Wikimedia Europe/Fundraising/Strategy and priorities

Stretegic approach

Our fundraising approach sustains our autonomy and credibility as instruments of strengthening the collective resilience of the European Wikimedia movement.

We seek to build an ethical, diversified, and strategically grounded funding model that enables advocacy and affiliate support while staying true to our mission and values.

Our strategic approach to fundraising and resource development has three pillars.

PILLAR 1. Ethical Funding Diversification and Resilience

We nurture a diversified, ethical funding base that is backed by the movement’s core contributions. Our work is enabled by transparent systems and data-informed financial planning. This allows us to act flexibly, strengthen credibility with partners, and safeguard independence from any single donor.

We aim to ensure that every euro serves the mission efficiently and strengthens long-term sustainability.

To achieve this, we will:

build diversified and ethical income streams that sustain our advocacy and community support work,
establish financial resilience systems that link multi-year planning to programmatic priorities.

PILLAR 2. Impact Narratives and Positioning

We demonstrate Wikimedia’s role in advancing free knowledge, and communicate our collective impact to funders and partners. By doing so, we strengthen our visibility and recognition and open doors to new mission-aligned opportunities. We aim to ensure that funders and partners perceive the movement as an evidence-driven, effective and ethically reliable actor.

To achieve this, we will:

develop evidence-based storytelling through commissioned research that highlights our collective results and strengthen credibility in advancing free knowledge, democracy, and digital rights in Europe,
engage strategically with the funders and partners ecosystems to make Wikimedia’s movement role visible, trusted, and understood, thereby unlocking further mission-aligned collaborations.

PILLAR 3. Collective Fundraising and Capacity Building

We view fundraising as a collective effort within the European Wikimedia movement. Supporting the communities to strengthen their fundraising capacities is not only a means of diversifying the movement’s funding base, but a core expression of our collaborative model.

When communities can access and manage resources directly, they gain autonomy, resilience, and influence, ensuring that the broader network thrives beyond any single organisation. We aim to contribute to strengthening their independence and sustainability while avoiding unnecessary competition for resources.

To achieve this, we will:

facilitate collaboration among affiliates through coordination of efforts, shared tools and guidelines, where it adds value and builds their own fundraising capacities,
support knowledge sharing through information exchange (e.g., Moneypot newsletter), collaborative learning, peer exchange, and a train-the-trainer approaches that create a sustainable system for resource mobilisation across the network.

Priorities

Outlook 2026–2030

By 2030, we aim for the European Wikimedia movement to be recognised as an ethically funded, evidence-driven, and collaboratively sustainable ecosystem. WMEU will operate with financial autonomy and resilience, supported by structured pipelines, strategic donor engagement, and collective capacity that enhances the entire movement’s ability to act for free knowledge.

Fundraising and Resource Development Brief | input to strategy| 2025-11-18

Priorities 2026-2027

The purpose of these priorities is to help partners and funders understand where WMEU is focusing its energy, development, and capacity-building efforts over 2026–2027.

PRIORITY 1. Peer learning, exchange and capacity-building of free knowledge communities


Focus	Facilitating Wikimedia communities access to exchange, peer learning and other capacity-building opportunities that reinforce their ability to advance free knowledge on the long term
Areas of interest	communication leadership fundraising advocacy

PRIORITY 2. Research on community-led knowledge initiatives and democracy


Focus	Generating evidence on how Wikimedia and similar communities create, verify, and govern free knowledge and how this contributes to participation, digital and media literacy, and democracy
Areas of interest	Wikimedia communities dealing with disinformation during high-stake moments such as elections contribution of Wikimedia initiatives to democratic participation and resilience through media and digital literacy

PRIORITY 3. Analysis of European policy frameworks relevant for free knowledge


Focus	Understanding how European regulation affects people’s ability to participate in, contribute to, and govern free knowledge
Areas of interest	Digital Services Act (DSA) AI regulation anti-SLAPPs directive child protection policy information integrity frameworks

PRIORITY 4. EU-level advocacy to promote and protect free knowledge


Focus	Translating Wikimedia community experiences into policies recommendations, and advocate for frameworks that protect free expression and access to information in Europe
Areas of interest	platform governance and algorithmic power online safety and protection of vulnerable users information integrity and public discourse transparency, civic space and resilience of public-interest actors

PRIORITY 5. Community mobilisation for free knowledge advocacy


Focus	Supporting Wikimedia communities and partners to actively contribute to, and shape policy and advocacy processes nationally and at the European level
Areas of interest	see PRIORITY 3 and PRIORITY 4

HORIZONTAL PRIORITY Organisational sustainability


Focus	Ensuring Wikimedia Europe can coordinate, support, and deliver across all priorities
Areas of interest	establishing project manager and communication officer positions