Wikipedia exceeds $6m donation goal

Wales’ personal begging earns last $2m

A personal plea for cash by Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has melted enough hearts keep the ubiquitous online encyclopedia running for another fiscal year – and then some.

The Wikimedia Foundation announced today that it’s raised more than $6.2m since launching a fund-raising campaign in early November. The website exceeded its goal of approximately $6m to fund operations through June 30, 2009, with more than 125,000 donors contributing worldwide.

In late December, the non-profit org appeared to be falling short of its financial target until Wales posted a personal appeal for donations in place of Wikipedia’s standard fund-raising banner. In the remaining eight days of the month, Wikimedia pulled in more than 50,000 contributions totaling $2m, the foundation said.

Read more: theregister.co.uk