Wikipedia's annual fundraising appeal is underway
Howard Lake | 7 December 2012 | News
The Wikimedia Foundation which runs various projects including the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia has launched its annual fundraising appeal. This is the organisation's major appeal for voluntary donations and helps keep the Wikimedia projects available around the world in multiple languages at no cost. It also helps ensure that the sites never have to carry advertising.
This is the US nonprofit's ninth annual fundraising campaign and aims to generate $25 million. The funding helps pay for server infrastructure, improve the software that underpins the projects, and help increase the number of editors of the sites.
For its other costs the Wikimedia Foundation turns to grantmaking foundations.
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Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, explained: "Our fundraiser succeeds the same way Wikipedia does, with millions of people contributing what they can so we can keep the site freely available for everyone around the world.
"People tell me they donate to Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it because they know it's written for them. Our readers fund the site, which keeps us independent and able to deliver what they need and want from Wikipedia – exactly as it should be."
Appropriately the 2012 campaign features some of the service users: it is showcasing stories from Wikimedia editors, photographers and free-knowledge advocates from around the world who contribute to Wikimedia projects.
2011 appeal results
The 2011 annual appeal secured donations from 1.1 million people from almost every country on the planet who donated an average of $30. The campaign's fundraising messages and banners were translated into over 100 languages by more than 1,000 volunteers.
UK-based users of Wikipedia will notice fundraising banners across the site for the next few weeks. In the UK however it is not possible to give using Gift Aid because the Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status in the United States. However, tax-effective donations can be made to to Wikimedia UK which is a registered charity in the UK.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.