Transcript of quotes from Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation on the occasion of the launch of the 2008 Annual Giving Campaign. Access the audio files here.
90 second reel
00:00 Wikipedia is the number four most popular website in the entire world. What most people don't know about Wikipedia is that it is a non-profit and it's a really small organization with a staff of just twenty-two people.
00:13 We are entirely dependent on donations from individual people around the world who use the website and want to support it - that's how we make our money. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible. Right now a quarter of a billion people read Wikipedia every month, and that number is constantly growing. What that means is more cost for servers, more technical staff, and a higher bandwidth bill for us every month.
00:36 We also want to encourage more people to participate in Wikipedia. To not just read it, but to also help us edit and write it - so we also intend to spend money therefore on outreach, and what that means is teacher's guides, videos, and workshops that show people how to edit.
00:52 We want to be reaching one in three people around the world, and we want to try to persuade one in ten of those people to become an active participant.
1:00 Our goal for the annual giving campaign this year is six million dollars, and that is very ambitious for us. Last year, by contrast, we brought in a total of two million dollars during the campaign. But we've already managed to line up two million dollars in commitments already before we've even begun - so we're a third of the way there.
1:17 Starting November 3rd you're going to see a little banner on the top of every page on Wikipedia asking you to make a donation. So if you use Wikipedia, and if you like it, this is a great time to show your support.
