Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Multiyear Funding

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Multi-year funding

Multi-year funding is multi-year General Support Funds for individuals, groups, or affiliates that require sustained investment over time to be able to achieve its goals.

In Fiscal Year 2022-23 and 2023-24, we have introduced several multi-year options. After evaluating these different options in terms of process efficiency, uptake of these options, Regional Fund Committees (RFC) considerations, current regional budget realities, and funding equity principles in our funding strategy, one multi-year base funding for 3 years option remains available as per Fiscal Year 2024-25 for those in the grantee community who wishes to:

Have stability in funding for 3 years in a row;
Plan to introduce only small changes in programs and metrics in Year 2 and Year 3 compared to Year 1, and no annual growth above the regional growth rates defined for each of the 3 respective fiscal years of the duration of the multi-year grant. All growth decisions will still be subject to Regional Fund Committees' (RFCs) considerations.
May want to include inflation compensation: the RFCs will decide individually about inflation compensation for each multi-year base funding, based on IMF inflation rates and regional budgets available, considering also the growth history for each grantee.
The RFCs will also consider historical data on grantees’ underspending in their funding decisions.

If you wish to:

Ask for multi-year funding for only 2 years, please follow the renewal process or submit a new application if greater funding changes are planned for your Year 2.
Ask for greater increases than the regional growth rates in Year 2 or Year 3, please submit a new application each year for the Regional Fund Committee consideration.
Apply for renewal, follow the renewal process.

Eligibility criteria

Multi-year base funding (3 years) applicants must have at least 2 years of General Support Fund annual plan implemented, be in good standing, compliant regarding their affiliate reporting, and have at least one impact report already available to be assessed for multi-year base funding.
To be awarded a multi-year grant, grantees must have a proven track record of Wikimedia-related work done with impact for a number of years, a robust plan of implementation, demonstrated strategic strength and transparent and strong reporting and evaluating systems.
Grantees must also provide transparency in financial and governance practices, including publically available detailed financial reporting and/or audits, up-to-date organization websites and/or Meta-Wiki pages with public documentation of details about their governance structures and their practices (e.g. meetings, decision-making workflows), and demonstrated support from the community of their activity plans (e.g. publically available general assembly meetings with agenda, attendee lists, notes of discussions and decisions made by the community). Such documentation can be provided in local languages, no translations required, and linked to the application’s main texts (no need to separately upload to the Grantee Portal).

Note: Regional Fund Committees maintain the decision autonomy to reject multi-year proposals based on strategic weakness, reporting weakness, organizational instability or budgetary constraints.

Timeline and application process

When we can submit an application for multi-year funding?

Multi-year funding follows the timeline and application process of the General Support Fund. Please see General Support Fund – Timeline for further details.

What is the application process for multi-year funding?

The application process is the same as for the General Support Fund. Please see General Support Fund – Application process for further details.

Applications and annual plans

What is the application form to apply for multi-year funding?

The application form is the same as for the General Support Fund. You will be able to express your interest to apply for multi-year funding on that form.

Do multi-year grantees need to re-apply each year during grant rounds?

No, multi-year grantees are not required to submit new applications annually during their grant period. There is no Year 2 and Year 3 application submission requirement for the multi-year base funding grantees.

What is the process for past multi-year funding grants from Fiscal Year 2022-23 and 2023-24

For past multi-year funding grantees that were not for base support, there is a brief section in the approved General Support application form on Fluxx that will need to be filled out each year.

For past multi-year funding applications, there is no required format for your Annual Plan and Budget, which will be uploaded through the form. You can submit this documentation using the format you would already use internally for your own organizational purposes.

Reporting

What are the reporting requirements for multi-year grantees?

Multi-year grantees will submit a Yearly Learning Report at the end of each year of their grant period. Each report will cover a one-year period, with the exception that the final report will also include cumulative financial reporting for the entire multi-year funding period. Information about when your annual Learning Report is due can be found in the Fluxx portal.

After each annual report submission, your Regional Program Officer will meet with you and fill out the conversation form. This conversation form is intended to ensure that grantee partners get substantive engagement with their Program Officer about their project and the learning in the report.

Specific reporting requirements by funding program are available on Meta for review. Note that there is a dedicated row summarizing requirements for multi-year grantee partners.

What if my organization can’t meet the reporting deadline? Can we have more time?

Deadline extensions for reports are available upon request. Reach out to your Regional Program Officer to share your concerns and they can help you adjust your deadline if needed. Keep in mind that your next funding installment will not be disbursed until the Yearly Learning Report, the conversation form, and any updates in your Annual Plan have been reviewed and approved.

Budget increase requests

What is the process for requesting additional funding (including budget increases due to inflation)?

For the multi-year base funding, the budget for Year 2 and Year 3 compared to Year 1 should be similar. Any budget amendment requests should be done through the amendment process. The RFCs will decide individually about inflation compensation for each multi-year base funding, based on IMF inflation rates and regional budgets available, considering also the growth history for each grantee. These compensations will be added to Year 2 and Year 3 budgets automatically.