He advocated for ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization supporting AIDS victims in Uganda, and used the popularity of Vim to encourage donations.

Seeking to match vi, Moolenaar eventually added in additional features, such as undoing multiple levels.

[4] The first version of "Vi IMitation" was released in 1988 on a public domain disk set made by Fred Fish.

[2] Moolenaar was a member of the Dutch Unix user group, NLUUG, which presented him with an award during its 25th anniversary, for his creation of Vim and his contributions to open-source software in general.

[11] Moolenaar was an advocate of ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization based in Kibaale, Uganda which he founded to support children whose parents have died of AIDS.

In 1994, he volunteered as a water and sanitation engineer for the Kibaale Children's Centre; he made several return trips over the following twenty-five years.