Wikipedia: Create a page on the Internet’s largest encyclopedia!

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. According to its website, Wikipedia is actively updated in over 250 languages and contains over 10 million articles. These numbers are constantly growing because of the high frequency of new submissions and edits of existing articles.

Wikipedia itself is a “Wiki”, meaning it is designed to allow anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content.

It is interesting to note that Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a registered public charity in the United States. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting and encouraging growth, development and distribution of free multilingual content, and to providing the content free of charge to the public.

Accuracy of Information

There is dispute over the accuracy of the information on Wikipedia. To address this issue and to ensure accurate content, all submissions and edits are moderated and regulated by a staff of regular Wikipedia volunteers. However, all information learned from Wikipedia should be double-checked. In academic circles, using Wikipedia articles as references is severely frowned upon. But…Wikipedia is great for learning about a new topic, seeing how different topics are connected and catching up on current affairs.

Why should I create an entry for my charity?

Wikipedia has become one of the most popular websites on the Internet not just because of its ease of use, but also because of the amount and timeliness of its information. It might take a regular encyclopedia a year or more to generate an entry for a new concept such as “Web 2.0”, but Wikipedia will have an entry as soon as someone takes the time to write one. Further, when searching in Google, Wikipedia is everywhere. Pretty much anything you type into Google results in a Wikipedia entry being returned as a top-10 result.

Because Wikipedia is so popular with Internet users, adding an entry about your organization can help you reach new audiences and increase awareness about your organization and cause. Making edits and contributions on your organization’s Wikipedia entry will keep readers updated on your organization’s activities, achievements, and events. It is also a place where you can increase traffic to your website by providing reference links on Wikipedia entries that are related to your organization.

Examples from the sector

Habitat for Humanity is an example of a nonprofit organization that has effectively used Wikipedia to provide useful information while promoting its cause. Their use of photos, a table of contents, and frequent updates make their Wikipedia entry a one-stop shop for visitors to learn about Habitat for Humanity. Links at the bottom of the entry direct readers to official sites of different Habitat for Humanity branches.

What You Need and How To Do It

Read the information on creating your first article here. We highly recommend you read this because the process of creating an entry could get tricky without this background information.
Create a Wikipedia account. You will need one to start a new entry. Visit Wikipedia's main page and click the “Log in/create account” link located in the top right-hand corner.
Write new content explaining your organization, and edit it until you get it right. We suggest doing this offline. If your entry contains information taken directly from your website, Wikipedia will not authorize your entry as its moderators believe you have infringed on copyright. To avoid this, write new content that is devoid of hype, totally unbiased, and basically read like an encyclopedia entry. Make sure you include references to achieve accuracy. The article we mentioned in Step 1 has more information about references. Once you’re satisfied with what you have written, you are ready to post it.
In the search box located on the left navigation bar, type in the name of your charity. If there is no entry for it on Wikipedia, you will be given the option to “Create the page…” Click this link and you should now have a big empty box in which you should write/paste your article. If your charity has an entry on Wikipedia already, you may choose to edit it.
When you have finished entering your content, click the "Show preview" button, and have a look at your handiwork.
Proofread. Have a good read through, looking out for spelling or grammatical errors. If you are happy with it, click the "Save Page" button.

Wikipedia Top Ten Tips

Remember that anyone can edit your Wikipedia entry so check it regularly to make sure it has not been updated with inaccurate information. If you disagree with someone’s edit of your entry, the opportunity exists to discuss it with the other Wikipedia user. If you can´t resolve the dispute, you can have it moderated by an administrator.
Your page must be objective both in tone and in content. Any sales-driven, promotional language will be removed. Wikipedia is self-regulating—meaning the community itself is quick to remove content that they deem inappropriate or promotional. That is why it is critical to write the Wiki entries in an unbiased manner. When writing the entry, use data, facts, and stats.
All information must be verifiable. This means referencing it, like you did in term papers. Unsourced information doesn’t last.
Reference other Wikipedia pages. Within the text of your Wikipedia page, it is encouraged and expected for you to link to other pages within Wikipedia. If you add a reference, make sure it substantiates a statement made in the main body of the article. Avoid adding links where registration is required to access the content, as that will be removed or flagged as spam.
Do not add photos to entries that you do not have permission to use; they will be removed because of copyright infringement.
Keep privacy concerns in mind. Unless the information is clearly public, check with someone first before posting names and other information they may not want public.
Wikipedia strives to be an encyclopedia, which means a collection of information we already know, not things you think people should know. This means keep your content neutral.
Visit Wikipedia’s Community Portal and scope out the help and resources section. You’ll find guidelines, policies, a style manual, tutorials, editing tools, and much more.
Keep this cheat sheet handy so you know how to format your article.
Avoid Wikipedia’s speedy deletion. Wikipedia will delete articles that don’t have enough information and citations in them. This is a common problem, and something you can avoid with just a little planning. If you’re going to build your article piece by piece, be sure that the first version you publish is a good enough “stub.” Basically, a stub that is good enough to avoid speedy deletion will clearly assert why the article’s subject is notable, and include a citation or two to independent, reliable sources. Then you can add to your article later when you’re more familiar with Wikipedia’s features and formatting tools. Read more about stubs here.

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