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Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 400 servers and fewer than 100 staff worldwide.

Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 454 million different people every month – with billions of page views. Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others. When Wikipedia was founded, it could have become a for-profit company with advertising banners. But we decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfil our mission, and leave waste to others.

If everyone reading this could give just £20, or perhaps £3 a month, we would only have to fundraise for one day a year. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give.

This year, please consider making a donation of just £20, or perhaps £3 a month, or whatever you can afford, to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Thanks,

Chris Keating Wikimedia UK