Press releases/Brin Wojcicki Foundation Announces $500,000 Grant to Wikimedia

Brin Wojcicki Foundation Announces $500,000 Grant to Wikimedia

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 18, 2011 – The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, started by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, awarded a $500,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia and its sister sites. The Wikimedia Foundation kicked off its 8th annual fundraiser on November 16, 2011.

The Wikimedia projects currently reach more than 477 million unique visitors around the world every month (comScore, October 2011), making Wikipedia the fifth most-popular web site in the world.

“This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual fundraising campaign this week," said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for themselves and for everyone around the world. I am very grateful to Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what we do.”

The Brin Wojcicki Foundation has funded such organizations as the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is researching a cure for Parkinson’s disease. The principals of the Brin Wojcicki Foundation are Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google in 1997, and Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe, a personal genetics company.

About the Wikimedia Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 477 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, October 2011). Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.

Media Contact:

For the Wikimedia Foundation

Jay Walsh Head of Communications Wikimedia Foundation Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609 jwalsh@wikimedia.org