Global Resource Distribution Committee/Grantmaking Strategy 2026/Funding priorities & impact

Aim 2: Funding priorities & impact

To enable individuals, groups and organisations to increase the human and financial sustainability of the Wikimedia movement through access to funding, and to better understand the impact of this investment in order to inform future activities and decisions.

Framework and Key Priority

The Global Resource Distribution Committee is the body that sets global high-level priorities for grantmaking for the movement, and defines impact. Grantmaking priorities will be based on Movement Strategy and other relevant inputs, which can be further contextualized locally. Impact should be aligned with movement priorities, and include the societal changes achieved.

The overall purpose of affiliates is to generate Wikimedia content, support and grow Wikimedia communities, and promote Wikimedia’s model and mission at a local or regional level. Individuals and movement-adjacent organisations applying for funding are also expected to work within at least one of these areas. The overarching framework for funding is therefore to support content, communities and contextualisation of Wikimedia at a local, regional or transnational level.

Within this framework, there is a very wide range of activities that could potentially be eligible for funding through the Community Fund. However, it was clear from the extensive consultation undertaken by this Committee that both grantees (individuals, communities and affiliates) and the funder (Wikimedia Foundation and Regional Funds Committees) are seeking greater clarity on the key priorities for movement funding. Whilst seeking to encourage diverse and context-specific programs, the GRDC has responded to this by identifying the human and financial sustainability of the Wikimedia movement as the high level priority for grantmaking.

Sustainability (human and financial) was the first recommendation within the 2030 movement strategy. This proposed priority also resonates with the multigenerational strategy published by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2024 (built around volunteer growth and long term resilience), and the four priorities developed by the Foundation in 2026 in response to the global trends (Reach, Engage, Protect and Enable). The concepts of human and financial sustainability are explored in more detail below.

Human sustainability includes but is not limited to:

• Recruiting and training new contributors
• Supporting volunteer and editor retention
• Supporting the work of community leaders, including users with extended rights
• Safeguarding free and open access to Wikimedia projects for human users
• Growing readership through content partnerships, outreach and communications
• Ensuring staff are remunerated in line with local benchmarks and well managed

Financial sustainability includes but is not limited to:

• Good financial stewardship, making proper use of movement funds
• Ensuring investment in grantees is proportionate to the expected impact
• Focusing investment on initiatives that Wikimedia is uniquely placed to deliver
• Supporting grantees to fundraise and mobilise resources at a local level

As this strategy is implemented, the extent to which funding proposals demonstrate their contribution to human and/or financial sustainability will become the primary lens through which all applications to the Community Fund are viewed; although the expected outputs and outcomes will of course be proportionate to the investment requested. This does not negate the focus on equity in access to resources identified earlier in this strategy. The key priority for grantmaking will be reviewed as part of the annual iteration of this strategy; however, the Committee anticipates that a focus on human and financial sustainability will remain critical over the next few years of implementation.

Objective 2.1: Identify and define key tactics for sustainability:

To identify and socialise the key tactics, initiatives and ways of working that can support human and financial sustainability across our movement, in order to support and accelerate this work; allowing for local contextualisation and prioritisation.

Key Features:

• Wikimedia Foundation will work with affiliates and contributor communities to capture, synthesise and disseminate tried-and-tested approaches to volunteer recruitment and retention, including good practice in supporting users with extended rights.
• Wikimedia Foundation will work with affiliates to support fundraising efforts, as detailed elsewhere in this strategy (Objective 3.4); acknowledging that not all affiliates will be in a position to raise external funds due to internal capacity or external legal, economic, cultural, or other constraints.
• There will be flexibility within the key priority to allow more granular contextualisation to happen at a regional level. However, all grantees should demonstrate their relevance to the key priority as well as their capacity to successfully deliver the proposed project or program in order to have the best chance of being supported within a constrained resource environment.
• Further criteria can be decided and applied on a local level to make funding decisions. Locally-defined funding criteria developed by Regional Funding Committees should relate to evidence of need within that geographic or thematic area.

Objective 2.2: Create a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Framework

The creation of a comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework for grantmaking within the Wikimedia movement, which enables us to better capture, understand and share our results and impact internally and externally.

Key Features:

• Long term outcomes that describe the societal changes that we are hoping to achieve through grantmaking as well as the short to medium outcomes that we expect grantmaking to deliver.
• A set of consistent qualitative and quantitative metrics that can be applied across all projects, programs and funded organisations, allowing for regional, local and organisational contextualisation (for example, organisations may choose to monitor and evaluate different aspects of their work, as long as they include the key metrics)
• Robust tools and mechanisms for gathering and reporting on outputs and outcomes, developed and maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation with guidelines and training available to all grantees.
• The synthesis and dissemination of monitoring, evaluation and learning data by the Wikimedia Foundation to ensure shared learning and accountability and support communications about the movement’s impact.
• Welcoming innovation and risk-taking from individuals and groups of all sizes; recognising that failure is a possible and acceptable outcome.
• Encouraging the sharing of learning, best practice and failures in order to support the development and implementation of more effective and evidence-led activities.
• The monitoring and evaluation framework should be proportionate to investment, with groups and individuals on the lower tiers being expected to report mainly on outputs and direct results, while Tier 4 grantees should be using a range of approaches to measure and describe progress towards the long term outcomes.

Objective 2.3: Publish clear and accessible grantmaking guidelines annually

The publication of clear and accessible guidelines for existing and potential grantees that sets out the Wikimedia Foundation’s funding priorities, eligibility requirements, application process, impact framework and reporting requirements. Key Features:

• On an annual basis, WMF will publish a set of guidelines that include the key priorities for funding for the upcoming fiscal year, alongside its annual plan and grantmaking budget for the year. These guidelines will be established and decided by the GRDC, in collaboration with the Community Resources team and Regional Funds Committees.
• Eligibility requirements for applying for grants will be defined in connection with the tier model, defining pathways for all applicants to the applicable fund.