Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/2026 Programming for Wikimedians of Chicago (ID: 23638444)

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Applicant Details

Main Wikimedia username. (required)

Luiysia

Organization

Wikimedians of Chicago User Group

If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)

N/A

Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)

Main Proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

2026 Programming for Wikimedians of Chicago

2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.

2026-01-16 - 2027-01-16

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

United States of America

5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)

Not applicable

6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)

We plan to host meetups and other events to support the connection between Wikipedia editors of the Chicagoland area. Two of the main challenges we are trying to solve are the barrier to entry for new contributors and the lack of in-person community for editors in the area. Our main approaches to solving this will be hosting in-person and online events to provide guidance and support to new editors, as well as encourage communication and connection between editors in Chicago. In the past year, meetups such as the Wiknic and Wikipedia Day events have provided opportunities for many interested people of all backgrounds to learn about ways they can contribute to Wikimedia. At Wikipedia Day, we received 100+ RSVPs with over 30 people attending in person (due to venue size limitations, some people were not able to attend). The majority of the attendees were new and had never contributed to Wikipedia before. Of the new editors, many said that they felt intimidated to just jump in and start, but were encouraged by getting support from other editors. By hosting more meetups with greater reach we hope to increase outreach and help people contribute.

Another issue that we aim to address is the lack of coverage for local topics such as Chicago history, geography, and notable people. This can be seen in the WikiProject:Chicago list of articles needing attention, which lists 71 articles of high importance that are start or stub class, and 1011 articles of mid importance that are start or stub class. These include articles about major neighborhoods such as Lincoln Park, Hyde Park, and Englewood; notable landmarks such as the Water Tower and the National Museum of Mexican Art, and the Civic Opera; and noted people from Chicago such as author Studs Terkel, zoologist Lester E. Fisher, and businessmen/hoteliers John and Tracy Drake. We hope to amend this issue by encouraging locals to add information about these topics through editathons and virtual events, as well as potentially through partnerships with local organizations and subject-matter experts. This year, we provided support to a Chicago-themed editathon at a local university, and hope to further these types of events and connections going forward.

7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.

In 2025, Wikimedia of Chicago hosted a meetup for editors bimonthly, with two larger events for Wikipedia Day and Wiknic in the summer. Pages for past meetups can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Chicago

The majority of these meetups have been smaller-scale casual events for discussion. In future, we hope to increase the frequency and ambition of these meetups. In addition to Wikipedia Day and the Wiknic, we plan to host a photowalk in May to document local landmarks and editathons addressing Chicago history and notable people in the summer and fall. We also plan to host events targeted at new editors; we have begun talks with WikiNYC in hopes of bringing their WikiCurious series of events for new editors to Chicago. We have found that hosting these sorts of meetups gives new contributors a great opportunity to learn from more experienced ones, and for active editors to collaborate and grow. This page contains a timeline of planned activities for the year: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Chicago_User_Group/2026_Event_Timeline

8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.

Team members include the leadership of the Wikimedians of Chicago User Group. This includes User:Luiysia Roles: Organizing and hosting meetups. Communicating with local partners and other Wikipedia groups. User:Myoglobin Roles: Co-hosting meetups and online communications User:Nick Number Roles: Co-hosting meetups and outreach User:Dan Leonard Roles: Co-hosting meetups, managing user page All members involved are volunteers.

9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)

The target participants are anyone in the Chicago area interested in contributing to Wikimedia. We hope to get the word out about events through advertisements both on-site (such as through Wikipedia CentralNotice ads and mass message senders) and through flyers, social media promotions, and through partnership with organizations and institutions such as UIC.

For participants interested in following up, we encourage them to add their usernames to the list of WIkimedians of Chicago as well as our meetup message list. We also encourage interested people to join our Discord server for more discussions.

10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)

No

10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.

N/A

11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.

The format and timeline of these events was discussed among the group leadership and agreed upon. To invite commentary from user group members, a timeline was posted and sent out via mass message senders to those who signed up for meetup invites, with a section for discussion: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Chicago_User_Group/2026_Event_Timeline

12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)

Geography

13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)

Culture, heritage or GLAM

14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)

Geographic

15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)

Improve User Experience

Learning and metrics

17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)

Questions:

What is the best way to connect Chicago area Wikimedians? What is the best way to reach out to those interested in contributing to Wikipedia in the Chicago area? What topic areas are Chicagoans most interested in contributing to? How can we better connect with Chicago-area organizations and institutions?

18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)

Number of participants, editors, and organizers
Other Metrics	Target	Optional description
Number of participants	100	Based on number of responses from area-wide invites to events.
Number of editors	40	Based on number of preexisting members as well as new editors who created accounts at meetups.
Number of organizers	5	Leadership of Wikimedians of Chicago

Number of content contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project	Number of content created or improved
Wikipedia	30
Wikimedia Commons	20
Wikidata
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage	10
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia

Optional description for content contributions.

Based on plans of hosting editathons, photowalks, and also typical number of attendees.

19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)

No

Main Open Metrics Data
Main Open 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

20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)

We plan to use the outreach dashboard to measure contributions from events. To measure interest in events, we will use event page views, RSVPs, and meetup signups.

Further support on capturing participation and impact metrics would be appreciated.

Financial proposal

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HYSWHpGnJqeCr968aIIZ69CzF4dS6a_NtndCDXb-oWM/edit?usp=sharing

22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)

3500 USD

22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.

3500 USD

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

Yes

Endorsements and Feedback

Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.

Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:

Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).

Endorse