Global Resource Distribution Committee

Some of the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee members meeting at Wikimania 2025.
Some of the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee members meeting at Wikimania 2025.
Slides for the presentation of the GRDC and Ecosystem pilots at GLAM Wiki 2025.
Slides for the presentation of the GRDC and Ecosystem pilots at GLAM Wiki 2025.

The interim Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC) is a high-level decision-making community-wide committee tasked with shaping the current structures and future policies for how resources are distributed across the Wikimedia Movement – in particular those from the Community Fund. In coordination with the Wikimedia Foundation, it has the authority to adjust current grantmaking structures to better fit the evolving needs of the movement, including modifying how regions are categorized, and establishing global or thematic funding goals.

The committee is established as a two-year pilot starting August 2025, with a plan to engage in further community consultation once the results of this experiment are completed and shared publicly in 2027. The Committee will provide interim updates to the Wikimedia Foundation Board and Wikimedia communities and affiliates. The pilot will have a mid-point review in 2026.

News

Request for feedback

To inform the interim GRDC work, we seek feedback from all affiliates, other recipients of grants, and everyone else interested in an effective distribution of funds across the Wikimedia movement. Here we suggest three prompt questions for you to respond. You can also bring other questions to the discussion.

The feedback received will inform the first draft of a new Wikimedia resource distribution strategy. We aim to have this first draft ready by July 2026 and to present it around Wikimania to start a broader community review. In the meantime, we are collecting and documenting feedback as it becomes available at Global Resource Distribution Committee/Feedback.

Events

Conferences and online events with sessions related to the GRDC scope and work. If you want us to run a GRDC session at your community event, let us know!

  • (nothing confirmed)

Past events

  • 2026-03-20 - Wikimedia LGBT+ Community Meeting
  • 2025-12-11 - GRDC North America Listening Session - Round 2
  • 2025-12-02 - Executive Directors Meeting in São Paulo.
  • 2025-11-27 - MENA Community Call
  • 2025-11-09 - ESEAP Community Call (session, notes)
  • 2025-10-30 - GLAM Wiki 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal (session, notes coming soon)
  • 2025-10-18 - WikiConference North America 2025 in Chicago, USA (session, notes)
  • 2025-10-11 - Encuentro de la Comunidad Hispanohablante 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina (notes)
  • 2025-09-28 – CEE Meeting 2025 in Thessaloniki, Greece (session, notes)
  • 2025-08-09 – Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya (session, notes, video)

Main roles & responsibilities

Decision-Making Authority

The interim GRDC has the authority to:

  • Set the resource distribution strategy and policies for grantmaking across the movement.
  • Decide how funds should be allocated across regions, thematic areas, and other strategic envelopes, in coordination with relevant staff at the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Guide policy and strategy for the Regional Fund Committees without engaging in decision-making related to specific grants – such as their appointment, terms, or operating policies.
  • Determine movement-wide goals and metrics, but not context-specific metrics that can facilitate determining the impact of resources provided and executed in the movement.

Advisory Role

The interim GRDC is expected to:

  • Make recommendations to the Wikimedia Foundation and its Board of Trustees on how much of the Foundation’s total budget should be allocated to grantmaking. By doing so, the GRDC ensures that Board decisions are informed by community perspectives and grounded in the evolving needs of regions and affiliates.
  • Coordinate its work with that of relevant bodies within the Wikimedia movement, providing advice to entities such as the Affiliations Committee, to ensure consistent support to Wikimedia organizations.

Out of Scope

The interim GRDC does not:

  • Approve or reject individual grant proposals.
  • Decide how much money is available for grants.
  • Fundraise or manage the grantmaking budget.
  • Set project-level or local metrics.
  • Interfere in Regional Fund Committee decisions.
  • Determine Affiliations Committee decisions.

It is anticipated that the Committee will work closely with the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the Affiliations Committee, and other relevant bodies to ensure a unified approach to resource distribution across the movement.

This preliminary list of responsibilities assigned is neither final nor exhaustive. As a pilot committee, one of its key objectives is to further define its role in the future of the Wikimedia Movement and iterate as needed, within the established scope of the pilot.

Members

The interim GRDC is composed of a selected group of volunteers and staff members, chosen for their skills and ability to offer ideas and strategic thinking around resource allocation, robust knowledge of the current process, solid understanding of equity in resource distribution, and experience assessing impact.

The interim GRDC is composed of 13 members:

  • 8 volunteers selected from each of the regions defined within the Wikimedia Movement
  • 1 volunteer from thematic communities
  • 3 representatives from affiliates
  • 1 representative from the Wikimedia Foundation

The committee is currently formed of the following members:

Contact us

For inquiries to the GRDC, you can leave a message on our talk page. If you would prefer to contact the committee privately, please write to grdc(_AT_)wikimedia.org.

See also

Category:Global Resource Distribution Committee
Category:Global Resource Distribution Committee