$US2 Million grant for Wikimedia Foundation

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 04:52

Your IT - Home IT

The Wikimedia Foundation - the organisation behind Wikipedia - is the recipient of a major grant from philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network. The grant could total $US2 million over two years.

Omidyar Network's grant will support Wikimedia's key goals: to bring free educational content to every person on the planet, to engage and empower more people to author that content and to continually increase the quality and breadth of the information provided through 
Wikimedia's projects, foundation officials said.

At the same time, Omidyar partner Matt Halprin has been appointed to the foundation's board of trustees.

"We are very grateful for Omidyar Network's support. I am also delighted to have Matt joining us," said Michael Snow, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation board.

"His extensive experience with online communities, trust, and reputation, will make him an excellent addition to our Board. Matt also has a background in strategy development, which will be particularly useful for us as we embark on the collaborative strategy development project, Wikimedia's top priority for the coming year," added Snow.