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Wikipedia is the most amazing project that has been created in our generation.

It is based on a philosophy that sharing information and educating people is more important than making money. It represents a classless ideal where everybody has access to the resources that will help them enrich their lives, improve their education, and contribute to the world.

But free culture is not yet the way of the world’s economy. We still operate within a commercial system. The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia, still has to pay rent and still has to pay people’s salaries.

Fortunately, at Wikipedia, your dollar goes a long way. If you donate $10 to support Wikipedia, the value of your money is multiplied many times over. When the small team of developers at the Foundation makes something cool—a new tool, say, that lets people use or contribute to Wikipedia more easily—it affects all of Wikipedia’s volunteers, enabling tens of thousands of people to make the project bigger and better.

If you compare Wikipedia with other websites, there’s a huge difference. It’s the 5th largest in the world, but it runs on such a small staff and such a small budget that it makes others look exorbitant.

I really think it’s fun helping to build Wikipedia because I’m participating in something that I dreamed of when I was a kid. I was always jealous of the people on Star Trek because they could look up anything they wanted on their computer (and they didn’t even see ads).

Wikipedia is explicitly designed to be free. You wouldn’t want any financial influence skewing what you find there. I respect Wikipedia because the content is unbiased and neutral. Otherwise it would be just like any other site on the Internet.

Advertising is pervasive in almost everything in our lives. With your donation, that will never be the case at Wikipedia.

Thank you,

Ryan Kaldari

Wikipedia Editor