Wikimedia Foundation

I don't know exactly when it happened -- but at this point in my life -- I look up something in Wikipedia two or three times every day.

What I love about it is that it has no agenda, no point of view, and runs completely without advertising.

Right now, they're doing their annual fundraiser -- and it's SO EASY to make a donation. You can use a credit card, or Pay Pal, or even hook it up to your Amazon account. Because I use Wikipedia so often, and I admire their no-ad policy -- I made a small donation. Within minutes, I received this thank-you email. They asked me to share it with a few friends...so I am posting it here.

Dear Rita,

You are so fantastic. THANK YOU for supporting the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that runs Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Your donation covers not only your own costs of using Wikipedia, but also the costs of other Wikipedia readers.

Like the retired farmer in upstate New York who's using Wikipedia to study the science of sludge, and the student in Kuala Lumpur who's researching organic chemistry. The British mechanic who, after he broke his back in an accident, used Wikipedia to retrain himself as a web developer. The civil servant in Finland who set up an offline version of Wikipedia for a small school in Ghana. And the father in Mexico City who takes his little daughters to the museum on weekends, and uses Wikipedia to help them understand everything they're seeing there.

Wikipedia's job is to bring the sum total of all human knowledge to everyone around the world in their own language. That's a pretty audacious mission, but with 30 million articles and 287 languages, I'd say that thanks to you and people like you, we are getting there.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, and the half-a-billion other Wikipedia readers around the world: thank you. The fact that you are helping to pay the costs of running Wikipedia means it can stay ad-free and independent of bias, focused solely on helping its readers. Exactly as it should be.

You may have noticed that for the first time this year we've tweaked our fundraising so that most people will only see the banners a handful of times, instead of for weeks. That's deliberate: we don't want people to get irritated by too many appeals. But it does mean that fewer people will figure out we're a non-profit, and that we want their help. So if you're willing, I'd appreciate if you'd help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to a few of your friends.

And I'd love if you'd try joining us in helping to write Wikipedia. Wikipedia's written entirely by volunteers -- tens of thousands of ordinary people around the world, exactly like us. If you see a typo or a small mistake on Wikipedia, please fix it. If you know anything worth adding, please add it. Some people find it remarkably satisfying, and maybe you will too.

Thank you again. I very much appreciate your trust in us, and I promise you: we will use your money carefully and well.

Thanks, Sue Sue Gardner Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation donate.wikimedia.org