Mere days after Wikipedia put up its new and improved plea for donations, the company has already met its goal of raising $6 million. The campaign, headed up by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, asked users to dig deep into their pockets and couch cushions to help the Wikimedia Foundation keep the site running. Now that the organization has met its goal, Wales has posted an update saying that the lights will be kept on through the remainder of the fiscal year (until June 30, 2009).

In the letter, Wales says that 125,000 individuals have donated since July 2008, totaling $4 million in personal donations. The foundation has also received "major gifts" to the tune of $2 million. The money will go towards server costs, bandwidth, and 23 staff members, as well as the development of open source software, outreach events, and other volunteer work.

In a statement sent via e-mail, the Wikimedia foundation said that this year's campaign has been the most ambitious yet, and that after Wales' plea was posted to the website just before Christmas, a "surge of more than 50,000 contributions" came in, closing the gap towards the $6 million goal.



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Of course, even though the organization is funded for another six months doesn't mean it wants people to stop donating. "Any donations beyond our $6 million goal are put in a reserve fund, which will help us to offset operating costs beyond the current fiscal year," wrote Wales. "Your continued support will also serve as a much-needed financial safety net if economic conditions continue to worsen globally."

It's heartwarming to know that the global online community is helping out a mainstay of the Internet by donating, though some critics still believe the Wikimedia foundation should consider running ads on the site—an option that the organization has been adamantly against for some time now.

There are also others who believe that Wikipedia has especially high administrative costs, but Wales insisted in a recent e-mail to Ars that this is not true. "We are an astoundingly effective charity with a tiny budget," Wales told Ars. "The idea that our budget is 'bloated' is ludicrous—we run the 4th most popular website in the world for $6 million a year."

While donations have been slower to pour in this year at places like National Public Radio, Wikipedia has clearly shown that its users truly are what keeps the site alive, both financially and through their volunteer efforts.