Wikimedia Deutschland/Governance and Movement Relations/Funding 2030 Movement Strategy

Funding 2030 Movement Strategy

Movement Strategy Recommendations 1 and 4 provide strong language on the need to distribute, decentralize, democratize, diversify and increase the generation and allocation of funds in the Wikimedia movement. The Movement Charter, in a timely fashion, is supposed to further detail how ‘guidance’ of funds will be transferred to the movement stakeholders.

Until these provisions are implemented in the mid-term, however, we will have to work with existing structures.

It is important in this interim period that we assure equitable access to funds for implementing movement strategy and moving towards the strategic direction.

Recommendation 4 states in this regard:

“In the immediate future, the Wikimedia Foundation should increase overall financial and other resources directed to the Movement for the purpose of implementing Movement strategy.”

Allocating funds towards Movement Strategy goals is the basis for any further steps. Then it will be crucial to make sure this funding reaches and can be utilized by stakeholders in the movement who previously had no access to funding, who represent emerging and marginalized communities, and whose voices will further knowledge equity and improve equity in decision making. For the wealthy organizations in the movement to wait which initiatives are implemented by communities and affiliates without leveling the financial playing field would be the ultimate in sitting out changes through financial privilege.

We commend the Wikimedia Foundation for the first steps towards allocating funds for strategy initiatives. 2020 budgetary underspending was channeled into a ‘Knowledge Equity Fund’. A portion of the 2021/22 FY budget is reportedly planned to be allocated for implementation of Movement Strategy actions and initiatives previously prioritized. APG grantees had the option to include movement strategy related activities in their budgets. The mechanism for project grants was reviewed and adjusted. The proposed relaunch of the Community Resources Team’s Grant Structure includes improvements to decision making and the possibility to extend funds to aligned partners.

(Note: For FY2021, Wikimedia Deutschland has also allocated significant personnel and monetary resources both to support movement strategy initiatives and processes, as well as to create partnerships and exchanges between movement entities to further knowledge equity and knowledge as a service.)

However, to assure quick and equitable access to funds in FY 2021/22, the following two steps are crucial:

1. Funding people: Create a fund that provides individual stipends for representatives from marginalized and emerging communities to be able to participate in the decision-making, movement project development and policy writing processes in 2021 (including the Interim Global Council, providing consultations on movement charter, developing regional hubs, providing or participating in peer capacity building activities and other activities that grow and strengthen the movement).

Rationale: An important factor mentioned over and over during the drafting of the recommendations, and continuing in more recent conversations: People in developing countries, or from marginalized communities likely are not in the privileged position to volunteer time in the way it was done in the global north when Wikipedia was grown over the last 20 years. This is all the more apparent with the pandemic disproportionately affecting these communities.This disparity affects time spent on building organizations and communities, fundraising, advocacy, events, and last not least, time spent on participating in global decision making and on designing policies for that. In order to include these people, we need the option and an accountable system to have time compensated. This should be a multi-purpose fund (not a separate stipend for each initiative), combined with other supports such as childcare and technical assistance.

2. Funding initiatives: Create an easy to access fund for groups of leaders (not restricted to one single organisation, but to a group or collaborative) in the movement who want to take on broader initiatives from the Movement Strategy. (These may include thematic and regional hubs or pilots, experimentations around UX, building capacity around local fundraising, the movement-wide knowledge platform, capacity building exchange structures, documentation and evaluation resources and many more ideas that are yet to be documented or developed, given the appropriate resources). Initiatives need to be documented, connected and coordinated to avoid duplication and share learning.

The new knowledge equity fund or parts of it could certainly be set up to serve as such a mechanism. Either way, the development of its funding criteria and process should be done in a timely fashion and in consultation with Movement Strategy stakeholders. We also recommend that this funding be administered by the WMF Community Resources team as well, to assure good coordination.

Rationale: Many of the initiatives that result from the strategy will require significant work from movement affiliates and people to get started. It is crucial that these initiatives not be left to the WMF to do, but that other affiliates and groups have the opportunity to take responsibility and ownership. APG and Project grant funds are not the appropriate mechanisms, as they are based on the financial logic of either an organisation or a project. These mechanisms do not encourage lifting the view beyond one’s own organization or the limited scope of a defined project. Our existing funding mechanisms do not adequately fit with the requirements of collaborative, coordinated multi-partner, multi-year initiatives, nor those of small iterative contextual experimentation.

Wikimedia Deutschland strongly recommends to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation that these two funding mechanisms are incorporated into the FY 21/22 Budget, and that WMF staff provide clear and timely information about access to these and to the knowledge equity fund, as well as a transparent system of funding administration. These mechanisms can be considered temporary, until the participatory resource allocation policies outlined in the recommendations are written and fully implemented.

