Wikipedia Tops Its 2008 Fundraising Goal

Things were looking dire for Wikipedia's annual fundraising campaign, so bad that founder Jimmy Wales posted a personal appeal on Dec. 23. On Friday the Wikimedia Foundation announced that it had reached its goal of $6 million in donations to keep Wikipedia running.

In fact, according to the Wikimedia Foundation's press release, it was the plea that did the trick. In the 8 days following, more than 50,000 contributions for $2 million came in. The total amount for the year was 125,000 contributions for $6.2 million, so you can see that 40% of the contributions and nearly 1/3 of the money was donated in just 8 days.

Wales posted a thank you letter here.

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.

Donations over the $6 goal will be put into a reserve fund, and of course, you can still donate here. Wikipedia continues to eschew advertising, so donate if you can.