[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikipedia’s Contributors and Authors at the Center of Wikimedia’s Eighth Annual Fundraiser

[Jay Walsh]

*Wikipedia’s Contributors and Authors at the Center of Wikimedia’s Eighth
Annual Fundraiser
*
SAN FRANCISCO, November 16, 2011 - The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit
behind Wikipedia, today announced the launch of its annual fundraising
campaign. The annual fundraiser brings in critical revenue so that
Wikipedia and its sister projects can remain freely available to people
around the world. Funds raised in this campaign by Wikimedia and its
regional chapters will be used to maintain Wikimedia’s server
infrastructure and improve software, expand global reach, and provide
direct support to a global volunteer community. The Foundation's total
2011-12 planned spending is $28.3 million USD.

This year’s campaign will focus on telling the story of the volunteers and
editors who donate their time to further the Wikimedia mission: to spread
free knowledge around the world. Through the duration of the campaign, the
users of Wikipedia and its sister projects will learn about the unique
personalities behind our projects, as well as the passions and motivations
that fuel their contributions. As in previous years, Wikipedia founder,
Jimmy Wales, will also play a visible role in the fundraising campaign.

“Our community - both our donors and those who actually help write projects
like Wikipedia - is made up of people who are curious, brilliant, and
engaged,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
“This year we want to share their stories. I think people will find it
interesting to read about the folks who work behind the scenes in the
projects -- and ideally, I am hoping that some readers will be inspired to
start editing themselves, as well.”

*Three Wikipedia contributors to look out for
*
Alan Sohn (user:Alansohn) has contributed so much tech-related information
to more than 2,500 original articles on Wikipedia that his time commitment
to the hobby would equate to hundreds of thousands of earned dollars if he
focused only on his day job as a New Jersey-based systems consultant. “But
money is not the incentive here,” Alan says. “You deal in a different
currency on Wikipedia.” He believes the Foundation has harnessed an
invaluable resource of cooperating individuals dedicated to sharing
unbiased, accurate information.

Susan Hewitt (user:Invertzoo), a US citizen originally from England, knows
her snails. She harbors such a fascination for gastropods and has
cultivated such an extensive knowledge of their existence that she can’t
help but want to share. “That’s what makes Wikipedia so magical,” she says,
“there’s this unspoken light inside all of us that comes from the desire to
help educate, to help share knowledge.” Susan donates because she believes
she has a moral obligation to support any free service she uses so
frequently.

West Virginia native, and San Francisco Bay area-based, Brandon Harris
(User:Jorm) left a high-paying career in the tech industry to help make
positive changes to society. He now works as a programmer for the Wikimedia
Foundation because everything in his soul tells him it’s the right thing to
do. Brandon is particularly motivated by the thought that WMF produces with
“sticks and wires” what massive, big-budget companies only dream of pulling
off.

During the 2010 annual fundraising campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation
raised $15 million in fifty days, a 72% increase over 2009’s total of $8.7
million.

The 2011 campaign will run through January 2012, with appeals from Brandon,
Susan, Alan, Jimmy Wales, and many more atop pages on Wikipedia and its
sister sites, asking readers for their support.

You can also follow the conversation about the annual fundraising campaign
via @wikipedia on Twitter (http://twitter.com/wikipedia) or Identi.ca (
http://identi.ca/wikipedia). To donate to the campaign, visit:
http://donate.wikimedia.org.

*MORE VISUAL MATERIALS*

For photos of the Wikipedia contributors, as well as samples of the
fundraising banners, visit:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Category:Fundraising_2011_press_materials

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

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 more than 454 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, September 2011).
Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 18
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:
*
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh at wikimedia.org

*(to be removed from future mailings, please reply to this email with
'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)*
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