"We are extremely grateful for this support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation," said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "Wikipedia and its sister projects have an enormous global impact, but the organization behind them has been operating on a shoestring: unable to pursue partnerships, execute projects, or even to effectively fundraise. This institutional support from Sloan will enable us to make progress on some key goals: increasing quality, broadening participation, and distributing free knowledge to people without Internet connectivity."

The funding will be received over three years, at 1 million dollars per year. According to a press statement released by Wikimedia, the money will be  used to develop a software feature called Flagged Revisions, a tool that will allow to the editors to publicly and visibly grade the quality status of articles.

Wikimedia also plans to significantly expand outreach events such as Wikipedia Academy, designed to increase Wikipedia's quality by teaching academics, older people, and other targeted groups how to contribute.

“We are delighted to support the Wikimedia Foundation and to help develop its organizational capacity and improve the quality of its flagship, Wikipedia,” said Doron Weber, Sloan Program Director for Universal Access to Recorded Knowledge.

Two months ago, Jimmy Wales, the man who founded Wikipedia in 2001, unveiled Wikia Search engine, a project founded by Amazon.com and Bessemer Venture Partners.