Project grants
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Project grants (£5–250) or Partnership Funding (£250 and upwards) |
Is there a rare book you need for your Wikipedia article research? A location that you need to get to for a vital piece of information, or to do some outreach? An essential piece of equipment that will help your Wikimedia activites? We might be able to help.
Microgrants are grants of between £5 and £250 that help improve or facilitate your editing or outreach activities on any Wikimedia project. You need to be a member of Wikimedia UK to apply for a microgrant - but if you're not one already, then it's easy to join! We've made some examples available to give you some ideas. Submit your application here!
We aim to fund at least a dozen microgrants in the 2010-2011 financial year. We'll be making information about approved and completed microgrants available over time.
Examples
Below are some examples of what you could apply for a microgrant to do. This list is not intended to be complete, so if you don't see what you're thinking about here don't let that stop you from putting in an application.
Microgrants are for amounts between £5 and £250. Requests for larger grants are also welcome, and you can submit them through these pages, but they will not follow the standard approval process - they will be discussed by the Board individually.
Travel funds
Travel funds to get to conferences, events, museums, archives, libraries, etc.
Potential purposes:
- To do outreach
- To carry out research
- To take photographs of specific objects
- To investigate partnership possibilities (e.g. between Wikimedia and museums)
The microgrant could cover train fares, bus tickets, private car journeys at HMRC rates or lower (45/p mile for the first 150 miles, 25p/mile thereafter), ferry journeys, etc. It may also cover low-cost accommodation and registration fees. It will not, however, cover taxis or traveling in first class.
Books and other information sources
Potential purposes:
- Making information in a book available in Wikipedia articles (with citations)
- Digitizing and making the books available on Wikisource and/or [ commons.wikimedia.org Wikimedia Commons] (if the material is not copyrighted)
Please check whether the book is available from your local libraries. In some circumstances you might also be able to achieve the result you want by consulting the book at the British Library or another copyright library.
Wikimedia UK will retain ownership of the books, and you will need to keep them safe to pass on in future.
Equipment
Potential purposes:
- Microphones for recording audio Wikipedia / Wikinews / etc. articles
- Scanners for scanning in books and other documents
- Cameras for intensive work photographing collections / locations
- Video recorders for recording events and locations
Applications should also consider insurance and extended warranties to ensure longer useful lifetimes for the objects. Wikimedia UK will retain ownership of the equipment.
Potential purposes:
- Venue hire for an appropriate venue, where necessary
- Internet access costs
- Tea/coffee, biscuits, sandwiches
Events should be widely publicised to encourage participation. Wikimedia UK is happy to help publicise events, though there is much you can do to publicise the event yourself, for instance by using a Geonotice.
Things to avoid
Things that won't be considered include:
- Anything that does not fit in with our objectives
- Anything that could be done independently/for free without having a microgrant
- Website hosting (although webspace can be provided if needed by other means)