According to a recent release by the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization - the parent of the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia - has raised over $16 million in what apparently is the "shortest fundraiser in Wikimedia history."

Talking about the fund-raining effort, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a post that over 500,000 individual donations were tallied by the organization since the November 14 inception of the pledge drive. In comparison, nearly 230,000 individual donations were submitted during Wikipedia's 67-day fundraiser in 2009.

Going by the other detailed statistics released by Wikimedia Foundation, donations by the Wikipedia users averaged nearly $22, with gifts coming in from 140 countries. While $13.7 million of the total $16 million contributions came via online donations; the remaining amount was contributed via direct checks and donations from different Wikimedia chapters round the world.

The amount raised through the fundraiser will essentially be used for funding Wikipedia's different infrastructure costs, staffing, program support, and grants, along with other costs listed in Wikipedia's annual plan for 2010-2011.

In a prepared statement, Wales said: "This outpouring of support by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life is a testament to the spirit of the Wikimedia movement. Wikipedia is a public resource created

and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, relied on by over 400 million people and paid for by half a million donors. It's truly user-created, supported and maintained."