Template:FR-DonorThanks2019

Dear Wikimedia, With Thanks, Donors.

Over the last 2 months of fundraising, thousands of our donors have given notes of thanks; expressing their gratitude, love and appreciation for the contributors, volunteers and staff who give the world the joy of free and open knowledge and make Wikimedia possible.

Here is just a sample of their messages to you.

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...I wanted to thank you for your service and let you know it was my 16-year-old son who inspired me to give again this year. I was driving him to swim practice this afternoon and he told me he saw the donation solicitation on the Wikipedia site and he felt bad that more people weren’t moved to give. I told him I had given in the past, but not yet this year. He said he didn’t care that he can’t site Wikipedia for school work- it was always a great place to start and it pointed him to credible sources he might not otherwise find. And, he added, 99% of the time, what he finds on Wikipedia is correct - no matter what that one teacher says. His engagement with and the value he puts on the service you provide is why I gave today, while I know it isn’t much. For a single mom with two kids, it is something. Thank you again.
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Wikipedia has been around for a long time. As a dedicated redditor (ew makes me sound sweaty), I respect and appreciate the accumulation of information that's so readily available. I think a lot of us take for granted the bounds of information that Wikipedia provides. Structurally intact, familiar formatting, and the sources are all at the bottom! People are always told not to reference Wikipedia but all the information on Wikipedia has to be cited! I wish people understood this more clearly and respected it. Thank you for providing the tools to allow games and other fandom things to make their own pages and have sites dedicated to communities allowing them to flourish and have a place to store shared/important information. I would like to thank all of you. Thank you so much. :)
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I sincerely value the seemingly endless amount of information that Wikipedia offers, as well as the integrity of the policy which does not turn users' data into a commodity. I also greatly appreciate the effort that goes into keeping Wiki running. It is a unique and Important resource. Thanks to everyone that makes that happen.
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In my opinion, Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation are some of the closest groups to fulfilling the true promise of the internet: unlimited knowledge, available any time, anywhere, for anyone, and for free. I believe that access to knowledge is a fundamental human right, and those that seek to exploit this for profit, political advantage, or personal gain are corrupting the true opportunity that the digital age presents all of us. I have upmost respect for Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, which have been invaluable resources in both my academic career and my continuous personal quest for knowledge, and want to thank everyone who works to put these resources a few keystrokes away from all.
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I'm a history buff. My son's hated playing Trivial Pursuit against me when they were younger. In fact, my brother called it Trivial Dispute. But I truly appreciate the fact that you have literally everything I need to know right here on my phone. Thank you very much.
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As a community college librarian, I strongly support wikipedia. Some professors have discounted wikipedia, and I agree—for academic research, it’s not a good place to end up. However, it’s a marvelous place to start. To gain basic understanding of almost anything . . . to get a general idea of the important issues involved in a topic . . . to learn specific current vocabulary for search terms . . . to have a collection of topical references on which to practice evaluation skills and follow knowledge threads. And for many community and civic topics, it’s the best resource out there. As an occasional wikipedia editor, I have glimpsed, working with the volunteers, how such an enormous collaboration works so well. Wikipedia is one of the most beautiful manifestations of collective mental power I have ever encountered.

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I am a trauma surgeon in the US and I LOVE donating to wikipedia. how many times a day do I use it? a gajillion. A couple weeks ago I was leading a journal club, in which my surgeon-trainees, my surgeon partners and I choose an article about surgical critical care and discuss it. I explained that an apparent change in surgical outcomes associated with a specific practice may have been due to the Hawthorne effect, but no one knew what that was. So I explained it, and then I wondered out loud how the effect came to be named "Hawthorne". So I looked on wikipedia which had a fantastic article about the identification of the Hawthorne effect and who Hawthorne was. I shared it all with my partners. Then I shared also that I give money to wikipedia, and they all looked shocked. They thought "other people" (some mysterious cohort of people "somewhere else" not people that they actually knew) gave money to wikipedia. All of them use it all the time, of course, because HONESTLY, who doesn't? This made me get all preachy about how they were surgeons, for god's sake, which means they have more than enough money to eat and live in a nice house and send their kids to college, and they should give some fucking money to wikipedia! so there. Thanks for all you do. Sometimes surgeons wonder what they'll do when they retire. Not me though. I know what I will do - I will volunteer to do things for wikipedia!!!!!
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...every time I use Wikipedia I’m struck by what a marvel it is. Even on its worst day, Wikipedia is a testament to knowledge and the unimaginable amounts of work we’re capable of doing for something we love. It’s those moments that keep what frail thread of hope I hold for humanity intact. Truly. While it’s still not much, I more than doubled my donation this year. Best of luck with fundraising and many thanks to you, the editors, the staff etc., etc.
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As a professor, I was reluctant for many years to let students cite Wikipedia. By the time I retired, I encouraged them to do so as a result of the improved accuracy and reliability of results. Thanks, editors.
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I appreciate the dedication and hard work put into the website and want you all to know(or even whoever is reading this) that I appreciate all the work you guys do for the WORLD and that you guys are my hero's, you provide the world with free knowledge and that In my opinion is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a person. I love you all and wish you and your families the best. Keep doing what you're doing, and know you guys are the reason a lot of people succeed in the world; you guys are the back-bone of society :)
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