In order to address the needs that we see around funding the implementation of the 2030 Movement Strategy, Lukas Mezger (Chair of Wikimedia Deutschland's Supervisory Board) and Alice Wiegand (Vice Chair of Wikimedia Deutschland's Supervisory Board) reached out to María Sefidari (Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees) and Nataliia Tymkiv (Vice Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees), and recieved an immediate response.

Letter from Lukas Mezger and Alice Wiegand to María Sefidari, 2 February 2021

Dear María, dear Nataliia,

We would like to share our perspective on the needs we see around funding the implementation of the 2030 Movement Strategy. We know that Movement Strategy is high on your agenda, as it is on ours, but we haven’t heard much from the Wikimedia Foundation about funding implementation initiatives, which is a topic we consider especially relevant.

Recommendations 1 and 4 provide strong language on the need to distribute, decentralize, democratize, diversify, and increase the generation and allocation of funds. Until provisions like the Movement Charter are implemented, however, we will have to work with our existing structures.

From our perspective, equitable access to funds for the implementation is the prerequisite for the success of the current interim period and the movement’s progress in our Strategic Direction. It will be crucial to make sure this funding reaches stakeholders who previously had no access to funding, who represent emerging and marginalized communities. Otherwise, we fear that we will just replicate existing structures and only the established organizations will benefit from the forthcoming changes.

At Wikimedia Deutschland, we have allocated a significant part of our budget and operational planning to strategy support and implementation. We created a designated team led by Nicole Ebber and we asked all departments to align their annual programmes with the 2030 recommendations. It is part of our responsibility as board members to set this focus and to ensure that we provide best starting conditions.

As a movement, we have to set an example to demonstrate that this strategy is more than just words. And we need to demonstrate that we support each other as a movement. Right now, we believe that financial support is crucial for moving forward and seeing first implementations being kicked off.

We commend the Wikimedia Foundation for the first steps towards allocating funds for strategy initiatives. However, to assure quick and equitable access to funds in 2021, we consider the following two steps as inevitable:

Funding people: Equitable participation in the decision-making, movement project development and policy writing processes in 2021–22 will require significant support. We suggest creating a fund that provides individual stipends for representatives from marginalized and emerging communities to be able to take part. The movement should implement an accountable system to compensate these individuals for their time and effort, and envision a multi-purpose fund, combined with other supports such as childcare and technical assistance.
Funding initiatives: Many of the initiatives will require significant work from affiliates and people to get started. We suggest creating an easy-to-access fund for groups of leaders who want to take on such initiatives throughout the year. The current grant structures are based on the financial logic of either an organisation or a project as the grant applicant. For the strategy implementation process, though, funds are needed for collaborative, multi-partner, international, multi-year initiatives, or those of small iterative contextual experimentation. It won't be sufficient to simply budget for certain activities that the WMF already foresees for 2021.

Wikimedia Deutschland strongly recommends to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees that these two funding mechanisms are incorporated into the FY 21/22 budget, and that WMF staff provide clear and timely information about access to and administration of these funds. We suggest these mechanisms to be considered temporary, until the participatory resource allocation policies outlined in the recommendations are written and fully implemented.

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions or remarks about this issue, we are happy to elaborate this further. We look forward to continuing to work with you on implementing the Movement Strategy.

Kind regards,

Lukas and Alice

Response from María Sefidari, 2 February 2021

Dear Lukas and Alice,

Thank you for reaching out. It’s wonderful that WMDE has dedicated resources and staff to implementing the movement strategy — that's not a surprise, given the good work we’ve done in partnership all throughout this process. I’m grateful for your suggestions and our ongoing partnership.

The Board is committed to working closely with the movement, especially leading affiliates like WMDE, to help shape the new structures that will support a more decentralized, distributed model of governance as is described in the Movement Strategy. We’re also committed to ensuring that we apply the necessary resources to help the movement succeed. I’ve made that committment publicly in each movement meeting I’ve joined over these past months.

I agree with you that we want to ensure the resources are in place to ensure continued momentum and support community leadership. The process being led by the movement strategy team has been designed to ensure that the Foundation is able to include appropriate budget allocations in its 2021/22 budget to support the kinds of initiatives you describe. We will continue to have dedicated staff support for the Movement Strategy, in addition to assigning key projects to the relevant teams (for example, UCoC is being led by Trust & Safety).

The issue of compensation has been raised throughout the process, including our most recent rounds of meetings. While those issues are complex in our volunteer-driven environment, I’m confident that the next steps will include considerations to address the issues of participation and equitable resourcing to support contribution from across the movement.

I understand from Ryan Merkley, who leads the Movement Strategy work at the Foundation, that he has also had outreach from Nicole and Nikki at WMDE, and they have set up time to discuss proposals and opportunities for collaboration early next week. I’ve shared your recommendations with him directly, and will encourage the staff to review them as part of their implementation report.

Kind regards,

Maria