Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Annual Grant of the Wikimedians of the United Arab Emirates 2026-2027

statusUnder review

Wikimedia Community Fund

Annual Grant of the Wikimedians of the United Arab Emirates 2026-2027

Fluxx IDR-GS-2602-22078

proposed start date2026-06-01

proposed end date2027-07-31

amount requested (local currency)273657.62 AED

amount requested (USD)74516.97 USD

grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

funding regionMENA

decision fiscal year2025-26

funding program roundRound 2

applicant and people related to proposal[[User:|]] ([[User talk:|talk]] • accounts • contributions • edit count)

organization (if applicable)Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group

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This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds, where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)

Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group

Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)

Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund

You are applying as a(n). (required)

Wikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)

No

Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

Yes

Fiscal organization name.

Emirates Literature Foundation

Please provide links to the following documents if they are available

These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.

• Organizational website
• Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
• Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
• Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)

Annual Grant of the Wikimedians of the United Arab Emirates 2026-2027

2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year base funding for 3 years? (required) (only for returning applicants)

No

2.1. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)

N/A

3. Proposed start date. (required)

2026-06-01

4. Proposed end date. (required)

2027-07-31

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

Yes

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Uq-AIgiLxUgo4SZiruzPx6CM5yrEvYLE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303761975887122707&rtpof=true&sd=true

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

No

7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

United Arab Emirates

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

1. Education and Digital Literacy:

• Strategy: Strengthen and maintain existing university partnerships (University of Sharjah, American University in Dubai, Jeddah University, and Effat University) and develop internship programs to foster

student engagement.

• Challenge: Limited student awareness of Wikimedia projects.
• Solution: Provide hands-on training and pathways for effective contributions, nurturing a new generation of editors.
• Activities: Training and internship programs.
• Notes: We have established strong partnerships with several universities, including Sharjah

University, the American University in Dubai, Jeddah University, and Effat University. We aim to strengthen these collaborations further by offering regular training and internship programs throughout the year.

2. Community Building and Outreach:

• Strategy: Organize multilingual activities (edit-a-thons (2), competitions (4), meet-ups (3)) to engage a diverse community and offer tutorials and necessary training to participate effectively in these programs.
• Challenge: Low engagement from new members and a need for skill development and programs that are multilingual. We want to increase the rate of active/returnee members and offer beginner-friendly programs for newcomers.
• Solution: Implement structured programs (Wiki AE Club, Trainings and workshops before each program) to enhance skills and foster a supportive community.
• Activities: 1Editor1Reference, Community Meetups every four months, Wiki AE Club sessions, Harir Competition, WikiCollections)

• Notes:
• Given the UAE's diverse population, which includes many non-Arabic speakers, we will be actively promoting our programs and activities in various venues. Our goal is to recruit individuals from all major groups in the UAE, including local Emiratis, other GCC citizens, Levantine and North African residents, Middle Easterners, South Asians, sub-Saharan Africans, Westerners, East and Southeast Asians, and more.
• Following a successful first round that addressed an underrepresented genre on Arabic Wikipedia and engaged contributors passionate about collections, WikiCollection will enter a second phase with a multilingual focus.This new phase will reflect the diversity of our community by allowing contributors to participate in their respective Wikipedia language projects. Participants will expand and improve content related to collections within their own linguistic and cultural contexts, making the initiative globally inclusive rather than language-specific. In parallel, the user group will strengthen its focus on Wikidata as part of the grant objectives. Structured data development will support the collections theme by creating, enriching, and connecting relevant Wikidata items, ensuring sustainability and cross-language visibility of the content produced. This project has strong partnership potential, particularly with institutions and organizations managing cultural or thematic collections. Its multilingual and structured-data components position it as a globally scalable initiative aligned with the diversity of our community.

3. Communication and Outreach:

• Strategy: Utilize targeted campaigns and digital outreach to increase visibility and engagement.
• Challenge: Need for effective communication with a diverse community.
• Solution: Conduct community analysis and develop tailored campaigns to address specific interests and needs.

4. Research Program:

• Strategy: Leverage data analysis to inform and improve project outcomes.
• Challenge: Lack of data-driven insights to guide project improvements.
• Solution: Develop databases and conduct SWOT analyses to refine strategies and enhance impact.

