Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs Wikipedia, reported that it has achieved its goal of raising $6 million from donations and, moreover, it even exceeded it by $200,000.

While not so many people were rushing to the website to donate money when the campaign started, the appeal posted by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the foundation, made 50,000 users go to Wikipedia.com and donate a total of $2 million in just eight days.

The Wikimedia Foundation reported there were more than 125,000 donors that contributed with $6.2 million during the fundraising campaign.

A spokesperson from Wikipedia stated that the money would be used to improve servers, extend internet bandwidth and to maintain and improve the website.

Donations are very important for both the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia, as they are the only ways of income. As a principle, Wikimedia stated that they reject any kind of advertisement to be displayed on their websites.

However, as Wikipedia has been growing more popular, so have been the fundraisings each year. As an example, the foundation received about $1.3 million in 2006 and $2.2 million last year, almost three times less than in 2008.

In addition, Wikipedia.com received a $3 million donation from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation in March 2008, which will be sectioned in three $1 million annual payments. Moreover, the website received another $890,000 from the Stanton Foundation, which will be used to improve the editing feature of the articles.

As the Wikimedia Foundation is releasing new projects every year, it is certain that Wikipedia is its main mission, as the website is ranking amongst the top 10 most visited websites worldwide for some time.