WASHINGTON - ONLINE encyclopedia Wikipedia announced on Friday that it had attained its fundraising goal of US$6 million(S$8.75 million), enough to cover operating expenses for the current fiscal year.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said more than 125,000 people had donated a total of US$4 million since he made an appeal for funds on July 1.

'In addition, we've received major gifts and foundation support totalling two million dollars,' Mr Wales said in a thank you letter on the website of his non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

'This combined revenue will cover our operating expenses for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2009.'

Mr Wales said the money would pay for 'day-to-day operations: servers, hosting, bandwidth, our staff of just 23 people' and 'continued development and improvements of open source software that powers all Wikimedia projects'.

Mr Wales said any further donations beyond the six-million-dollar goal would be placed in a 'reserve fund, which will help us to offset operating costs beyond the current fiscal year'.

'Your continued support will also serve as a much-needed financial safety net if economic conditions continue to worsen globally,' he said.

In his donation appeal, Mr Wales said that over the past eight years, more than 150,000 volunteers have contributed over 11 million articles in 265 languages to wikipedia.org.

'More than 275 million people come to our website every month to access information, free of charge and free of advertising,' he added.

Mr Wales's online encyclopedia allows anyone with an Internet connection to make entries and edit content. -- AFP