Wikimedia CH/Grant

Grants of Wikimedia CH

Wikimedia CH (WMCH) Grants support individuals, groups, or organizations with a budget from 1'001 CHF. Grants up to 1'000 CHF go under Microgrants (with a lighter procedure).

Grant is considered as a transfer of funds to another entity or an individual. Projects financed directly by Wikimedia CH and operating directly under a programme of Wikimedia CH, are not considered within the grant system.

Type of grants

Type	Range	Applicants	Timeframe for application	Timeframe for decision from WMCH	Fund reception
Microgrants (see the related page)	Up to 1'000 CHF	Everyone	Year-round	Within a month of application	after report and receiving ER
Rapid grants	From 1'001 to 5'000 CHF	Everyone	Year-round	Within a month of application	See Funds transfer
Project grants for groups	From 5'001 to 10'000 CHF	Groups	From January 1st to the 3rd Sunday in September (for next year)	Until mid-December (for next year)
Project grants for organizations	Minimum 5'001 CHF	Organizations		Until mid-December (for next year)

Please note that for groups and organizations the submission of the grant does not necessarily mean necessarily the approval. There is a process of evaluation of the eligibility and afterwards the check that there is a budget still available to finance the project. It could happen that some years we receive more projects than the capacity of our budget and, even if the project is eligible or impactful, it cannot be financed or cannot be financed that year. Even if there is no budget bucket, it can be possible to finance using money of the projects not executed.

Please note that the limit for rapid grants does not apply to projects which are under the incubator of the innovation programme as these projects will not transfer funds to another entity, but they will operate directly under the control of Wikimedia CH.

Applicants can be:

Organizations: entity, such as an institution or an association, comprising one or more people and having a legal recognition. Organizations must have an agreement or a memorandum of understandings with Wikimedia CH to receive project grants.
Groups: entity comprising three or more people not having a legal recognition (i.e. Wikimedia user group). Groups must have an agreement or a memorandum of understandings with Wikimedia CH to receive project grants.
Individuals: single person.

Eligibility criteria

Any individual, group or organization is allowed to receive one grant at a time (event attendance scholarships are excepted, but double financing is forbidden when scholarships are included in a project grant). An additional grant can be requested as soon the previous one has been closed and reported.
Applicants must indicate if they applied or received another grant from another entity (i.e. WikiFranca, WMF or private company, public administration).
The minimum amount for grants is 1'001 CHF. For grants requiring less than 1'001 CHF, please apply through the microgrant procedure.
Grants can cover projects lasting a maximum of 12 months, and there is no minimum time-period for a project supported by a WMCH grant.
Everything funded by the grant must be thematically related to the grant. Ongoing operating expenses (for example : rents or salaries) are not eligible for funding.
Funds are generally to be used for what is described in the grant. Compensation for an individual's time is permitted for a limited number of roles (such as coordinating activities relating to the grant, workshop organization and tutoring, or tidying new pages after workshop).
Activities or expenses that have already taken place at the time of application are ineligible for funding.
The activity should be for non-profit purpose and not for private advantage.

Selection criteria

When selecting applications we consider the following criteria:

Strategic priority: Do your activities improve one or more of the planned activites of Wikimedia CH or an activity connected with every single program of Wikimedia CH (Education, GLAM, Community or Outreach)?
Potential outcomes and impact: What are the concrete outcomes that are anticipated as a result of the activities? What difference do you expect your project to make?
Contribution record: Do you have a history of engaging with Wikimedia projects and communities?
Support: Do you have sufficient volunteers to complete the project and endorsements from the Wikimedia community?

Funding guidelines

General guidelines

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
Projects aimed at improving one or more of Wikimedia's existing programmes	Projects aimed at improving third-party applications with no or weak connection to the Wikimedia projects
Projects that foster conditions to encourage editing by volunteers (e.g. editor recruitment or strengthening campaigns)	Projects that replace volunteer action by directly funding someone to create content (e.g. editing articles, uploading photos)
Direct expenses and compensation for creating code, research, or materials that are published and released as free and open-source. Licensing should be compatible with current Wikimedia and MediaWiki practices	Direct expenses or compensation for creating code, research, materials that are created on a closed source platform or published in such a way that access is not freely available or compatible with current Wikimedia and MediaWiki practices
Requests from organizations with proof of non-profit status	Requests from for-profit companies or organizations
One project per proposal, up to a year in duration	Multiple, independent projects per proposal
Projects by applicants who (i) agree to the reporting requirements, and (ii) are willing to sign a grant agreement, and (iii) provide the Wikimedia CH with information needed to process their funding	Projects by applicants who cannot comply with the requirements and contractual terms of the program
Projects by applicants in good community standing	Projects by applicants who are blocked or banned on any Wikimedia spaces, or who have a demonstrated history of not complying with Respectful behaviour space policy If applicants have been in good community standing for one year, but have previous history of censure, proposals will be reviewed on a case by case basis

