Coming back to this year, an appeal from the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has recently gone out. I’ve quoted a part of it below.

I got a lot of funny looks ten years ago when I started talking to people about Wikipedia.

Let’s just say some of the business types were skeptical of the notion that volunteers from all across the world could come together to create a remarkable pool of human knowledge – all for the simple purpose of sharing.

No ads. No profits. No agenda.

A decade after its founding, more than 380 million people use Wikipedia and its sister sites every month – almost a third of the Internet-connected world.

It is the 5th most popular website in the world. The other four have been built and maintained with billions of dollars in investment, huge corporate staffs and relentless marketing.

But, Wikipedia isn’t anything like a commercial website. It is a community creation, written by volunteers making one entry at a time. You are part of our community. And I’m writing today to ask you to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Together, we can keep it free of charge and free of advertising. We can keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. We can keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone.

Each year at this time, we reach out to ask you and others all across the Wikimedia community to help sustain our joint enterprise with a modest donation of £20, £35, £50 or more.

If you value Wikipedia as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now.

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder

Naturally, I’m donating again. A £50.00 GBP donation to Wikipedia and Wikimedia UK this time.

I encourage anybody who uses Wikipedia significantly, to put forward a donation, of any amount, if at all possible.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia from the Wikimedia Foundation

I just donated to Wikipedia’s latest fund raising attempt. Being one of my primary resources for information, and an authority on almost any subject under, including and above the Sun, I feel the donation is well worth doing. I recommend anyone who can afford to make the donation and values the information and functionality Wikipedia provides, makes a donation, however small to the Wikimedia Foundation.

I donated £10.00 GBP, and received the following e-mail. I am tempted to donate more.

Dear Jordan,

Thank you for your gift of GBP 10.00 to the Wikimedia Foundation,
received on December 14, 2009.

Your donation celebrates everything Wikipedia stands for: the power of
information, freedom, sharing, learning and discovery.   Thank you so
much for helping keep Wikipedia freely available for its 330 million
readers around the world.

Many people love Wikipedia, but surprisingly few know it’s run by a
non-profit.  Please help us spread the word, by forwarding this e-mail
to a few of your friends.

If you have questions about your donation, please send a message to
donate@wikimedia.org.  To learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation,
visit our blog at http://blog.wikimedia.org/ or our website at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/. Or, follow us at
http://twitter.com/wikimedia, http://identi.ca//wikimedia, or
http://bit.ly/wikiFacebook.

And again, thank you.  I’m really, really happy to have
your help.

Sincerely Yours,

Sue Gardner
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

When donating, you are asked to provide a public comment to go alongside the record of your donation if you so wish. I, along with many, took this opportunity to state my appreciation and thanks for Wikipedia project, and the Wikimedia Foundation in general.

I use Wikipedia almost daily. It is by far my most used Internet information resource.