Press releases/Wikipedia fundraiser surpasses $6million USD January 2009

Wikipedia fundraising campaign surpasses $6 million USD goal

Over 125,000 donors worldwide show their support for the non-profit encyclopedia

San Francisco, CA January 2, 2009: With the support of over 125,000 donors from around the world, the Wikimedia Foundation has achieved its goal of raising over $6 million USD to sustain Wikipedia. As of today, the campaign has generated just over $6.2 million USD.

This year's campaign has been the most ambitious and successful in the Wikimedia Foundation's history. The funds will be used to maintain and grow the Foundation's technical infrastructure, which includes managing global traffic for Wikipedia, the 4th most popular web property on the internet.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote in a thank you letter posted on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation's website: "This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising. We deeply appreciate the generosity of our supporters."

A personal appeal from Jimmy Wales, published on the Wikimedia Foundation's website on December 23, 2008, resulted in a surge of more than 50,000 contributions in eight days, totaling $2 million and closing the gap towards the revenue goal.

The Thank You letter from Jimmy Wales can be found on Wikimedia's website at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/ThankYou/en

Donors can continue to join other supporters by clicking on the support notices on Wikipedia, or by visiting http://donate.wikimedia.org.