Compensation for grantees or others

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
Caretakers or babysitting services necessary to support either applicants or participants with children to attend the events (this needs an invoice).	Caretakers or babysitting services outside the scheduled event dates. Long-term caretaker or babysitting services.
Graphic designers or services to prepare images to promote or advertise an event or activity supported by the Grant proposal.	Graphic designers or services to prepare images for events or needs unrelated to Wikimedia projects or outside the scope of the proposal.
Developers for writing or testing code in relation to a gadget, extension, software, or other tool that benefits Wikimedia projects or its contributors.	Developers for writing or testing code for tools unrelated to Wikimedia projects.
Project manager to collect resources, engage or train the community, and organize events around integrating content.	Project manager whose sole focus is to digitize resources and/or personally create content.
Project based staff costs until 20% of the total budget for concentrated work that could not be completed by volunteers or during non-working hours. This is allowed only for institutions that employ people for this purpose themselves or for independent workers. These fees are only focused to the goals of the projects and cannot be extended beyond the grant period.	Project based staff costs not explicitly specified over 20% of the total budget.

Facilities, equipment and materials

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
Temporary working space for short-term project organization.	Ongoing office space rent.
Rental equipment to be used for specific projects, such as cameras, wi-fi hotspot/dongle, etc.	Any equipment for purchase such as laptops, book scanners, cameras, and projectors This material must be requested specifically to Wikimedia CH or through a microgrant.
Offline (hard-copy) publishing for targeted networking.	Offline publishing of general outreach materials.
Digitization of materials as part of a programme with a plan for how digitized content will be integrated into Wikimedia projects.	Paying individuals to digitize materials as the primary focus of the project.

General events

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
In-person events with a Respectful behaviour space policy	In-person events without a Respectful behaviour space
Subscription services for video conferencing, webinars, or other online communication platforms during the grant period	Subscription services for video conferencing, webinars, or other online communication platforms that extend beyond the grant period
Expenses for temporary wired or wireless data plans needed for organizers to host online event	Expenses for wired or wireless data plans that extend beyond the grant period

Travel and accomodation

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
Local travel for participants in relation to an edit-a-thon, photowalk, contest, or another approved event or programme.	Long-distance travel (more than 2’000 km or 2 hours of flight one way) for participants and/or travel to non-Wikimedia events (These kind of travels are managed with scholarships to be required to the specific programme managers)
Local travel for project planning, execution and follow-up.
Longer distance travel to cover essential gaps, when it can’t be done locally or online, and when there is a follow-up plan.	Longer distance travel for activities that can be done online or by local volunteers.
Travel to organize an outreach activity (training, editathon, etc.) and conduct follow-up with participants at a non-Wikimedia event	Travel to a non-Wikimedia events with no planned outreach project and follow-up activity.
	Travel to Wikimedia's big events (i.e. Wikimania or Wikimedia Hackathon or Wikicons). These travels are managed with the scholarships programme.
Travel by train or short travel by car (lesser than 500Km) when the use of the car is the single option.	Longer distance travel by flight or longer travel by car (more than 500km one way).
Accommodation and meals following Wikimedia CH's General Reimbursement policy.	Accommodation and meals not following Wikimedia CH's General Reimbursement policy.

To respect the principle of environmental protection Wikimedia CH in general doesn't fund travels more than 2'000 km of distance or requiring more than 2 hours of flight. Exceptionally this kind of travels are included in scholarships programme.
To follow the same principle, Wikimedia CH in general doesn't fund travel by car except when this travel is done by a group of people and for a distance less than 500 Km one way.
For costs not included in these guidelines, the main reference is the Wikimedia CH Wikimedia CH's General Reimbursement policy that will be provided to the applicant as soon the grant is approved

General promotion campaigns of Wikimedia projects

Eligible for funding	Not eligible for funding
Volunteers promoting Wikimedia projects/campaigns online or offline	Hiring an ad agency to promote Wikimedia projects
Budget for social media promotion and/or printing promotional materials for offline promotion
Volunteers producing videos for promotion of Wikimedia projects/campaigns	Producing videos with no promotion plan in place