Wikidata:Twelfth Birthday/Run an event/Funding

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Wikidata's distributed birthday | October-November 2024 | #WikidataBirthday




If you are planning an event for Wikidata’s birthday, you may need some financial support in order to run the event smoothly, to help your participants join or to provide equipment or refreshments. On this page, you will find some useful information about how to get funding.

Overview of funding options

There are typically three options to get funding for a Wikidata birthday event:

  • Reach out to your local affiliate to know if they have budget planned for the Wikidata birthday, or if they have a microgrant program you could benefit from;
  • Apply for WMF’s Rapid Fund if you meet their deadlines and eligibility requirements;
  • ✨ New! Apply for Wikimedia Deutschland’s special Wikidata birthday microgrant.

In the table below, you will find a summary of these options, to figure out what could be most adapted to your needs.

Wikimedia Deutschland’s microgrant WMF Rapid Fund - Cycle 1 WMF Rapid Fund - Cycle 2 Your local affiliate
  • Deadline to apply: September 1st
  • Decision announced: September 9th
  • Timeframe of the projects: October 1st-November 15th
  • Range of amount that can be funded: EUR 100 to 1,000
  • Type of recipients: Only registered organizations (does not need to be a Wikimedia affiliate)
  • Organizations that already receive an APG/GSF can apply for a microgrant
  • Eligibility requirements (see below)
  • Deadline to apply: August 1st
  • Decision announced: September 13th
  • Timeframe of the projects: starting on September 30th
  • Range of amount that can be funded: USD 500 to 5,000
  • Type of recipients: individuals, groups and organizations
  • Organizations that already receive an APG/GSF cannot apply for Rapid Fund
  • Eligibility requirements
  • Deadline to apply: October 1st
  • Decision announced: November 15th
  • Timeframe of the projects: starting on November 29th
  • Range of amount that can be funded: USD 500 to 5,000
  • Type of recipients: individuals, groups and organizations
  • Organizations that already receive an APG/GSF cannot apply for Rapid Fund
  • Eligibility requirements
  • Depends on the microgrant or support program that they may have in place.
  • Don’t forget to reach out to your closest local chapter or user group to know if they have plans for Wikidata’s birthday and if they have a grant program you could use.

Wikimedia Deutschland’s microgrant program for Wikidata’s birthday

For the first time in 2024, Wikimedia Deutschland is offering an international microgrant program for local Wikidata communities who want to organize events and activities for Wikidata’s birthday.

Wikimedia Deutschland will offer up to 10 organizations the possibility to get funding up to EUR 1,000 to fund activities related to Wikidata’s birthday. The application phase runs until September 1st. If you are preparing activities for Wikidata’s birthday, we encourage you to apply! You will find more information below on this page.

Please note that this microgrant program is developed as an experiment, and that some issues may arise. Although we will do our best to run the application, selection and delivery phases smoothly, in order to provide funding to organizers ahead of their event, we may experience some difficulties delivering funds to some countries. If you have any questions or encounter issues, do not hesitate to reach out to Lea Lacroix (WMDE) (lea.lacroix_ext@wikimedia.de or @Auregann on Telegram).

Important dates

July-August: application phase is running

We strongly encourage you to plan ahead and start preparing your application early. We are providing office hour calls to support applicants in preparing their content.

See also:

➡️ List of questions (to prepare your application)

➡️ Support and office hours

Until September 1st at 23:59 UTC: deadline to submit your application.

Late applications will not be considered. We strongly encourage you to plan ahead and start preparing your application early!

See also:

➡️ Eligibility requirements

➡️ Activities that can be funded

➡️ List of questions (to prepare your application)

➡️ Apply for a microgrant

September 2-6: Selection

See also: ➡️ Selection process

September 9-13: Decision announced

Organizers who will receive a grant will be informed first. They will be asked to confirm that they are still interested before September 15th.

A waitlist may be created. Organizers who cannot receive a grant will be informed shortly afterwards.

See also: ➡️ Status of applications

September 16-30: Processing and payment

Grant recipients will be in close contact with Wikimedia Deutschland about the status of the payment. As the payment is an international bank transfer, it may take up to two weeks to arrive on the local bank account.

