Community Resources/Reports/Community Funds Distribution Report 2023-2024
 Previous report for 2022−2023
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Executive Summary
editDuring the 2023-2024 funding year, the Wikimedia Foundation awarded 387 Community Fund grants to affiliates, other mission-aligned organizations, and people around the world, totaling $16,179,307 USD. 2023-2024 marked the third year of Community Resources' Grants Strategy Relaunch, prioritizing the Movement Strategy goal of Knowledge Equity.
In the new strategy's third year, 57% of the Community Fund was distributed outside North America (NA) and Northern & Western Europe (NWE), up from 40% in 2020-2021.
Community Fund Grant Programs
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Community Fund grants fall under the following programs:
- General Support Fund for flexible operational support (usually between $10,000 and $400,000 USD);
- Rapid Fund for organizing projects (between $500 and $5,000 USD); and
- Conference and Event Fund for local, regional, or thematic convenings (starting at $10,000 USD)
Of the 112 General Support grants, 36 (32%) were multi-year grants (5 in their third year of funding, 10 in their second, 21 in their first). This is a significant increase from 2022-2023, when 23% of General Support grants were multi-year. Another 21 (19%) were receiving General Support funds for the first time.
Measures of Funding Equity
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In 2023-2024, the Community Fund supported 387 grants across 96 countries (two more countries than the previous year). 95 (25%) grants were made to first-time grantees, mostly based in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (41%) and Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA) (11%).
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 regions as well as a regionally diverse Conference Support Committee to review conference and event requests. In FY 2020-2021, before the new strategy began, 60% of funds were distributed to NA and NWE. While funding has increased for each region, funds distributed in NA and NWE have grown more slowly (a 6.8% increase in General and Rapid funding in the last year) than in other regions. Funding to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), SSA, East, Southeast Asia, & Pacific (ESEAP), and CEECA grew to 51% of all General Support and Rapid Funding, up from 36% in 2020-2021.
Distribution of General Support funds has continued to become more geographically diverse over time, with 46% of such grants going to grantees in SSA, LAC, and ESEAP in 23-24. While funding to countries in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) and South Asia (SA) regions has historically been much less than in other regions, in 2023-2024, 9 of the 21 new General Support recipients were located in one of these two regions.
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Conference and Event grants also supported convenings across the world in 2023-2024. More information on the events supported by these funds can be found here.
*A note on the figures above: 2023-2024 funding year totals do not reflect all grant-related transactions that were posted during the 2024 fiscal year. For General Support & Rapid funds this fiscal year, the above figures exclude $120,288 distributed for grants belonging to the 2022-2023 funding year, $121,074 of underspent 2022-2023 grant funds either returned to the Foundation or credited toward 2023-2024 grants (as well as $90,357 from 2021-2022, $2,277 from 2020-2021, and $121 from 2019-2020). General Support & Rapid funds above also include $31,053 in scheduled payments for the 2023-2024 funding year that had not yet been posted as of this page's publication.
For Conference Funds, above figures exclude $25,932 distributed for event grants belonging to the 22-23 funding year and $35,746 of underspent 2022-2023 grant funds either returned to the Foundation or credited toward 2023-2024 grants.
Other Grant Programs
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Other WMF funding activities in 2023-20204 included:
- Alliances Fund for mission-aligned organizations, in its final year
- Research Fund for Wikimedia-related research
- Movement Strategy Implementation Grants to move the Movement Strategy recommendations forward
- Knowledge Equity Fund
- Funding support to WMDE for Wikimedia Summit
- Stipends for volunteers serving on Regional Funds Committees or the Leadership Development Working Group