Wikipedia Is a Terrific Resource — And Organization

I’m a minor donor to a few good causes.  The college at which I toiled (and partied) as an undergraduate, Trinity in Hartford, CT, is a good example. I hope they appreciate my constancy, but they won’t be naming a gymnasium or a library, or even a foosball table, after me.

One of the other beneficiaries of my unimpressive largess is Wikipedia, an organization that operates almost entirely from many millions of small donations from people like me – a non-profit that accepts neither advertising nor corporate sponsors.  It does its thing on the ultimate shoestring: Wikipedia is the 5th largest website on Earth, and employs fewer than 500 employees.

Insofar as I use the living bejeepers out of Wikipedia (virtually all the 1832 photos now on 2GreenEnergy are from the Wikimedia Commons), I just sent them a small sum.  In return, I got back a form email, which would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the beauty with which it’s written.  I thought I’d reproduce it here:

Dear Craig,

Thank you for donating to the Wikimedia Foundation. You are wonderful!

It’s easy to ignore our fundraising banners, and I’m really glad you didn’t. This is how Wikipedia pays its bills — people like you giving us money, so we can keep the site freely available for everyone around the world.

People tell me they donate to Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it because even though it’s not perfect, they know it’s written for them. Wikipedia isn’t meant to advance somebody’s PR agenda or push a particular ideology, or to persuade you to believe something that’s not true. We aim to tell the truth, and we can do that because of you. The fact that you fund the site keeps us independent and able to deliver what you need and want from Wikipedia. Exactly as it should be.

You should know: your donation isn’t just covering your own costs. The average donor is paying for his or her own use of Wikipedia, plus the costs of hundreds of other people. Your donation keeps Wikipedia available for an ambitious kid in Bangalore who’s teaching herself computer programming. A middle-aged homemaker in Vienna who’s just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. A novelist researching 1850s Britain. A 10-year-old in San Salvador who’s just discovered Carl Sagan.

On behalf of those people, and the half-billion other readers of Wikipedia and its sister sites and projects, I thank you for joining us in our effort to make the sum of all human knowledge available for everyone. Your donation makes the world a better place. Thank you.

Most people don’t know Wikipedia’s run by a non-profit. Please consider sharing this e-mail with a few of your friends to encourage them to donate too. And if you’re interested, you should try adding some new information to Wikipedia. If you see a typo or other small mistake, please fix it, and if you find something missing, please add it. There are resources here that can help you get started. Don’t worry about making a mistake: that’s normal when people first start editing and if it happens, other Wikipedians will be happy to fix it for you.

I appreciate your trust in us, and I promise you we’ll use your money well.

Thanks,
Sue

I respond:

Pretty impressive, Sue.  To be sure, I’ll pass along your message.   Keep up the extraordinary work.