October 1 - November 15: Events are taking place

Wikidata birthday events and activities are expected to take place in October and first half of November, with a focus on October 29th, the birthday date.

November: documentation, reporting and wrap-up

In November, grant recipients will be asked to provide documentation about their activities.

Eligibility requirements

Here are the eligibility requirements for Wikimedia Deutschland’s microgrant program. Please read them with attention if you are planning to request a grant.

Organization applying for a grant

  • Due to regulations that apply to Wikimedia Deutschland as a German non-profit organization, we can only fund organizations that are officially registered in their country. Applications from individuals or groups of individuals without a registered organization cannot be processed. We encourage individuals and groups to organize a common application together with a registered Wikimedia organization, that can apply for a microgrant, then redistribute the funds.
  • The organization applying for a grant must be in capacity to receive a bank transfer from a German bank account or a Paypal transfer. Organizations that do not operate any of these payment modes and organizations based in a country in which receiving funds from a German NGO is impossible may not be able to receive the grant. Before applying to the microgrant, please check with your bank whether bank transfers from Germany are possible, and what may be the additional costs to receive such a transfer.
  • Due to administrative or diplomatic regulations, organizations based in one of the countries from this list unfortunately cannot be funded by Wikimedia Deutschland: Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Central African Republic, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Application and activities

  • The application must be sent through the form before the end of the application process, on September 1st at 23:59 UTC. Late applications can not be processed.
  • The activities funded must be organized in the frame of Wikidata’s birthday, and must have a direct connection with Wikidata.
  • The activities funded are taking place between October 1st and November 30th, 2024.
  • The request must be between 100€ and 1,000€ or its equivalent in another currency at the time of the application.

Event organizers and trainers

  • The organizers and trainers must be active Wikimedia community members and must be able to show some activity on the Wikimedia projects in the past year, especially activities related to Wikidata.
  • The organizers and trainers as well as all participants of the event must follow the Universal Code of Conduct and Friendly Space Policies.
  • Applicants are not eligible for funding if repeatedly or indefinitely blocked on any Wikimedia project, even if the proposed work is independent from that Wikimedia project.

Activities that can be funded

The activities funded must be organized in the frame of Wikidata’s birthday, and must have a direct connection with Wikidata. This include for example (but is not limited to):

  • Rent a space to organize an onsite event
  • Rent or buy the necessary equipment to run a presentation or a workshop (laptops and other devices, screen, furniture, etc.)
  • Provide the internet connection needed for an onsite event
  • Cover for the transport and accommodation costs of organizers, speakers and participants
  • Provide food and refreshments during an onsite event (including birthday cake!)
  • Cover for the needs of participants: data plan, power supplies, childcare, food, etc.
  • Communication costs: design, print, advertisement
  • Merchandising for participants and organizers: printing stickers, T-shirts, etc.
  • Prizes for contests
  • Compensation for well-defined roles that do not replace volunteer activities, for example graphic design, training, speaker fees, translation, project management, administrative tasks.
  • Administrative fees that are expected to be required to receive the bank transfer from a German bank account, or to distribute funds to other entities.

If you have any doubts or want to check if an activity can be covered, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Selection process

The selection of the applications will take place at the beginning of September. The selection committee is composed of Mohammed Abdulai (WMDE), Lydia Pintscher (WMDE), Alan Ang (WMDE) and Lea Lacroix (WMDE). The committee will evaluate the applications based on the following criteria:

  • The organizers have a good understanding of Wikidata and its community.
  • The proposal includes a clear description of activities, target audience and outcomes.
  • If the activities include a Wikidata presentation or training, the name of the trainer must be mentioned, and they must have experience with Wikidata and be recognized as a knowledgeable editor.
  • The planned activities are directly related to Wikidata and birthday celebrations.

Additionally, we will look into the following information to give additional chances to organizers from a minoritized background:

  • We will make sure that a certain number of grants are attributed to organizers who are not based in Europe or North America.
  • We will give priority to organizers who plan activities focused on minoritized cultures or languages.
  • We will give priority to organizers who do not have access to other sources of funding.

List of questions

We strongly recommend applicants to start preparing their application as soon as possible, and to prepare the form answers in a document before pasting them into the application form. In the expandable box below, you will find the list of questions that will be asked in the form. Please note that the form is only available in English.

