Wikimedia Grantmaking is a collaboration between grantees, WMF staff, volunteer committees, and Wikimedians
from across the globe. We connect people from dozens of
Wikimedia projects
and geographies within our worldwide free culture movement.
Grantees are the prime movers of Wikimedia Grantmaking.
They identify new opportunities and unmet needs within their local communities and wiki projects, propose projects, and see them through to completion. Grantees work with WMF staff, committee members, and other community volunteers to plan their projects, implement their ideas, measure impact, and share what they learned.
The Wikimedia Foundation's
Community Resources
team supports six grantmaking streams and Wikimania scholarships
?Conference and Travel Support, Project and Rapid Grants, and Simple and FDC Annual Plan Grants. There are six grants program officers, a grants administrator, a conference organizer, and a community organizer. Community Resources staff work closely with WMF's Learning & Evaluation, Education, Wikipedia Library, Community Liaison, Community Advocacy, Analytics, Legal, Finance, and Executive teams.
Grantmaking committee members are the primary advisors and decision-makers within our grants programs.
Our five committees are made up of contributors from different language Wikipedia and sister projects, and include volunteer participants from around the world. Committee members provide guidance and feedback to grant applicants, supporting prospective grantees throughout the proposal and review process. Grantmaking committees work with WMF staff to disburse over $8 million in annual funding.
Strong community participation is critical to our success.
The broader Wikimedia community participates in grantmaking processes in important ways. Community members endorse and comment on grant proposals, brainstorm bold new initiatives in the
IdeaLab
, and share knowledge through
Learning Patterns
. They often participate with specific projects by offering their expertise, such as evaluation support or design help. Multilingual Wikimedians take the lead on
translating and localizing
grantmaking portals, instructional documentation, project reports, and blog posts, making the process and the outcomes of WMF grantmaking more accessible and engaging to non-English speakers.