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<h3><span class="mw-headline"
id="Seventh_Annual_Campaign_to_Support_Wikipedia_Kicks_Off">Seventh
Annual Campaign to Support Wikipedia Kicks Off </span></h3>
<p><i>Yearly fundraising campaign sets goal of $16 million and
invites readers to become editors </i>
</p>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO, November 15, 2010 — The Wikimedia Foundation
(WMF), the non-profit behind Wikipedia, today announced the launch
of its annual fundraising campaign. This year's goal is to raise
$16 million so that Wikipedia and its sister projects can remain
freely available to people around the world. The $16 million
raised in this campaign will help fund the Foundation's total
2010-11 operating budget of $20.4 million. And for the first time
this year, the campaign will also invite readers to donate time as
well as money, by joining the Wikimedia community of volunteer
editors. Once the financial goal has been met, the campaign will
encourage Wikipedia's nearly 400 million monthly readers to become
editors.
</p>
<p>"Over the past 10 years, Wikipedia has become a vital public
resource for hundreds of millions of people. We've come to depend
on it being there for us -- free to use, without any bias or
interference, and without advertising," said Wikipedia founder
Jimmy Wales. "If you can afford to make even a small donation,
that's important. You're helping to keep Wikipedia available not
just for yourself, but for others --kids, people in poor
countries-- who themselves can't afford to donate."
</p>
<p>The 2010 campaign seeks to raise the funds needed to preserve
Wikipedia, the world's fifth-most-popular site, as a space for the
free and open sharing of human knowledge. As Wikipedia continues
to grow in size and readership, it needs to increase spending on
servers and bandwidth, and to invest in supporting the continued
health and diversity of the editing community.
</p>
<p>"Wikipedia is the people's encyclopedia: it's written by ordinary
people, and it makes sense that ordinary people would pay to
support it," said Sue Gardner, Executive Director. "Having a broad
base of many donors from everywhere around the world is important
to us: it means the encyclopedia is free to evolve to meet the
needs of its readers, rather than being distorted or thrown off
course by special interests. I'm glad so many people appreciate
Wikipedia, and I'm delighted when they choose to support it
financially."
</p>
<p>In 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation raised just over $8 million
from more than 240,000 individual donations (up from 139,000
donations during the 2008 campaign). The average donation in 2009
was $33, and donations came in from over 100 countries. </p>
<p>The 2010 campaign will run through January 2011, with notices at
the top of pages on Wikipedia and its sister sites, asking readers
for their support.
</p>
<p>Make a donation now:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://donate.wikimedia.org" class="external free">http://donate.wikimedia.org</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Follow us on:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://identi.ca//wikipedia" class="external free">http://identi.ca//wikipedia</a>
</li>
<li> <a href="http://identi.ca//wikimedia" class="external free">http://identi.ca//wikimedia</a>
</li>
<li> <a href="http://twitter.com/wikimedia" class="external free">http://twitter.com/wikimedia</a>
</li>
<li> <a href="http://twitter.com/wikipedia" class="external free">http://twitter.com/wikipedia</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Follow or share your thoughts with the tag <a
href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23keepitfree">#keepitfree </a></p>
<p>or
</p>
<p>Facebook.com:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.Facebook.com/Wikipedia" class="external
free">http://www.Facebook.com/Wikipedia</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p><b>About the Wikimedia Foundation</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org" class="external
free">http://wikimediafoundation.org</a>
</li>
<li> <a href="http://blog.wikimedia.org" class="external free">http://blog.wikimedia.org</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization which
operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore
Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the
Wikimedia Foundation receive 398 million unique visitors per
month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide
(Sept, 2010). Available in more than 270 languages, Wikipedia
contains more than 16 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. </p>
<p><b>Contact</b>:
</p>
<dl>
<dd>Moka Pantages
</dd>
<dd><a href="http://WikimediaFoundation.org" class="external text">WikimediaFoundation.org</a>
</dd>
<dd><a href="http://blog.wikimedia.org" class="external text">blog.wikimedia.org</a>
</dd>
<dd>+1 (415) 839-6885 x 635
</dd>
<dd><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:moka@wikimedia.org">moka@wikimedia.org</a>
</dd>
</dl>
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