Wikimedia Launches $50 Million Fundraising Effort

wikimediaEvery year, nonprofit organization Wikimedia seeks funding from the crowd to support initiatives including their free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. This year’s effort has just launched, and Wikipedia is seeking to raise $50 million from the crowd.

Wikipedia is the #5 most visited web site in the world, with hundreds of millions of visitors viewing billions of pages every month. The site boasts over 4.3 million English language articles. Wikimedia has a staff of 175, but they aim to grow that number pending the success of this year’s fundraising campaign.

Last year’s campaign netted the company $30 million from over 1.1 million people. The funding helps Wikipedia to remain free of advertising.

wikipediaDuring the campaign, visitors to Wikipedia are greeted with a message that explains why the site seeks funding from the crowd…

If everyone reading this gave $3, our fundraiser would be done within an hour. Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind, a place we can all go to think and learn. If Wikipedia is useful to you, take one minute to keep it online and ad-free another year. Please help us forget fundraising and get back to Wikipedia. Thank you.

Where this fits into the crowdfunding narrative is subjective, but those applying a broad definition of the term would certainly include this yearly effort in the crowdfunding narrative. Of course, other types of online donations (to the Red Cross, for example) would then also be included.

Those interested can donate any amount at the Wikimedia web site.


Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!


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