Template:2010/JimmyLetterHM2/en/US

This is it. 0 hours left.

We’re at the time of year when people all over the world come together to sustain and protect Wikipedia.

Not everyone can or will donate. And that’s fine, because each year just enough people support Wikipedia with a small donation. If you feel it's your turn, please make a tax deductible donation of $5, $20, $30 or whatever you can to help us reach our goal before midnight.

Most people don't know this, but I'm a volunteer.

I don't get paid a cent for my work at Wikipedia, and neither do our thousands of other volunteer authors and editors. But I have been here from the beginning, and I can tell you, we weren’t prepared for Wikipedia 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.

Now we are finally adding critical technology and people that we’ve needed for years. We can’t wait any longer to take this step.

Last year about one in 1,000 people who use Wikipedia donated. To reach our goal this year, we needed *two* in 1,000. And we've almost done it.

I think we're going to get there today. But with only 0 hours left, we really need your help to do it again.

Thanks,

Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia Founder

PS: People often ask me why we insist on being supported by our users instead of running ads on Wikipedia. Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is something special, like a library or a public park. But we are not supported by any government funds whatsoever. Just you. Please help if you can.