From: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia<\/b> <******@wikimedia.org<\/a>><\/span>
Date: 2010\/12\/15
Subject: Temple of the Mind
To: *******@gmail.com<\/a>><\/p>\n
Dear xiao**,<\/span> <\/p>\n Thank you for your donation to this year's fundraiser. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We're a little more than half-way toward our 2010 goal. We want to take down the fundraising banners from Wikipedia by January 1, as usual. But we have long-overdue upgrades to our infrastructure planned for the year ahead. So our goal is bigger this year than usual.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That's why I'm hoping you won't mind if I ask you to help again with a small monthly recurring gift of $3, $7, $13 or whatever you choose. It's easy to do right here: <\/span><\/p>\n http:\/\/wikimediafoundation.org\/wiki\/WMFRE\/en<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Of course, you can also make another one time gift<\/a> to help get us to our goal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Most people don't know this, but I'm a volunteer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I don't get paid a cent for my work at Wikipedia, and neither do our thousands of other volunteer authors and editors. When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others. It is a unique human project, the first of its kind in history. It is a humanitarian project to bring a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Every single person.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If all of Wikipedia's 400 million users would donate $1 each, we would have 20 times the amount of money we need. We're a small organization, and I've worked hard over the years to keep us lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others. <\/span><\/p>\n To do this without resorting to advertising, we need you. It is you who keep this dream alive. It is you who have created Wikipedia. It is you who believe that a place of calm reflection and learning is worth having.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n