5. UAE Identity Projects:

• Strategy: Document UAE heritage and encourage community participation in Wikimedia projects (Wiki Loves Earth, UAE in Data, and Lingua Emirates).

• Challenge: Copy-rights such as the No Freedom of Panorama for buildings and Monuments. Therefore Wiki Loves Monuments can no longer benefit us and we shall not organize it again.

• Solution: Finding creative ways to organize competitions and campaigns that do not violate copyrights and doesn't hinder us from organizing photography and non-photography campaigns in the UAE.

• Activities: Wiki Loves Earth - UAE, UAE in Data, and Lingua Emirates

• Notes:
• Wiki Loves Earth UAE has highlighted the predominance of non-Arabic speaking contributors. This valuable insight underscores the need to tailor our activities and programs to better serve these diverse communities within the UAE.

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)

Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	Yes
Gender and diversity	No
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	Yes
Public policy advocacy	No
Technology (software development)	No
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required)

Wiki Club, Editing Wikipedia Training, Translation, Research, Wikidata programs, Wikimedia Commons programs

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required)

Vocational, tertiary, or higher education, Teachers or professors, Senior citizens

Other groups if any: N/A

Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)

Supporting institutions to open up their collections, data, metadata, and research, Supporting GLAM professionals to incorporate use of Wikimedia in their work, through documentation, training, or Wikimedian in Residence programs, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.

On-wiki training of community members, Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events, Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences, Offering non financial support and services to community members (equipment, space, books, etc.)

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)

1Lib1Ref, Wiki Loves Earth, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Uq-AIgiLxUgo4SZiruzPx6CM5yrEvYLE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303761975887122707&rtpof=true&sd=true

11. Describe your team. (required)

2026 proposed team structure: 1. Director of the User Group (Full time) - oversees all programs and activities. 2. Communication Coordinator (Part-time) - Handles outreach and communications with our Community. 3. Research Lead (Part-time) - conduct data analysis and support project improvements. 5. 2 Organizers (Activity-based) - supporting in leading the activities from the community.

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

Wikimedia Community Collaboration: We will actively engage with Wikimedians from the wider Wikimedia community to support the implementation of our programs and activities which will ensure that our initiatives align with the needs and interests of our members.

Emirates Literature Foundation: engaging the Wikimedians and Wikimedia Foundation to participate in Emirates Literature Foundation including but not limited to: Emirates LitFest, Dubai International Librarians Conference, and multiple Educational programs.

Jahzeen Foundation: we continue our collaboration with the Jahzeen foundation from Oman to support them in forming a User Group in Oman. We started by designing a program in 2024 called the "Wiki Oman Youth Program" to train 20+ youth in becoming auto-patrolled users.

Having regular meetings with WMF Strategic Partnership and Grant-making to ensure that we’re aligned and improving.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)

Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers

Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	200	N/A
Number of all editors	110	N/A
Number of new editors	60
Number of retained editors	50
Number of all organizers	12	N/A
Number of new organizers	5

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia	4000	500
Wikimedia Commons	2000
Wikidata	8000
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)

No

Other Metrics	Description	Target
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)

Yes

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

The Million Wiki Project.

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)

22769

17. Your local currency. (required)

AED

18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)

273657.62 AED

Multi-year funding request summary

Year	Amount (local currency)
Year 1	N/A AED
Year 2	N/A AED
Year 3	N/A AED

Requested amount in USD

74516.97 USD

Multi-year funding request summary in USD

Year	Amount USD
Year 1	N/A USD
Year 2	N/A USD
Year 3	N/A USD

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)

Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)

Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.

2 FTE (1 Full-time, 2 Part-time)

2 Contractors (activity-based)

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)

Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.

1 FTE

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)

We have two part-time and two contractors

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).

Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs	151307 AED
Operational costs	11017.5 AED
Programmatic costs	122347.91 AED

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vrIcKpfYLVibCXE2jz6UNoUkX8TTK_eL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303761975887122707&rtpof=true&sd=true

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

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By submitting your proposal/funding request you confirm that you have read and agree to the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy, and the Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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