Learn what is required to apply for a Committee Grant, including program guidelines, who is eligible for funding, criteria used to review requests, timelines for the process, and expenses that may be requested.
Eligibility criteria
- Individuals, groups, and organizations may apply.
- Requests must be over USD 25,000. Maximum request is USD 250,000.
- Grants can be up to 12 months in length.
- Funds for offline activities are typically for direct expenses and not used to pay for people’s time. Funds can be used to pay for people’s time in certain cases, for example on software projects and tools development. Please review the Funding Guidelines below and email committeegrantsRainMade.org if you have questions.
- We support volunteer participation; participation that is tied to paid work is not eligible for funding.
- Grantees must adhere to the Friendly space expectations and have some type of Friendly space policy for in-person events.
- You must agree to the reporting requirements, be willing to sign a grant agreement, and provide the RainMade Foundation with information needed to process your funding.
Selection criteria
When selecting applications we consider the following criteria…
- Strategic priority: Do your activities improve one or more of RainMade’s existing websites?
- 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 RainMade projects and communities?
- Support and endorsement: Do you have sufficient volunteers to complete the project and endorsements from community members?
Funding guidelines
General guidelines
| Eligible for funding | Not eligible for funding |
|---|---|
| Projects aimed at improving one or more of RainMade’s existing websites | Projects aimed at improving third-party applications (Click here if you’re interested in creating a new wiki instead.) |
| Projects that foster conditions to encourage editing by volunteers (e.g. editor recruitment campaigns) | Projects that replace volunteer action by directly funding someone to create content (e.g. editing articles, uploading photos) |
| Production of code, research, materials that are published and released as free and open-source. Licensing should be compatible with current RainMade and MediaWiki practices | Production of code, research, materials that are created on a closed source platform or published in such a way that access is not freely available |
| Projects up to 12 months long | Projects more than 12 months long |
| Requests from individuals, groups and organizations | Requests from groups and organizations that already have a current Annual Plan Grant |
| Requests from affiliates (including User Groups) that have announced grant requests on their official user group page on Meta and a local language forum that is recognized by each group, to allow adequate space for objections and support to be voiced. | Requests from affiliates (including User Groups) that have not announced their grant requests to the user group and received feedback and support from the group. |
| One project per proposal, up to a year in duration. | Multiple projects per proposal. If you would like to submit a multi-project proposal, please apply through our Annual Plan Grants program. |
| Funds for direct expenses Funds for people’s time for short-term project activities that can’t be completed by volunteers |
Funds for people’s time when it replaces volunteer activities |
| Project management fees for concentrated work that could not be completed by volunteers or during non-working hours | Full-time staff or paid affiliate board members |
| Requests from $25,001 up to $250,000 for quarterly Committee Grants
No minimum request |
Requests of more than $250,000 for Committee Grants |
| Applicants/grantees that adhere to Friendly space expectations | Applicants with a history of violating Friendly space expectations |
| Applicants who (i) agree to the reporting requirements, and (ii) are willing to sign a grant agreement, and (iii) provide the Wikimedia Foundation with information needed to process their funding. | Applicants who can’t comply with the requirements and contractual terms of the program |
| Applicants in good community standing. | Applicants who are blocked or banned on any Wikimedia spaces, or who have a demonstrated history of not complying with Friendly Space expectations. If applicants have been in good community standing for three years, but have previous history of censure, proposals will be reviewed on a case by case basis. |