List of questions

Section 1 - About the organizers

First of all, we need some information about the people who are applying for a microgrant and who will organize Wikidata birthday activities.

Question Description/help
Name of the main contact Please add your legal name.
Email address of the main contact Please enter a valid email address. Communication about the grant will be sent to this address.
Telegram handle If you have a Telegram account, indicate your handle or phone number so we can reach out to you on Telegram if needed.
Usernames of the organizers Please enter the usernames used by the main organizers of the Wikidata birthday activities on the Wikimedia projects. This information will be published onwiki. Max 200 char.
Please describe the role and experience of the organizers on Wikidata-related activities. Describe shortly how experienced the organizers are on Wikidata. Are you active editors? Members of WikiProjects? Did you already run Wikidata-related activities, editing campaigns, or events?

Max 2000 char.

Section 2 - About the project

Now, let’s look into the activities that you have planned for Wikidata’s birthday!

Question Description
Title of the project Give an explicit title to your project, such as “Wikidata birthday celebration in Accra, Ghana” or “Editathon about female athletes in Indonesian language”. Max 200 char. This information will be published onwiki.
Activities that you plan to run in the frame of this project Provide a summary of the activities that you plan to organize, and explain how they are related to Wikidata and Wikidata’s birthday. Max 2000 char.
Timeframe of your activities When will these activities take place? Indicate a specific date (e.g. “October 26th”) or a range of dates (“from October 15th to November 15th”).
Country Where will your activities take place? If the activities are entirely online, what are the countries of residence of organizers?
Target audience of your activities What is the target audience of your event or activities? How do you plan to reach out to them and invite them to your event? How do you plan to adapt your activities to their needs? Max 2000 char.
Expected outcomes of your activities What outcomes do you expect from your event? Please mention up to 3 outcomes. How do you plan to measure these outcomes? Max 2000 char.
Will your activities include an introduction to Wikidata, training or editing campaign components? Yes/No
Usernames of trainers Please enter the usernames of the experienced editors who will run the training components of your event. If you do not have yet found experienced trainers, feel free to reach out to Léa Lacroix or Mohammed Sadat to ask for suggestions. Max 2000 char.
How will you ensure the quality of the training or editing campaign components? How will you make sure that the training is high quality, to provide a good basis of knowledge to newcomers so they can start editing Wikidata and join the community? If you run an editing campaign or contest, how will you make sure that it produces good quality edits?  Max 2000 char.
Code of conduct compliance By checking this box, you confirm that you will apply the Universal Code of Conduct and Friendly Space Policies during your activities.
How do you plan to report on your activities after the event? Let us know what you plan to do to report and document your activities after your event. It can be for example: write a blog post, write down documentation on a wiki page, share your experience with your community, propose a session at another event to keep the discussions ongoing… Max 2000 char.
Are you interested in being interviewed for a blog post? We may interview birthday events organizers to write a blog post on Wikimedia Deutschland’s website. If you check “yes”, we may contact you for an online interview.
Other comments You can add here anything else that could be useful to the reviewers. Max 1000 char.

Section 3 - About the expenses

It’s time to talk about the amount you request for this grant.

Question Description
Amount requested (in EUR) Please convert in EUR if needed using the converter at https://www.oanda.com/currency-converter. The amount must be between 100 and 1,000 EUR.
Description of the expenses (link to file) In this document, you will find the budget estimation template. Please create a copy on your own Google Drive/cloud, fill in the table, make sure that the link can be shared, and add the sharing link in this field.
Do you have other sources of funding for this project? Did you apply for other grants for this project? Do you have access to other sources of funding, or do you already have a budget planned for Wikidata’s birthday in your organization’s annual plan?
If you do not receive a microgrant, will you still be able to run your activities?

Section 4 - About the fiscal sponsor

Due to regulations that apply to Wikimedia Deutschland as a German non-profit organization, we can only fund organizations that are officially registered in their country. Applications from individuals or groups of individuals without a registered organization cannot be processed. We encourage individuals and groups to organize a common application together with a registered Wikimedia organization, that can apply for a microgrant, then redistribute the funds.

