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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Hungary 2026

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statusFunded
Wikimedia Hungary 2026
Fluxx IDG-GS-2508-20068
proposed start date2026-01-01
proposed end date2026-12-31
approved start date01 January 2026
approved end date31 December 2026
amount requested (local currency)20000000 HUF
amount requested (USD)56000 USD [note 1]
amount recommended (USD)58000
amount recommended (local currency)20000000 HUF
grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)
funding regionCEECA
decision fiscal year2025-26
funding program roundRound 1
organization (if applicable)Wikimédia Magyarország Egyesület

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

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Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)
Wikimédia Magyarország Egyesület
Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)
No, it is my first time applying for 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)
Yes
Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
No
Fiscal organization name.
N/A
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

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1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)
Wikimedia Hungary 2026
2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year base funding for 3 years? (required) (only for returning applicants)
N/A
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)
2026-01-01
4. Proposed end date. (required)
2026-12-31
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://drive.google.com/file/d/19EEiYFRO-ibnNVSMfLNK5OdKzCB5Of2m
6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
Yes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XjZ52vFCAaPnaTG7bXeKGemarCYaPfED
7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Hungary
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) Several years ago, the Board and General Assembly of Wikimedia Hungary decided to gradually transform the Association from a volunteer-run organization managed by the Board into a professional organization managed by responsible staff. The first step was hiring an administrative assistant to help the Board a few hours each week. Next, beginning in 2019, a project manager was brought on to assist with implementing the Association's programs. Currently, Wikimedia Hungary has a project coordinator working at 0.33 full-time equivalent (FTE) and a project assistant working at 0.25 FTE. Although this setup frees the Board from most day-to-day operational and administrative tasks, it has limitations. First, this capacity is just enough to meet the legal reporting and administrative requirements for public benefit NGOs, but it also severely limits the resources that can be allocated to activities and projects related to the Association's objectives. Second, the staff does not have independent decision-making authority, so the Board must make decisions on every matter and even approve all bank transactions. This is an inefficient way to manage an organization, especially when working on several projects simultaneously. Additionally, staff members work part-time for the Association, which is demanding to sustain alongside a full-time job, yet not sufficient to provide a living on its own. As a result, staff cannot devote sufficient attention to their work for the Association. Even the most committed staff members burn out with this arrangement, which threatens retention.

To address these problems, the Association’s objective is to transition current staff roles from secondary positions held alongside other full-time jobs into sustainable primary employment, which requires additional financial resources. At the same time, the chapter will change its organizational structure so that an executive director responsible for making decisions related to day-to-day operations will lead the staff. This transformation requires a thorough community discussion and legal consultation, followed by a legal process expected to take 5–6 months in total. Therefore, the plan for next year anticipates spending the first half of the year implementing this transition while maintaining the current total of 0.6 FTE staff. In the second half of the year, the Association will transition to a staff of 1.5 FTEs, including an executive director (1.0 FTE) and a project assistant (0.5 FTE). This change provides a solid foundation for expanding the program plan, which will in turn strengthen the Wikimedia community and promote the development of free knowledge.

2) In addition to organizational development, a second pillar of capacity building and a top priority of the strategic plan is to promote the growth of volunteer capacity within both the Association and the wider Wikimedia community. The volunteer community is the heart and driving force of the Wikimedia movement: without its enthusiasm and sustained activity, current and future free knowledge projects based on community contribution cannot be maintained. Moreover, community dynamics are often self-reinforcing: when a project declines, more and more people abandon it, while a thriving, vibrant project not only retains its contributors but also attracts new ones. However, political and social developments in Hungary, along with global shifts in technology and content consumption habits, threaten the survival of both the local community and the organization that supports it. Statistics show that both the total number of editors (see https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/editors/normal%7Cline%7Call%7C~total%7Cmonthly) and the number of active editors (see https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/active-editors/normal%7Cline%7Call%7C(page_type)~content*non-content%7Cmonthly) on the Hungarian Wikipedia have dropped to their lowest point since 2006. Even more concerning are the trends of the past four years in activity by registered and especially unregistered contributors (see https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/editors/normal%7Cline%7C2021-12-17~2025-09-20%7Ceditor_type~anonymous*group-bot*name-bot*user%7Cmonthly), which have steadily and somewhat increasingly declined. Similar processes are apparent in the Association’s volunteer base, which largely draws from the Wikimedia project communities.

