Donations to the Wikimedia Foundation will fund various needs of the Wikipedia website, including servers, bandwidth, development, and maintenance. Donations will also help support employees of the non-profit group.

"Even though we raised more this year than any other year—$16 million—it was also the shortest fundraiser we've ever had, " noted Wales in his public letter of thanks. "This fundraiser had all the ingredients of what we love about Wikimedia projects: people come together, contribute what they have, and together we do something amazing."

The Wikimedia Foundation received more than 500,000 donations, with an average donation of about US$ 20.