Grants:Project/Plan

This page is kept for historical interest. Any grant programs, policies, or related details mentioned may be obsolete. You can find Wikimedia Foundation's current funding programs at Grants:Start.

Project Grants

Start

Guidelines
and criteria

Plan your
project

Apply for
a grant

Edit & review
proposals

Read planning guidelines for common projects and improve your grant proposal.

Plan your project

Most Project Grants fall into four categories: (1) Software; (2) Research; (3) Online organizing; and (4) Offline outreach & events. Below we've listed guidelines and questions to consider when applying for each of these types of grants. Answering relevant questions in your grant proposal will strengthen your application. Some projects may include more than one type of activity. For example, an online photo contest may include offline training and editing events. The questions below should be used as a guide. Not everything will be relevant to your project and there are many types of projects we have not covered. We welcome all your ideas!

In addition to the guidance provided below, also see the Wikimedia Resource Center for additional support, tools and information.

Software

Funding to create, improve and promote tools that support Wikimedia Projects.

If relevant, have you included a link to your project on Phabricator?
If you are building or improving an extension, do you have the support of the related project maintainers? If so, please have them comment on your talk page and endorse your proposal, with their role clearly identified.
Have you included time and resources in your plan to socialize your project when you've finished building?
Are there skills that would benefit your project that you don't have? If so, have you solicited team members, volunteers or advisors to fill in the gaps?

You can also find additional resources for developers in the Wikimedia Resource Center.

Research

For projects that focus on understanding Wikimedia projects and communities.

Have you clearly articulated your research question? Is the scope narrow enough to be completed within the time and funding constraints of this funding program?
Have you familiarized yourself with previous research that has been conducted in your area of inquiry and explained how your research will add to existing knowledge about your topic?
Have you provided specific information about the methods you intend to use to collect and analyze your data?
Have you described how your background and training prepares you for this research?
Have you solicited an advisor for your project with expertise in your subject area?

See the open access policy for information on how to publish your research.

See the Research FAQ for information about research resources and best practices.

Join the Wiki-research-l mailing list to get feedback and advice from other researchers.

Online organizing

For projects that focus on online community organizing (community process improvements, writing or photo contests, etc).

In addition to the guidance below, there are general resources for Program Coordinators in the Wikimedia Resource Center.

Remote event guidelines

See the remote event guidelines provided in the Conference Grants pages: Grants:Conference/Remote_Event_Guidelines

Contests

What content will the contest focus on and why is it important to your community?
How will you let people know about the contest?
Who are you targeting to participate in the contest and why?
If you plan to use CentralNotice, have you requested a campaign?
How will you judge the contest and award prizes?
For photo contests, what is the strategy to get images used on projects?

See contest planning guidelines for what we'll fund, typical outcomes, and things you'll need.

See the Writing Contest Toolkit for ideas on how to plan, run, and evaluate a writing contest.

See the Photo Contest Toolkit for ideas how to plan, run, and evaluate a photo contest or event.

Offline outreach & events

For events that involve bringing people together to recruit new editors, engage existing editors, conduct outreach, or socialize.

In addition to the guidance below, there are general resources for Program Coordinators in the Wikimedia Resource Center.

Edit-a-thons

Are you doing one editathon or a series of edit-a-thons? If a series, will you follow-up with participants between sessions and provide support?
How will you let your community know about the event?
Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to help lead the event?
Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?
What is your plan for accessing relevant resources/references?
How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

See edit-a-thon planning guidelines for what we'll fund, typical outcomes, and things you'll need.

See more edit-a-thon resources, including tools, how-to guides, learning patterns, and example grant requests/reports.

Workshops

Are you doing one workshop or a series of workshops?
If a series, how will you follow-up with participants online between sessions and provide support?
What kind of participants are you targeting?
What skills will you be teaching?
Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to help lead the workshop?
Do participants have the equipment needed to participate?
How will you engage participants after the workshop(s)?
Does your team have the capacity to support follow-up locally?

Education programs

What goals have you set for your program and what does success look like? See setting goals for your education program for ideas.
How many classrooms/teachers are you working with? We recommend starting with a small pilot before growing!
What type and how many workshops will you be doing?
How have you decided what type of Wikimedia work is most appropriate for the age group and skill levels of the students? (See ideas for different assignment types)
Will students be given school credit for their work? If not, what will you do to motivate them?
How will you let the community know about this project and potential ways they can support the program? (See ways to collaborate with the community)
How will you continue to engage the school, teachers, and students after the program is over?

See the Education Toolkit for ideas on how to plan, run, and evaluate an education program.

Visit the Wikipedia Education Program Portal for lots more information!

Culture and Heritage projects

We welcome projects where communities document and share material and built culture (such as paintings, manuscripts, monuments), natural heritage, oral traditions, and performing arts. These projects often involve a partnership with a library or cultural institution (also known as GLAMs).

