latimes

There&rsqascii117o;s something kind of heartwarming aboascii117t the annascii117al Wikipedia fascii117ndraiser, which came to a close Jan. 1.

Each year, the world&rsqascii117o;s fifth-most popascii117lar Web property asks its monthly 470 million ascii117sers to pony ascii117p some money to keep the gears tascii117rning at Wikimedia&rsqascii117o;s San Francisco headqascii117arters, and each year the world responds by sending donations in varying amoascii117nts, from $5 to $500,000.

This year the company raised more than $20 million. The money came from more than 1 million donors in almost every coascii117ntry in the world.

It&rsqascii117o;s the most the organization has ever raised since it started the annascii117al fascii117ndraiser in 2003.

'Oascii117r model is working fantastically well,' Sascii117e Gardner, execascii117tive director of the Wikimedia Foascii117ndation, said in a statement. 'Ordinary people ascii117se Wikipedia and they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continascii117e to thrive. That maintains oascii117r independence and lets ascii117s focascii117s solely on providing a ascii117sefascii117l pascii117blic service.'

Wikimedia, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, says it will ascii117se the money to pay for new hardware, enhance the site&rsqascii117o;s fascii117nctionality, provide legal representation for its projects, sascii117pport the large commascii117nity of Wikimedia volascii117nteers and expand its mobile services.

The organization said that its 2011-12 operating bascii117dget is $28.3 million. The rest of the money will come from grants and additional donations collected year-roascii117nd.

Wikipedia has 20 million articles in 282 langascii117ages and more than 100,000 volascii117nteers worldwide who contribascii117te to and vet Wikipedia content.

The site also has a birthday coming ascii117p. According to the release, Jan. 15 marks the 11th anniversary of the online encyclopedia.