Wikipediaspecifically, the Wikipedia Foundation, the online encyclopedia's parent organizationhas raised more than $16 million in what's being lauded as the organization's, "shortest fundraiser in Wikimedia history." More than 500,000 individual donations were tallied by the organization since the pledge drive's inception on November 14 of this year, which is more than double the 230,000 submitted during Wikipedia's 67-day fundraiser in 2009.

According to a release by the Wikimedia Foundation, users gave an average of $22 for every donation made, with gifts coming in from 140 countries. Although only $13.7 million of the organization's total came from online donations, the rest of the $16 million goal were made via direct checks and donations from various worldwide Wikimedia chapters. That money goes to fund Wikipedia's various infrastructure costs, staffing, program support, and grants, amongst other costs listed in Wikipedia's 2010-2011 annual plan.

"This outpouring of support by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life is a testament to the spirit of the Wikimedia movement," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a prepared statement. "Wikipedia is a public resource created and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, relied on by over 400 million people and paid for by half a million donors. It's truly user-created, supported and maintained."

Wales has an extra-special right to be pleased over Wikipedia's 2010 donation drive, as it was his own visagesplashed across banners atop the site itselfthat helped bring in a significant source of revenue. According to Wikipedia spokeswoman Moka Pantages, speaking to ReadWriteWeb's Mike Melanson in November, large spikes in donations in previous years were directly correlated to periods of time when the organization ran the so-called "Jimmy banner." Accordingly, Wikipedia decided to lead with Jimmy right out of the gate for its 2010 drive.

So just how successful was Wikipedia's 2010 drive as compared to years past? The organization has tracked all of its fundraising since 2007 on a comprehensive, day-by-day graph of online donations. Just to put the 2010 drive into perspective, however, Wikipedia was able to hit 2009's fundraising goal of $7.5 million within the first 30 days of the 2010 drive. It took a total of 39 days for Wikipedia to jump into double-digitsin millionsfor online donations received. And the largest giving of the campaign, day 37, netted Wikipedia just over $72,000 through 9,554 donations made over a single 24-hour period.