Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Art+Feminism, 2026-2028

Comments from Wugapodes

Thanks for your submission! It's great getting to hear about the great work you've been doing over your last grant period and to learn about your plans for the coming three years. I wanted to ask a few clarifying questions to help my review:

• It sounds like Network Organizers are a key part of your strategy going forward, and I'm excited to hear that you have plans to expand from 1 to 4! Is the line item in your budget (GL 6570) based on the existing 1 Network Organizer or the planned expansion to 4? It seemed low for 4, but wanted to ask in case I missed something.
• For the professional development fees (GL 6550), I'm trying to get a sense of the impact versus cost. Could you explain what the scope of participation will be? For example will these largely be small sessions for core staff or semi-public sessions for general members and volunteers?
• How do you plan to strengthen fundraising efforts through diversified strategies and clearer communication of impact? I think this is will be helpful in cultivating donors at all levels, but especially in seeking out additional grant-makers for future growth.
• Art + Feminism is incredibly successful in engaging editors, and based on that experience I wanted to ask if you have any insight into the challenges of editor engagement in the years after the pandemic? It seems like your participation has held steady since 2022 with a slight dip, so I'd appreciate any insight you might have there.

Thanks in advance! It was a pleasure to read through your proposal, and it seems like you have a solid plan to consolidate and focus on the initiatives that have been most effective. I'm looking forward to learning more, and other committee members may chime in with their questions. Thanks! Wugapodes (talk) 03:34, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Comments from Phibeatrice

Thanks for the lovely submission! The work you all do is needed and incredible, and it was a pleasure to read more about what you all have in the pipeline for the next few years. Here are some of my notes.

1. I'm curious about the thinking behind the second pillar, Education, namely the decision to shift emphasis from Wikipedia to Wikidata. Of course, both projects are important to the movement and to Art+Feminism's goals, but I have some questions about what the strategic significance may be of pivoting to Wikidata rather than staying on Wikipedia where a lot of equity work is still needed or balancing Art+Feminism's focus on both projects. Regarding your Strategic Direction document, it's very true that Wikidata can be a place where AI bias can be confronted, but isn't that equally true of Wikipedia in this specific moment as well?

2. I love the idea of collaborating with GLAM institutions, but I wonder what those collaborations might look like in the context of your work or how they may help you scale up or even envision new kinds of work toward your goals. Conversation Series and Virtual Editing Tables are great programs to augment through GLAM, but I'm curious if you also have any other ideas or opportunities that could emerge by tapping into such a valuable, experienced network. There's a lot of wonderful imagination to be harnessed there!

3. Given the international reach and significance of your work, are there concrete plans within, say, the fourth pillar, Organizational Sustainability, to have more leadership and presence in certain parts of the world, especially those where underrepresented and marginalized communities are? To be more specific, are there ideas for how to get more Network Organizers in other parts of the world?

4. I'm also curious about the size of the professional development cost and would like to know more about what these programs would look like and what you believe the team would get out of them.

All in all, the proposal looks really solid, and I don't have too many questions about the budget outside of the professional development cost. The pillars are very detailed and sound like very wonderful ways to move the work forward, so a lot of my notes have more so to do with what the intended implementation—and therefore outcomes—may look like. Thank you! Phibeatrice (talk) 22:04, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

Summary of Responses to Wugapodes (talk) and Phibeatrice (talk)

Thank you for your thoughtful questions and consideration. Art+Feminism has already started to grow the Network Organizer program from one to four for the coming year, compensating each person in the role $1250 USD, plus an additional $500 USD educational bonus, with steady expansion and annual review of its invitation based model. Based on this year's success, we envision adding two more organizers in Year 2 and two more in Year 3, which would double the size of the program over the course of this grant. This invitation based program supports leadership development across the global community and will be assessed annually to ensure it aligns with organizational goals.

The consulting budget and professional development budget line (GL 6550) supports specific areas of expertise beyond the current team including language justice services (such as interpretation at all public virtual programs and translation of copy on the website and communications), digital safety support, fundraising consulting, and facilitation for internal alignment, and website maintenance, all of which are essential to serving a multilingual global community and strengthening organizational sustainability. Fundraising efforts will be bolstered by consultant support, an updated fundraising plan, and a new dossier being tested with board networks. And zooming out from the day-to-day, we're due for a new round of formal strategic planning that will ensure the sustainability of our work in the future.

To sustain editor engagement after the pandemic, the organization has refined themed campaigns, expanded virtual support, highlighted regional organizers, and maintained consistent year round programming. The shift toward incorporating Wikidata complements ongoing Wikipedia work by addressing larger gender gaps, enabling multilingual impact, and intervening in structured data systems that shape AI. GLAM collaborations will also become more intentional, expanding beyond single events to longer term relationships, shared conversations, and updated training materials developed with partners such as design students in Berlin. We’re also being more intentional with our relationships within the Wikiverse collaborating with a number of other affiliates for programming including by not limited to Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia Botswana, Whose Knowledge?, and Wiki LGBT+.

We’ve incorporated these ideas into the proposal in Fluxx, but also have answered each question specifically here.

Thank you again for your consideration and please let us know if there are any outstanding questions. --Kiraface (talk) 20:25, 20 November 2025 (UTC)