Template:2011FR/appeal-susan-postoffice-1129/en

Imagine if the post office was run by volunteers and postage was free. Would you donate a few bucks to help?

I sneak into my post office and take care of their plants, unofficially. It’s funny: they know I do it but they don’t look, because they'd probably get in trouble if their boss knew they were letting a volunteer take care of their plants.

I've also written hundreds of Wikipedia articles about something I know a lot about: snails and other gastropods. Multiply that by 100,000 editors and that’s how you get 15 million articles in 270 languages about almost everything -- all for free.

But we volunteers need infrastructure on which to work: servers, tech staff, a legal team to protect our independence and more. Believe it or not, it’s paid for by donations from readers.

Wikipedia is the opposite of almost every other institution in our world. No one owns it, no one controls it. Everyone is free to enjoy it, and to walk in and take care of it.

If you feel you've benefited from Wikipedia this year, please consider pitching in $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can afford to help protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Thanks,

Susan Hewitt Wikipedia Author