Wikipedia, a website that has been built entirely out of the act of sharing knowledge voluntarily, is having a rather successful fundraiser.
Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes
So much so, it has made the website over 1 million dollars in donations to keep the site running and introduce upgrades.
Originally, the fundraiser was said to have a goal of raising $1.5 million. But according to one editor, a board meeting decided there was actually no planned goal, despite the current meter having a maximum level of $1.5 million (smaller marks indicate $50,000 while the larger marks indicate $100,000.)
Major contributors to the campaign include Dell, who gave hardware discounts for the WikiMedia foundation, and Virgin Unite, who promised to match donations.
Other larger contributors include Two Sigma Investments, LLC, Alan Bauer Charitable Gift Fund, The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Burt and Diana Cutler Family Foundation, Craigslist, Inc., Graphics Press, LLC, The Sims/Mae’s Foundation, Inc., The Zephyr Charitable Foundation, Inc., and Mr. William Richley, P.A..
Wikipedia has many interesting plans for the future. All of course require a substantial amount of money. Just to keep the site afloat, they say, costs more than $75,000 a month. Wikipedia’s current plan is to greatly expand the WikiMedia project as well. According to the “what we need the money for“, some upgrades include $1.6 million in server upgrades. With all their stated goals, it seems the $1 million currently raised isn’t enough. Yet at the current rate of donations, this shouldn’t pose much of a long term problem.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
