Hi, we have prepared a report summarizing strategic data and activities related to the recommendation Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, focusing on projects led by the Wikimedia Foundation. It includes a section about this initiative that I’m copying here for convenience and automatic translations.
This initiative calls on the Wikimedia Foundation to “Dedicate a significantly larger amount of Movement funding to support emerging and marginalized communities and groups.”
Although not specifically defined in the recommendation, emerging and marginalized groups in the movement have historically included affiliates outside of Northern and Western Europe (NWE) and the U.S. and Canada, as well as groups in those two regions representing traditionally marginalized voices (e.g., Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).
Between 2018 and 2022, Wikimedia Foundation-distributed grants to underrepresented regions increased by 300%, from $2,157,981 USD to $6,480,366. As a percentage of the overall grants budget, this proportion grew from 31% to 52% in the same time period. Within the NWE and the U.S. and Canada, we have also seen a growth in funding to groups representing marginalized communities. In NWE, for example, two newly funded groups focused on the gender gap.
In 2021, the Foundation affirmed support for underrepresented communities as a top priority of its revised funding strategy. As part of the revised strategy:
- The Community Resources team created the Wikimedia Alliances Fund to promote collaborations between organizations in underrepresented regions and communities and the rest of the movement.
- In the first year of implementing this strategy, the total funding increased by 51%, and funds landed in 90 countries, 20 more than the previous year. Funding to emerging communities grew by 128%, and to middle and lower-income countries by 70%. The equality of regional distribution of funding improved, with increases of 149% in Middle East and Africa, and 139% in East and Sout-East Asia and Pacific. There was also a significant increase in new grantees (40%) and the percentage of funding going to new grantees (160%). There are more details in the Funding Report 2021-22.
- The Movement Strategy Implementation Grants program distributed 53% of its funds to emerging regions.
In 2022, a survey of grantees and Regional Fund Committee members showed a perspective that the new strategy was achieving its goals as expressed in the Movement Strategy, making it clear that we are just beginning on this journey.
The trends above continued in FY2022-23 and will further shift towards emerging communities in FY2023-24 (see Foundation’s Annual Plan for 2023-24), continuing the growth in overall funding to all regions (15%), with larger growth in underrepresented regions.