Came across this blog entry over at Wikimedia on why wikipedia does not run ads and thrives on Donation.
Wikipedia and its sister projects are supported almost exclusively by donations like yours. Every donor gives an average of about US$ 30. The projects are operating on a shoestring budget: While similarly popular “Web 2.0″ websites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are valuated at billions of dollars, our annual budget is less than $5 million. Wikipedia is the only top-10 website that’s operated by a non-profit organization, dedicated not to the benefit of its owners, but to the benefit of humankind.
