A color-coordinated map of the Middle East, a sketch of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — illustrations of topics as disparate as those could now earn the artists some quick cash.

Because of a $20,000 contribution by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Philip Greenspun, Wikipedia.com will pay artists — professional or otherwise — $40 for original artwork to support entries that currently lack images.

“I hope it will improve the utility of the site,” Greenspun said of the Greenspun Illustration Project. “A lot of times a drawing is required to communicate.

“I don’t really believe in giving people more tasks to do without giving them resources to do it,” Greenspun said. “Historically, Wikipedia hasn’t really used illustrators at all — people type in the text and find illustrations from [the Internet].”

But the donation is not planned to fund images on the website forever — Greenspun said after his contribution dries up, Wikipedia will have to make sure cash keeps coming in.

“I think Wikipedia, since it doesn’t have advertising, is in less good shape to go about paying [for] production,” he said. “I don’t think they’re fighting for legitimacy.”

“It’s adding to the production side,” he added.

Wikimedia, a non-profit that operates Wikipedia.org and other services like Wikibooks and Wikiquotes, is exploring ways to boost the stipend to continue to attract more takers, said Wikimedia spokeswoman Sandra Ordonez in an email.

“Our articles would greatly benefit from the inclusion of images,” Ordonez said. “However, since illustrations require an advanced skill set, it is currently difficult to secure images.” Wikimedia spokesman Dan Rosenthal said pictures would make the website more appealing to students and casual Internet surfers. “Some people are visual learners and can more easily understand an article that contains an illustration than to digest even the most well written text,” Rosenthal said in an email. “Others may simply enjoy seeing illustrations in the encyclopedia, and we hope it will help increase peoples’ knowledge and understanding on a particular article.”

But those who contribute writing to an entry in hopes of cashing in will still have to submit elsewhere, Rosenthal said, because the website has had little trouble attracting willing writers. “The belief is that volunteers will put out a higher quality product than people motivated by profit when we can get the volunteers,” he said. “The Greenspun Illustration project was created because it is difficult to find volunteer illustrators.” Students who often use Wikipedia.org as a starting point for research say illustrations would improve their understanding.

“I think it’s a good thing that they’re paying people to make it easier on us, the viewers, to have illustrations for each subject,” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Andrea Avalos. “It doesn’t just benefit us — it benefits the people being paid.”