Wikipedia Banks $20 Million From Year End Fundraiser

Anyone who uses or even stumbles upon Wikipedia, is familiar at least somewhat with their fundraisers. There’s been numerous jokes and even web apps made of Jimmy Wales, Co-Founder of Wikipedia, displayed on every site you visit. All jokes aside, their fundraiser paid off yet again and the 5th most popular site in the World can continue to operate.

From Associated Press:

“More than 1 million people throughout the world contributed the money during a 46-day fundraising drive, which concluded Sunday. The amount pledged to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the volunteer-driven Wikipedia, is a third more than the $15 million donated during the previous year’s fundraising campaign.”

That comes out to an average of $20 per person which is pretty generous. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Wikipedia gets donations throughout the year aside from their final big push.

They’re hoping to hit $29.5 Million ending June 30th which, at the one third more of what they were able to get this time around, shouldn’t be too difficult to reach that amount if not more than that in the next 6 months.

“Wikimedia expects to spend $28.3 million in the current fiscal year, with nearly half the money going toward employee salaries and other staffing costs. The foundation currently employs about 90 workers.”

Just how big is Wikipedia? In the English language alone, there are just under 4 Million articles with nearly 10 Million views per hour. The site reaches nearly 15% of all Internet users according to Alexa.