The Wikimedia Foundation's quarterly fundraiser concluded last week, having brought in more than $380,000 USD. This exceeded the amount raised in the previous quarter by more than $140,000, although it fell short of initial hopes for the fundraising drive, partly due to a change in which some donations were no longer included in the total.

The daily report for 5 January, the final day of the drive, indicated that a grand total of $382,619.60 came in through various methods (not a final figure). This compares with the $243,930 raised in the most recent fundraiser, from 19 August to 8 September last year (see archived story). In addition, the previous fundraiser counted approximately $35,000 donated to the German Wikipedia chapter, but similar donations in the current drive were not counted. Funds donated to local Wikimedia chapters can benefit from tax-deductibility in their own country, but are often subject to legal restrictions that prevent them being transferred directly to the Foundation, although they are still used to support the Foundation's mission.

Unlike previous fundraising drives, this one did not have a set goal, although Chief Financial Officer Daniel Mayer had expressed hopes that it might raise $500,000 or more. This amount would have been able to cover the Foundation's first-quarter expenses more easily, although predicting these remains challenging because of the continually growing traffic. Mayer was still positive about the result, noting that it "was the most successful fundraiser in the Wikimedia Foundation's history" and "it raised more money than all three previous fundraisers combined when Wikimedia Deutschland donations are excluded."

The pace of donations initially was similar to or slightly above the previous fundraiser, but slowed down as Christmas arrived. Besides the holiday distractions, there was some thought that the absence of a goal inhibited donations; however, using a goal created different issues last time, because there was some uncertainty as to whether the fundraiser ended when the goal was reached. For this latest effort, the fundraiser was simply set to last a full three weeks, with no provision to end early.

PayPal donations, which generate the bulk of the money raised, could be followed nearly in real-time thanks to a tracking system set up by Chief Technical Officer Brion Vibber. This allowed the progress bar used for most of the fundraiser to be updated mostly automatically, instead of waiting for manual updates.

To help spur donations, and also in connection with the upcoming fifth anniversary of the start of Wikipedia, founder Jimmy Wales posted a personal appeal for donations on 1 January. This seemed to spark people's generosity, and a single-day record of $38,443.05 for PayPal donations was set on 2 January. Wales's message, which remains linked through the sitewide notice, has also sustained an above-normal level of donations continuing after the official end of the fundraising drive.

In order to meet the challenges of operating such a high-traffic website (recently peaking as high as the top 20 according to Alexa's daily traffic measure), the Wikimedia Foundation continues to explore grants and other possible means of adding financial support. Aesthetic changes to call more attention to the donations link on a permanent basis are also being considered. Mayer noted that over 12,000 people contributed (averaging around $25 each), the bulk of the money comes from small individual donations, and because the only fundraising costs are PayPal and bank fees more than 95% of donations go directly to the Foundation's charitable objectives.