Template:2010/JimmyLetterAD/en

I’m a volunteer.

Like the thousands of others who write and edit Wikipedia, I don’t get paid a cent. But I have been here from the beginning, and I can tell you, we weren’t prepared to get this big.

We are a non-profit, but we are the fifth most visited website in the world. Last year we operated with around 30 staff and dangerously few servers. The other top ten websites are hundreds of times bigger than us.

This year we are finally adding critical technology and people we’ve needed for years. We can’t wait another year to take this step.

Last year about one in 1,000 people who use Wikipedia donated. To reach our goal this year, we need two in 1,000.

It’s a stretch. We’re the only major website in the world that is primarily supported by its users. It’s worked for 10 years, but this year we are struggling to reach our goal with only 12 days left of 2010.

Please help us keep Wikipedia free and stable with a donation of $20, $35, $50 or whatever you can afford.

Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia Founder