The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, headed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, Anna Wojcicki of personal genomics website 23andMe, has made a $500,000 donation to Wikipedia.

The generous grant will go towards funding the operations of the Wikipedia, the expansive free online encyclopedia that is available to users at no cost, despite the site’s goal to remain free of advertising.

“When I founded Wikipedia,” said founder Jimmy Wales, “I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.”

The donation from the philanthropic tech couple is coming during Wikipedia’s annual fundraising drive, and lends some serious star backing to the company.

“This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual fundraising campaign this week,” said Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner.

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