While Wikimedia Hungary has little influence over the negative external influences mentioned above, it can help ensure the community’s survival and vitality by improving its health and dynamics. In order to achieve this, the Association intends to use the planned organizational restructuring as an opportunity to activate its existing membership and to recruit new members and volunteers. It will also actively work to support and retain volunteers in Wikimedia projects and to attract new contributors, in order to prevent further decline in the volunteer community. This effort concerns not only editors, but also experienced contributors in administrative and support roles, such as patrollers, bureaucrats, technical contributors, VRT members, mentors, and organizers. The underlying issue is a decline in the number of active users with extended rights, which is already having a noticeable negative impact on the functioning of the Hungarian Wikipedia. For example, due to the limited capacity of patrollers, the average review delay for “pages with edits currently pending review” is nine months (see https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci%C3%A1lis:Ellen%C5%91rz%C3%A9si_statisztika and https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci%C3%A1lis:Elavult_ellen%C5%91rz%C3%B6tt_lapok), dramatically reducing the effectiveness of attracting or retaining new editors. A similarly serious problem is the shortage of mentors (currently there are only two more or less active mentors on Hungarian Wikipedia (see https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci%C3%A1lis:ManageMentors), meaning that new editors often receive little or no guidance on editing issues. Another pressing issue is that all emails related to Hungarian Wikipedia (requests for information, complaints, permissions) are handled by just one or two overworked contributors (see https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:%C3%96nk%C3%A9ntes_%C3%BCgyf%C3%A9lszolg%C3%A1lat), often resulting in very long response times. Even more seriously, Hungarian Wikipedia’s sister projects face even greater challenges. This objective is in line with the Wikimedia Foundation's annual plan, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2025-2026/Global_Trends/Users_with_extended_rights. In this area, the Association can build on the experience gained through its earlier Editor Retention Program supported by the Project Fund (see: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/WM_HU/Editor_retention_program) Further details, for example on appreciation, motivation, activation of contributors, and on support through technical tools and in-person events, can be found in the 2026 Annual Plan.

3) Consistent with the strategic plan, the Association’s secondary objective is to promote and support the creation and improvement of free content, the dissemination of knowledge related to it, and the development of partnerships and collaborations around it. The 2026 Annual Plan therefore contains initiatives that build both on the activities of previous years and on new ideas.

The CEE Spring contest helps address content gaps partly rooted in historical relations, as knowledge about neighboring and regional countries and their cultures is underrepresented in Hungarian, including on Hungarian Wikipedia. Expanding this coverage can also foster better social understanding of neighboring peoples in the long term. Similarly, Asia Month and other campaigns focus on articles about distant cultures and countries, helping to fill gaps not only in Hungarian Wikipedia but often in the Hungarian language more broadly. Partnerships and future projects with libraries and other GLAM institutions will also contribute by making valuable cultural heritage content freely available that has so far been unavailable digitally or not released under open licenses.

In addition, Wikimedia Hungary plans to prepare larger media campaigns (such as Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth). These require databases that are controlled by government or government-affiliated institutions and are currently not freely available, and in many cases not public at all. Negotiations and legal preparations for such collaborations, then preparation of the contest itself take many months, and the affiliate has lacked the capacity to pursue them in recent years. Campaigns of this type have proven very popular in the past and are highly effective outreach tools for raising awareness of Wikimedia projects and attracting new contributors.

There are multiple databases and collections from earlier partnerships no longer available online and have not yet been uploaded to Wikimedia projects due to limited affiliate capacity. These include databases suitable for Wikidata, media collections for Wikimedia Commons, and text collections for Wikisource. One example is the bibliographic database of works published in Hungary, which could serve as the basis for further tools in the future, such as a citation tool in Wikipedia. Another is the database of public artworks in Hungary, which could be used to launch image and article competitions (e.g., Wiki Loves Public Art). A third is the archive of freely licensed images rescued from the indafoto.hu platform, which closed in 2025. Parts of this collection, especially those with educational or cultural value, are ready for upload to Wikimedia Commons.

Based on this, the General Support Fund will expand the capacities of Wikimedia Hungary, enabling new activities that more effectively support the community. For example, it will make possible motivational campaigns, address the most critical capacity issues of the Hungarian Wikipedia (patrolling, mentoring, VRT, etc.), increase the number of events and training sessions, and provide the community with technical support. In addition, it will support the better organization of recurring community campaigns, such as article writing competitions and editathons, by reaching more participants and involving other organizations and partners. Finally, it will contribute to the preparation and implementation of long-planned projects that promote the availability of free content on Wikimedia projects and, building on this, to future tools and initiatives that will once again strengthen the volunteer community. Together, these efforts will both strengthen the Wikimedia community and advance the development of free knowledge.

