Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Bay Area Wikipedians:Expansion (ID: 23836275)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
e_mln_e (talk • accounts • contributions • edit count)
- Organization
Bay Area Wikipedians 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
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Bay Area Wikipedians: Expansion
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-06-01 - 2026-12-01
- 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)
Other (please specify) We are participating in multiple campaigns.
- 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)
Context: Wikipedians of the Bay area started meeting again in September 2022, after a three-years pause. Since then, we have hosted monthly meetups, editathons, Wiknics, Wikipedia Day celebrations and more. In the last year, supported by the Bay Area Wikipedian: New Generations rapid grants, as well by rapid grants received by our partners (San Francisco Historical Society and Gray Area), a birthday grant and an art+feminism micro-grant, we have expanded our activities and reach. There is a high demand for Wikipedia events by editors and by the public, and the user group has grown rapidly, onboarding new editors and members every month. In recent months, we have had to actively avoid promoting the event as we had outgrown the spaces available to us. This Rapid Grant would support our ability to meet the demand in two of our focus areas: connecting the movement and resourcing the community. You can read our ongoing 2025-2026 rapid grant report here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Bay_Area_Wikipedians:New_Generation_(ID:_22640981)/Final_Report
Change we are trying to bring: Wikimedians on the West Coast do not have the support of a chapter like on the East Coast, and this has rendered sustained organizing and outreach difficult. The events of the last year have enabled us to onboard new editors and equip existing editors with more skills to support both content creation, local organizing, and outreach to GLAMs and general audiences. In our annual survey, we have found that 34% of meetup attendees report having taken additional editing responsibilities such as articles reviewing and patrolling, all attendees report feeling closer to the movement and 88% report feeling more informed, while half of attendees indicate editing more often and more boldly. Furthermore, all attendees reported a sense of community. However, the current events offering is limited due to funding limitations; members of the user group who were not able to attend events due to the location, time or lack of space for them to attend did not report these benefits. Finally, two thirds of respondents were eager to see more hackathons, editathons and GLAM partnerships.
Challenges: all our costs (renting a space, food, beverages) have increased this year in line with local inflation. While we have received many in-kind donations enabling us to offer one to two events a month this year, they are not sufficient to meet the increased costs of space for a larger Wikisalon or food and beverages expenses crucial to the success of small meetups.
Ways to achieve change: as the user group continues to grow, more volunteers are able to host small meetups in the wider Bay Area region, and at different times of week. This will provide more touchpoints for new and existing editors to connect with the community. We have also found a new, larger space for our monthly training sessions at WikiSalons, which will increase access for editors.
- 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.
We will host six WikiSalons (one per month). WikiSalons are our largest events for editors. They started as informal meetups, but have now grown to 25 to 50 attendees. We invite a speaker, from the Wikimedia or adjacent community, to tell us about their projects or tools or train editors on editing tasks, both on Wikipedia and other wikiprojects. This is followed by discussions, enabling collaboration and community-building. For instance, at our March WikiSalon, a Wikimedia Commons administrator gave a training about the use of categories. A group of editors then worked on defining the requirements for a tool helping admin work on Commons, which another user group member developed and that we are planning to refine during our May hackathon. Wikisalons happen at The Fold, a cafe and culture hub focused on social change in the Mission District.
In addition to WikiSalons, we will host the traditional Wiknic. To do so, we will rent a room from the Recreation and Parks department. This event typically brings in 150 attendees, and renting a room enables us to have the support of rangers to ensure attendees’ safety.
In addition to the above, we will organize 6 to 9 meetups and editathons (1 to 2 a month) to offer editors more opportunities to meet. They will take place on weekends and in other parts of the Bay Area. These meetups will be hosted in small cafes and community venues, and thus only require a small food budget.
Both Wikisalons and meetups will refer to wikipedia campaigns aimed at addressing knowledge gaps, as we have this year, such as Women in Red, Wiki loves Pride, etc
- 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.
User:E_mln_e - President of the Bay Area Wikipedians User Group, Wikisalons coordinator User:Dreamyshade - Member of the user group, East Bay host User:ElanHR and User:Audiodude - Treasurer and secretary of the user group, Wikidata and technical editors coordinators for the Wikisalon, meetup hosts User:McInt - Member of the user group’s organizing committee, general events logistics User:Elena.laps - Member of the user group, general events logistics Voting members of the user group with volunteer responsibilities as needed for events. Everyone involved is a volunteer.
- 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)
Target participants are user group members (367 people on our mailing list and Discord), new editors in the Bay Area and local individuals involved in open knowledge projects. We will announce the events through our usual means (mailing list, Discord, geonotice, central notice for Wiknic, event registration page on en.wiki, events page on meta.wiki). We are also in the process of creating social media accounts for the user group.
We engage with participants through the mailing list, conducting surveys about their needs regularly. We send summaries of Wikisalons alongside training materials, and invite all new editors to join the mailing list and/or Discord, where participants can ask for help and continue 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 programming outline was developed by the elected user group organizing committee and presented online and at the User Group Wikisalons for feedback. See also section context and challenges above.
- 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)
Other Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Other
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Not applicable
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
As we expand our activities, we continue learning about how we can best support Wikimedia editors and wiki-curious people in the San Francisco Bay Area. We will be monitoring how different times and locations support the community by tracking attendance using the events pages and hosts’ summary, and continue conducting surveys asking about members’ suggestions for the user group to support their editing and the knowledge communities they are part of. We have learned a lot this year about outreach, and have reached 30% of participation by women and non-binary people at events, by reaching out to specific local groups. We will continue to build towards developing more partnerships with GLAMs and local communities not yet involved with Wiki projects. This however will require further funding, in particular for staff.
Further, this will inform our strategic plans for the next few years and the toolkit for new movement organizers we are writing.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 350 | |
| Number of editors | 200 | |
| Number of organizers | 13 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 500 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 500 |
| Wikidata | 500 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| 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 will use an outreach dashboard, like we did for our 2025-2026 events, to track number of editors and contributions: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/bay_area_wikipedians_20252026/overview We will also monitor sign-ups for the user group on the mailing list and Discord.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z4ByG6vSHQ7msi55qB7sDofXlzuoqLuf2Szd6t5Al7c/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)
4994 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.
4994 USD
- 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
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]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).