ONLINE encyclopedia Wikipedia said last week that it had attained its fundraising goal of $US6 million, enough to cover operating expenses for the current fiscal year.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said more than 125,000 people had donated a total of $US4 million since he made an appeal for funds on July 1.
“In addition, we’ve received major gifts and foundation support totalling $US2 million,” Mr Wales said in a thank you letter on the website of his non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. “This combined revenue will cover our operating expenses for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2009.”
Mr Wales said the money would pay for “day-to-day operations: servers, hosting, bandwidth, our staff of just 23 people” and “continued development and improvements of open source software that powers all Wikimedia projects.”