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Community Resources/Reports/Funding Report 2022-2023

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Executive Summary

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During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the Wikimedia Foundation awarded 638 grants to mission-aligned organizations and people around the world, totaling $17,512,472 USD. Of these funds, 381 totaling $16,032,838 are administered by the Community Resources team (other funds are summarized below). 2022-2023 marked the second fiscal year of Community Resources' Grants Strategy Relaunch, prioritizing the Movement Strategy goal of Knowledge Equity.

In the new strategy's second year, the percentage of CR-managed grant funds distributed outside North America (NA) and Northern & Western Europe (NWE) increased to 57% (from 52% in the 2021-2022 fiscal year).

Increase in total funding from 2021-2022
29%
Grantees converting from Rapid to General Support Funding
26
New Grantees
86
New multi-year General Support grants
8
Rapid Fund grants
216
Grant funds distributed outside NA and NWE
57%

Grant Programs

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Amount and percentage of grants and grant money by fund program, 2023

Grants administered by Community Resources in the 2022-2023 fiscal year fall under the following programs:

  • Community Funds for Wikimedia communities:
    • General Support Fund for flexible operational support (usually between $10,000 and $300,000 USD);
    • Rapid Fund for organizing projects (between $500 and $5,000 USD); and
    • Conference Fund for local or regional convenings

In 2022-2023, 78% of funds went to 96 General Support grants, while a majority of grants funded were smaller Rapid grants (57%), comprising 216 grants and 4% of funds overall.

Of the 96 General Support grants, 22 (23%) were multi-year grants (14 in their second year of funding, 8 in their first). Another 26 (27%) were receiving General Support funds for the first time, up from 21% of General Support grantees in 2021-2022.

Measures of Funding Equity

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Regional breakdown of funding administered by CR, 2022-2023

In 2022-2023, the Community Resources team managed 381 grants across 94 countries (three more countries than the previous year). 86 (23%) grants were made to first-time grantees, mostly based in SSA (40%), ESEAP (20%), and LAC (10%).

Regional breakdown of funding administered by CR, 2015-2023
Regional percentage breakdown of funding administered by CR, 2015-2023

Key to the new grants strategy of distributing funds more equitably around the globe has been the work of Regional Funds Committees to make funding decisions for each of the 8 (formerly 7) regions. In FY 2020-2021, before the new strategy began, 60% of funds were distributed to North America and Northern & Western Europe. While funding has increased for each region, funds distributed in NA and NWE have grown more slowly (an 8% increase in funding in the last year) than in other regions. Funding has increased much more rapidly over the last year, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and in East, Southeast Asia, & Pacific (ESEAP). Together these three regions received 43% of all funding in 2022-2023, up from 28% in 2020-2021. Grantees in NWE and NA were more likely to receive General Support funds than grantees in other regions (58% of all grants and 92% of all funds in those regions). The concentration of General Support grants has also shifted away from those regions in recent years, accounting for less than one-quarter of all General Support grants in 2022-2023. Of the 26 first-time General Support recipients, only 8 were based in NA or NWE.

Number of General Support (formerly Annual Planning) grants by region, 2015-2023

Independent of region, we can also evaluate our progress in equitable grant-making using the World Bank's classification of countries according to income level. In 2022-2023, a majority of funds still went to grantees in high-income (53%) and upper-middle-income (22%) countries. However, this has fallen continuously since the 2014-2015 funding year, when high and upper-middle income countries received 96% of funding.

Percent of Community Resource-managed Funding by World Bank Income Level, 2015-2023

Knowledge Gap and Movement Strategy Priorities

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General Support and Alliances Fund grantees were asked to identify knowledge gaps that their programming would address. In 2022-2023, among those 105 grantees, 73% indicated that they would address gendered content gaps, 62% language content gaps, and 53% cultural context gaps.

When identifying Movement Strategy priorities aligned to their project or program goals, grantees were more likely to identify "Invest in Skills and Leadership Development" (45% of all CR-managed grants), "Increase the Sustainability of our Movement" (44%), and "Improve User Experience" (32%) than other priorities.

Other Grant Programs

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WMF-Distributed Funds not Managed by CR, 2022-2023

Some grants made by the Wikimedia Foundation are not managed by the Community Resources team and are not included in the analyses above. In 2022-2023, those 257 grants were made via the following programs:

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