If you’re a community working with a partner, demonstrate how the institution is uniquely suited to the needs and interests of your community. Funded partnership projects demonstrate:

Clear evidence of the institution’s preparedness for the project.
Clear focus on content or capacity building that is in demand by a Wikimedia community.
A focus on culture or heritage that is underrepresented in Wikimedia projects.
How the project is building capacity or leading change that will be sustained by the organization.

If you’re an institution planning to work with the Wikimedia movement, you will need to demonstrate that:

Your activities will improve one or more of Wikimedia’s platforms, most likely Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikisource, or Wikipedia.
You have a commitment to open access and some experience working with Wikimedia platforms or communities.
You have community support for your project and a realistic plan to engage volunteers.

If you’re just getting started in the movement, you could research Wikimedia affiliates and sign up to Wikimedia mailing lists.

Project approaches

Engagement tactics that have been widely adopted for culture and heritage projects include:

Using editathons, datathons, and other workshops
Making large uploads of content to Commons or Wikidata
Embedding a Wikimedian in Residence
Organizing photography competitions

If you’re following one of these established formats, be sure to differentiate your project. Is it particularly timely, or addressing content gaps, or innovating within the format?

If you’re working with underrepresented languages or cultures, you might need to digitize the cultural materials that you want to share on Wikimedia platforms.

New tactics that are starting to emerge for culture and heritage projects include:

Language documentation and revitalization
- Such as contributing intangible culture to Wikimedia Commons, lexicographical data on Wikidata/Wiktionary, phrasebooks on Wikivoyage, or even building a new language Wikipedia from scratch.
Decolonization
- Such as researching the underlying provenance of materials that have been digitized, bringing source communities into discussion with collection-holding institutions, documenting consent in photography projects, or exploring approaches for cultural restitution.
Linked data
- Such as creating a collaborative authority file in Wikibase, or modelling intangible culture on Wikidata.

The This Month in GLAM newsletter is an inspiring monthly roundup of recent projects.

In-depth: Wikimedians in Residence

One of the tried and tested ways of working with Wikimedia platforms is to embed an experienced editor or organiser within an institution to build the collaboration with the movement. Activities include advocating for open access and organizing events and campaigns. Typically, these positions are supported by local Wikimedia affiliates, or sponsored by the library or cultural institution that hosts the residency.

The Project Grants program may support a residency that addresses knowledge gaps, or is in a location that isn’t already supported by an affiliate. In that case, depending on your local conditions, you might achieve more impact by working with a cohort of institutions, or a professional network, rather than being embedded in a single institution.

When proposing a Wikimedian in Residence role, consider how you will:

Engage a broader network of staff and peers
Engage with the Wikimedia community and its editors
Sustain the impact beyond the period of the residency

See this framework for Creating Wikimedian in Residence positions.

In-depth: Large content uploads

Sharing images, data, and other media files on Wikimedia platforms allows institutions to take advantage of the broad global audience on Wikipedia. When proposing a large upload project, cover the following questions:

Are you addressing knowledge gaps on Wikimedia projects, or meeting other community content needs?
What format and volume of content will be uploaded to Wikimedia projects? (E.g. number of images or number of scanned pages)
Can the materials be provided under CC-BY-SA or freer licenses and unencumbered by other restrictions?
Which Wikimedia platforms do you plan to use?
What metadata will you provide to ensure that the material is discoverable on Wikimedia’s platforms? (You can improve multilingual discovery by using Structured Data on Commons.)
Will you be organizing events, campaigns, or other activities to encourage and support reuse of the content?
Does your team understand the available tools and have the skills needed to organize batch uploads? If you will be improving or developing software, how will you document and share this?

Read this documentation of the workflow for data and media partnerships to check that you have covered all the steps involved.

In-depth: Digitization

When considering a digitization project, you should address the following questions:

Can you demonstrate that there is a funding gap for the digitization of cultural assets in your country or region? Usually, digitization projects are executed by cultural institutions themselves and funded through national, regional, or thematic grant programs. However, we recognise that such programs are not equally available everywhere.
Are you addressing knowledge gaps on Wikimedia projects, or meeting other community content needs?
What is the extent of the collection? Do you need to digitize it all, or would a selection of highlights, or a representative sample, be enough?
What is the type and condition of the materials, and how will you access, digitize, and document them? Your proposal must describe your proposed workflow and identify the documentation or expertise that you will rely on.
Can the materials be provided under CC-BY-SA or freer licenses and unencumbered by other restrictions?
Do you have a plan for maintaining the new digital files in perpetuity? Wikimedia Commons is not a platform for digital preservation because files can be deleted or removed by the community. Institutional repositories or the Internet Archive are more durable platforms for the preservation of these materials.
What is your plan for integrating the content into Wikimedia projects? (See the Large content uploads section). At the very least, you should capture sufficient metadata to make these materials easily discoverable for reuse.
If you need to purchase new equipment for digitization, your proposal should include a plan for its continued use for mission-aligned activities. For example, at the end of your project, you might donate it to your local affiliate, library, cultural institution, or community center.