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)
Category Yes/No
Education No
Culture, heritage or GLAM Yes
Gender and diversity No
Community support and engagement Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests Yes
Public policy advocacy No
Other No


Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)
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 micro-funding and other financial support to community members , Offering non financial support and services to community members (equipment, space, books, etc.), Other
Other programs and activities if any: technical support and experimenting with new tools

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)
CEE Spring, Wikipedia Asian Month, Wiki Loves Folklore, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos, Wikipedia Birthday or Anniversary, Other
Other programs and activities if any: Preparation for future photo contests like Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Public Art etc., building connections with libraries for next year's 1Lib1Ref campaign.
10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyvL2t72LYAQ12XNgNWVEjIBu77M-72f8-VbBLdUBq8
11. Describe your team. (required)

Wikimedia Hungary's Board members (volunteers): 

* Péter Gervai (User:Grin): president
* Tímea Baksa (User:Xia): executive vice president
* Balázs Viczián (User:Vince): financial vice president
* Anna Sárközy (User:Nyiffi): board member
* Tünde Hujber (User:Hujber Tünde): board member

The Board is the executive body of the organization, which decides on all matters between two General Assemblies that are not referred to the exclusive competence of the General Assembly by the Bylaws or by law. This includes tasks related to the operational management of the Association; the submission of the annual plan, reports, amendments to internal policies and to the Bylaws to the General Assembly; and decisions on the admission and exclusion of members. Within the Board, the President has the right to sign contracts, legal documents, and financial transactions, while the Executive vice president acts as the President's deputy and oversees operational tasks. The Financial vice president is responsible for the Association's finances.

Paid staff: 

* User:Samat (WMM): project coordinator, currently at a 0.33 FTE
* User:VRéka (WMM): project assistant, currently at a 0.25 FTE

The staff's role is to support the Board in all its management and operational tasks. In practical terms, this means that the staff prepares all decisions of the Board and executes its decisions, manages internal and external communications, fundraising campaigns, organizes the projects specified in the annual plan, handles the administration related to the Association's activities, maintains the Association's records, and the preparation of the annual plan, budget, applications, and all kinds of reports. Within the staff, the project coordinator is responsible to the Board for the above tasks, directs the work of the project assistant, organizes projects, prepares legal documents and agreements, monitors the Association's current activities and financial processes, and records financial transactions for approval. The project assistant works on organizational and administrative tasks based on the assignment and schedule determined by the project coordinator, in collaboration with the project coordinator.

Volunteers without specific roles (whether members of the Association or not) participate occasionally in the organization and implementation of projects.

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 Hungary maintains a number of active partnerships within the Wikimedia movement. The project coordinator holds regular online calls with representatives of Wikimedia Österreich and the Wikimedians of Slovakia User Group to discuss international issues, strategic planning, and to exchange information. The chapter intends to extend this practice to all neighboring Wikimedia chapters and user groups. Wikimedia Hungary is also a formal member of Wikimedia Europe and participates in the Wikimedia CEE Hub and the Volunteer Supporters Network, with regular (though currently mostly one-way) information exchange. In addition, through participation in international article writing competitions such as CEE Spring, Wiki Loves Folklore, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos, and Wikipedia Asian Month, the chapter cooperates with the groups organizing these initiatives. The Wikimedia Foundation is also an important partner, particularly in relation to Wikimedia Hungary’s annual tax fundraising.

Beyond the Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia Hungary collaborates with a range of external partners. For instance, the chapter organizes annual editathons with cultural and educational institutions. The EqualVoice editathon is organized jointly with Ringier Hungary and the Goethe Institute in Budapest, while the Shakespeare editathon is carried out in cooperation with the Hungarian Shakespeare Committee, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, and the Petőfi Literary Museum. Wikimedia Hungary also has several contractual and informal partnerships with libraries in Hungary, offering active Wikimedia contributors free access to their collections and services.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

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Wikimedia Metrics

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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 370 250 Wikimedia contributors appear in person at events organized by Wikimedia Hungary;

100 participants involved in the contests; 20 association members are involved in the organizational restructuring.

Number of all editors 300 100 new editors receive active support from mentors;

200 contributors served by the tools developed or implemented.

