Page:Funding Free Knowledge the Wiki Way - Wikimedia Foundation Participatory Grantmaking.pdf/34

 WMF Grantmaking Timeline

The Wikimedia Foundation was founded in 2003. Wikimedia Foundation Grantmaking history begins in 2009. Some of the national Wikimedia organizations, or chapters, began to request funds for costs such as hosting conferences, or buying refreshments for outreach events. Erik Moller, Deputy Director and Vice President of Product & Strategy, was the staff member receiving those requests. As an long time Wikipedian himself, he responded in a "wiki way," creating a space for grants on Meta-Wiki, with a very short form application, and sending out an email to the main mailing list. "From then on we suddenly had a grants program," says Asaf Bartov. How were those grants decided? Bartov explains that every now and then, Moller would read requests and approve or reject them - and few requests were turned down. This program changed hands several times, being run briefly by the WMF's "Program Team" before being shifted to the "Community Team," and finally to the "Global Development Team," the predecessor of today's grantmaking team.

Until 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation was largely focused on technical infrastructure for the websites. The organization's first ever strategic plan was created and adopted in 2009-2010: "A collaborative vision for the movement through 2015." This plan included a number of critical targets, including one to "Support healthy diversity in the editing community by doubling the percentage of female editors to 25 percent and increasing the percentage of Global South editors to 37 percent." The report also included commitments to "Support Wikimedia chapters with financial or other assistance..." and to "Provide project funding for efforts to connect Wikimedia projects with the work of institutions of culture and learning."

Still, at that time, funds were being distributed only for technical assistance, reimbursements, some organizational costs, and event expenses. WMF did not yet conceive of its grantmaking as a philanthropic or human rights project.

When Asaf Bartov was hired in 2011, as the only grantmaking program officer, he didn't feel comfortable being the sole decision-maker about grant distribution; he wanted discussion before decisions. He began to encourage participation on the discussion spaces (talk pages) of grant applications, and established the Grant Advisory Committee (GAC) to advise the WMF on decisions about Project and Event Grants (PEG) (then called "Wikimedia Foundation Grants"). This change in approach marks the point at which WMF became a Participatory Grantmaking Fund. Bartov's own experience with Wikimedia outside of the US informed his desire to broaden the scope of input about proposals:

Bartov made another big change: he opened up the application to the wider community. Whereas previously, the grants process had been designed to respond only to requests from formal