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Every year about this time, people like me ask you to support their non-profits.

But Wikipedia is not mine. I’m just a volunteer. Wikipedia belongs to the thousands of readers and editors who create and support it. So I’m going to tell you what we’ve accomplished together.

When a group of us got together 10 years ago to start Wikipedia, we never expected it to be the fifth most-read website in the world, and we certainly never expected it to have 17 million articles in 270 languages.

Because we never expected that success, we didn’t plan for it. I’m going to lay out some hard realities: we’re at a critical inflection point - we absolutely must add new technology in order to assure long term viability and sustainability. We have to add long overdue staff to support our volunteers as they continue to create and maintain Wikipedia and its sister sites.

To do this we need to raise $16 million. It’s a huge number, but it’s a tiny fraction of what the other top ten websites spend. It’s a symbol of what I love about Wikipedia: we use the sparest of resources and do something amazing with them.

I’m asking on behalf of all those who’ve worked on Wikipedia over the last ten years. Can we count on you to make a donation of $10, $20, $35, or whatever you can afford to help Wikipedia move into the next decade?

If just one out of every 500 people who read this letter donate, we’ll make it.

Thank you,

Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia Founder