Number of new editors 100
Number of retained editors N/A
Number of all organizers 5 The number of main organizers of affiliate programs.
Number of new organizers 1
14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)
Contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project Created Edited or improved
Wikipedia 500 1000
Wikimedia Commons 10000
Wikidata 100000
Wiktionary
Wikisource 100
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia
Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Wikipedia articles created as part of the organized contests and campaigns, such as Article of the Year, Maintenance Competition, Wikimedia CEE Spring, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos, and Wikipedia Asian Month.

Wikimedia Commons files, Wikidata items and Wikisource pages created within the framework of the affiliate's GLAM partnerships. The available content exceeds the target by an order of magnitude, but without experience, it is difficult to estimate how much of it can be processed in 2025.

Other Metrics

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15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)
Yes
Other Metrics Description Target
Number of new partner institutions The metrics describes the number of new (mainly GLAM) partner institutions involved in the activities of the affiliate. 5
Governance restructuring The Association completes its organizational restructuring, and a staff led by an executive director takes over day-to-day operations from the board.

Milestones: 1) Discussions and RfCs about the organizational restructuring, roles and responsibilities inside the affiliate -- deadline end of March; 2) Changing the Bylaws, internal policies and regulations, decision of the Board, and then the General Assembly -- deadline end of May; 3) Reporting changes and submitting documents to the Court for approval -- deadline end of June; 4) Hiring a new ED, new staff contracts in July.

N/A
Number of mentors and VRT members The target is to double the number of active mentors on Hungarian Wikipedia and the number of VRT members working on the info-hu and permissions-hu queues. N/A
Tax campaign Amount of donations collected by the Association during its 2026 1% tax campaign in Hungarian forint. 10000000
N/A N/A N/A

Budget

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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)
  • 1% income tax donations
  • Income from financial operations
  • Donations
  • Program service revenue
  • Membership contributions
16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)
11050000
17. Your local currency. (required)
HUF
18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)
20000000 HUF
Multi-year funding request summary
Year Amount (local currency)
Year 1 N/A HUF
Year 2 N/A HUF
Year 3 N/A HUF
Requested amount in USD
56000 USD [note 1]
Multi-year funding request summary in USD
Year Amount USD [note 1]
Year 1 N/A USD
Year 2 N/A USD
Year 3 N/A USD
  1. ↑ a b c The following amount in US dollars was calculated by Wikimedia Foundation staff using the fixed currency rates. This amount is approximate and may not reflect the actual currency exchange rates on the day of submission or distribution. If the application is funded, the funding will be sent in the recipient’s local currency.
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.

Wikimedia Hungary plans to cover 2 staff members.

According to the Annual Plan and Budget, Wikimedia Hungary may also offer short-term contracts for tool development, technical support, as well as legal and financial consultancy.

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.

Wikimedia Hungary plans to cover a total of 0.6 FTE during the first six months, and 1.5 FTE during the following six months.
19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)
N/A
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 17888000 HUF
Operational costs 2850000 HUF
Programmatic costs 6000000 HUF
21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sdAl_eNGgL95qZRTW6OrtCCHDCXmovn9Qw-p0C1qTkQ


Additional information

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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)

The Association’s most important source of income to date comes from the 1% personal income tax provisions, which it receives from the tax authority in the last quarter of the year. As a result, even though this is recorded as income in the annual budget, it cannot support program implementation until the very end of the year. For this reason, the Association requires a liquidity reserve equivalent to approximately one year of operations. Beyond the need for liquidity reserves, the Association also faces the challenge of managing risks arising from domestic political and social developments, which could threaten its stability and continuity. To mitigate these risks, the Association has pursued a policy of setting aside approximately 15% of its annual income as liquidity and operational reserves. This approach, already reflected in the submitted budget, is designed to build toward at least a one-year reserve. Although building such a reserve is a gradual 5-10 year process, the policy ensures steady progress and strengthens the Association’s long-term resilience. In light of current circumstances and developments, the Association considers it particularly important to build up the reserve as soon as possible. Nevertheless, it has prepared an alternative (reduced) budget for situations where available funding does not allow this, and therefore, exceptionally, does not include the reserve in 2026.

Context for the metrics on participants in in-person events: In-person events have proven to be very effective in the past at improving communication, atmosphere, and community cohesion within the online community, as well as in retaining long-time editors. They are also particularly popular with new contributors and people interested in the Wikimedia projects, as they provide an opportunity for personal interaction (Wikipedia is run by real people, not machines!), explanation, and learning.

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

Feedback

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