Template:Appeal/Ward/en

From Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

My name is Ward Cunningham, and I invented the wiki. But it took the whole world to build Wikipedia.

When we come together on Wikipedia to share our ideas we make something bigger than the sum of its parts. We are all part of a community of people working for free to collect all of the world’s knowledge.

Now Wikipedia needs your help to keep going. Will you make a small donation to protect and sustain this site that we all rely on?

My small gift was creating the wiki software, a simple platform that lets many people collaborate to create one website. Now, the world has given the gift back – with infinitely greater value – by building Wikipedia.

There are more than 470 million unique people that rely on Wikipedia every month. It’s the #5 website in the world, up there with Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. And it’s run by a tiny non-profit with 95 staff.

Those other sites are powered by ads, huge budgets, thousands of staff, and millions of servers. But Wikipedia doesn’t need those things. That’s not how it works.

Wikipedia just needs our global community of volunteers and just enough money to pay for its minimal infrastructure. That’s how Wikipedia got here, and with your help, it’s how Wikipedia will keep growing and improving for years to come.

Please help strengthen our community and make a donation of $5, €10, ¥1000 or whatever you can afford to Wikipedia today.

Thanks,

Ward Cunningham
Inventor of the wiki