wikipedia exceeds $6m donation goal

Wales' personal begging earns last $2m

By Austin Modine in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 2nd January 2009 23:04 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

A personal plea for cash by Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, has melted enough hearts to keep the ubiquitous online encyclopedia running for another fiscal year – and then some.

The Wikimedia Foundation announced today that it's raised more than $6.2m since launching a fund-raising campaign in early November. The website exceeded its goal of approximately $6m to fund operations through June 30, 2009, with more than 125,000 donors contributing worldwide.

In late December, the non-profit org appeared to be falling short of its financial target until Wales posted a personal appeal for donations in place of Wikipedia's standard fund-raising banner. In the remaining eight days of the month, Wikimedia pulled in more than 50,000 contributions totaling $2m, the foundation said.

"You have proven that Wikipedia matters to you, and that you support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising," Wales wrote in a thank-you message.

Surplus revenue will be placed into a reserve fund for offsetting operating costs beyond the fiscal year, Wales said. The foundation also provides a breakdown of Wikipedia's 2008/2009 budget, which totals $5,974,000.

The site, which employs only 23 workers, bills itself as the fourth most visited site on the internet according to numbers by comScore. Of course, Wikipedia's donation box is still open – so there's still plenty of opportunities to raise more cash.

In the spirit of Wikipedia, however, the best way to raise more revenue is simply for someone to edit the entry to indicate the foundation has raised – oh, say $600 zillion. Instant money, although there may be [citation needed]. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/02/wikipedia_fundraising_2m_jan_2/

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One of the fastest growing and popular sites on the internet for gathering information on a variety of topics is Wikipedia. Wikipedia, which is a combination of the words wiki meaning collaborative ef
fort and encyclopedia, launched on January 15, 2001. It was founded by Jimmy Wales of the Wikimedia foundation, a non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida. This non-profit's goal is to bring a free and informative encyclopedia to every person on the planet, regardless of whether or not a person has electricity, internet access or a computer. Wikimedia is funded through donations, a portion of which go toward managing and running Wikipedia. Last year Wikipedia's operating costs were $321,000 of which 60% went toward the cost of hardware to support the site.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/183905/top_facts_to_know_about_wikipedia.html

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Thank you from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales


Dear Reader,

Since July 1, more than 125,000 of you have donated $4 million. In addition, we've received major gifts and foundation support totaling $2 million. This combined revenue will cover our operating expenses for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2009.


Your donation makes you a key supporter of the free culture movement, and pays for:

Day-to-day operations: servers, hosting, bandwidth, our staff of just 23 people.

Continued development & improvements of open source software that powers all Wikimedia projects.

Outreach events like Wikipedia Academies: in-person workshops where you can learn more about how to use and edit Wikipedia.

Volunteer support: helping our international volunteer community to grow and to continue to do amazing work.



You can still get involved:

Any donations beyond our $6 million goal are put in a reserve fund, which will help us to offset operating costs beyond the current fiscal year. Your continued support will also serve as a much-needed financial safety net if economic conditions continue to worsen globally.

You have proven that Wikipedia matters to you, and that you support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising. You've helped make and keep Wikipedia available for the whole world.

I deeply appreciate your support.


Thank you,

Jimmy Wales

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40876/118/