Wikipedia Gets A Fat Check

Wikipedia and volunteer editors happily provide the world with information on just about anything – for free. So how do they keep their virtual doors open? With generous gifts like those from the Hewlett Foundation, which recently granted the nonprofit $500,000.

Since 1967, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has remained dedicated to solving social and environmental problems around the globe and according to the Associated Press, says, "Wikipedia plays an important role in making information freely accessible." This is one of the foundations most important initiatives. Since 2001, it has granted over $100 million to advance free education.

The gracious encyclopedia says it will use the funds to train new volunteer editors, develop more user-friendly software and set up new systems to track the site's impact.

"Never stifle a generous impulse," was a favorite saying of entrepreneur William R. Hewlett. Let's hope his and other foundations, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which gave Wikipedia their largest donation ever last year of $3 million, continue to live by those words. I think we'd all be pretty bummed if Wikipedia suddenly disappeared.

Image courtesy Commons Wikimedia