Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has raised enough money to keep running for at least another year, thanks to a personal plea for donations from founder Jimmy Wales.Since launching a fundraising campaign in early November, the Wikimedia Foundation says it has raised more than $6.2m (£4.2m). The website had set a goal of fundraising around $6m (£4m) to fund operations through June 2009. More than 125,000 donations came from contributors from around the globe.
In late December, it appeared the non-profit organization would fall short of its financial target. But Wales posted a personal plea to users for donations in place of Wikipedia's standard fund-raising banner - and the remaining funds were achieved by the end of the month.
In the remaining eight days of December, Wikipedia managed to raise more than 50,000 contributions totaling around $2m (£1.4m).
"You have proven that Wikipedia matters to you, and that you support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising," Wales later wrote in a thank-you message.
Wales said the surplus funds will be put into a reserve fund for offsetting operating costs beyond the fiscal year, according to industry website The Register. The foundation also released a breakdown of Wikipedia's 2008/2009 budget, which totals close to $6m (£4m).
Wikipedia has only 23 employees, and claims to be the fourth most visited site on the Internet, according to numbers by comScore. Wikipedia's donation box is still open for users who'd like to help in raising more cash for the site.