The organization applying for a grant must be in capacity to receive a bank transfer from a German bank account or a Paypal transfer. Organizations that do not operate any of these payment modes and organizations based in a country in which receiving funds from a German NGO is impossible may not be able to receive the grant. Before filling in this part, please reach out to the bank to get the information needed, ask them to confirm whether they can receive a transfer from a German bank account, and what are the fees to be expected (so we can include them in the total amount you will receive).

Question Description
Name of the organization or fiscal sponsor Please enter the name of the organization that will receive the funds. This organization must be officially registered in its country. It does not need to have a non-profit or charity status. This information will be published onwiki.
Official address of the organization Enter the official address of the organization. This should include: street name and number if any, other address details, city, postal code, region or state if any, country.
Phone number Official contact phone number of the organization, if any.
Registration number Enter the registration number of the organization, or any unique identifier that was delivered by the country authorities when the organization was registered.
Tax ID Enter the organization’s Taxpayer Identification Number, if any.
Name of the chairperson(s) Name of the chairperson or otherwise legal representative(s) of the organization.
IBAN of the organization’s bank account We can only process payments through IBAN bank transfers. Please provide the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) of the bank account belonging to your organization or fiscal sponsor.
BIC/SWIFT of the organization’s bank account Enter the BIC (Bank Identifier Code) of the bank account. You can find it on legal documents provided by the bank.
Name of the organization as written on the bank account Please write the exact name that is used on the organization’s bank account. Please double check as a typo can block the payment!
Name of the bank Add the name of the bank in which your organization or fiscal sponsor has its account, for example “Banco Nacional do Comércio”.
Address of the bank Add the official postal address of the bank branch, including the country.
Paypal account (if no bank transfer possible) If no bank transfer is possible, we could also do a transfer via Paypal. Please indicate the email address connected to the organization’s Paypal account, if any.
Other comments You can add here anything else that could be useful to process the bank transfer. Max 500 char.

Apply for a microgrant

Did you carefully read the documentation above? Now you can start filling out the application form!

Application form

The application form is hosted on Wikimedia Deutschland’s Zoho Forms instance and available in English.

The information you provide in this form will only be shared with Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.’s staff or contractors in charge of evaluating the applications and processing the payment.

For transparency purposes, the name of the project, name of the organization and username of the main organizers will be published on this wikipage.

Get support and office hours

There are many people interested in Wikidata events or working on their own event for the birthday. In order to get answers to your questions and get inspiration from others. Feel free to join the dedicated Telegram group Wikidata events or to use the talk page.

Join the Wikidata Events Telegram group

If you have general questions about Wikimedia Deutschland’s microgrant program, the frame of the Wikidata birthday, how to enter an event in the calendar, or how to connect with organizers, feel free to contact Lea Lacroix (WMDE) at lea.lacroix_ext@wikimedia.de.

If you have questions about Wikimedia Foundation’s Rapid Fund program, about the eligibility criteria or the activities that can be funded, or about an application that you sent through Fluxx, please contact your Regional Program Officer.

We are also offering calls for organizers during which you can exchange ideas with other organizers and ask questions to the project coordinator and to one of the program officers. The calls take place on a Jitsi videoconference room, lasting for 20 to 50 min. Everyone is welcome to join!

Upcoming organizers calls

  • July 29th at 14:00 UTC on Jitsi (with a focus on the microgrant application process)
  • August 8th at 18:00 CEST: onsite discussion at Wikimania during the Wikidata meetup (onsite only)
  • August 28th at 18:00 UTC on Jitsi (with a focus on the microgrant application process)
  • September 11th at 08:00 UTC on Jitsi
  • September 11th at 18:00 UTC on Jitsi
  • October 9th at 08:00 UTC on Jitsi
  • October 9th at 18:00 UTC on Jitsi

Status of applications

In this section, the selection committee will add the list of organizations that applied for a microgrant and the status of their application. Please note that this list is maintained manually and may not always be up to date. WMF Rapid Fund applications can be listed here as well.

Project name Organizers Organization / fiscal sponsor Type of grant Status
BridgeHerDataGap: Achieving Equality on Wikidata CoachAni, KojoOwusu2022 Women for Sustainability Africa WMDE microgrant Applied
… … … … …
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