Dear members of the Wikimedia community,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, I write to share the news that we have approved [1] the full slate of the FDC’s Round 2 2015-2016 recommendations [2] for the Annual Plan Grants, as well as taken good note of the remarks and recommendations concerning the Wikimedia Foundation. In this round, 4 organizations will be receiving a total of roughly US$1,138,000, for a total of US$4,908,000 allocated in both rounds 2015-2016. Grants are made in local currency, so the USD figure is approximate. The remaining US$1,092,000 from the FDC’s US$6 million grant envelope this year will remain with the Wikimedia Foundation.

We congratulate the Centre for Internet and Society, Wikimedia Armenia, Wikimédia France and Wikimedia Norge on their grants, and we are happy to see that year after year, their work continues to further our mission. We know that the volunteers, staff, and boards of these organizations are working hard to advance the goals of the movement. We thank them for their work in doing so.

Many people have put in significant work to make this process a success. As the Board representative to the FDC, I would also like to thank the Funds Dissemination Committee members and staff, as well as the members of our communities who participated in the process this round.

We also particularly want to thank the FDC members for putting much effort into the complex task of reviewing the draft annual plan of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Volunteers are at the heart of this committee. We are lucky to have a committee comprised of nine dedicated community members who give their time and energy into making this funding program a reality. Four of the members of the FDC have terms that are ending. I want to thank Anne Clin (User:Risker), Dumisani Ndubane (User:Thuvack), Matanya Moses (User:Matanya), and Osmar Valdebenito (User:B1mbo) for their two years of service to this committee. The Board would like to thank you for your work for four rounds of funding.

We are glad to witness our movement’s great efforts to further the mission through thoughtful planning and strategic thinking and are looking forward to the year ahead.

Sincerely,

Dariusz, on behalf of the WMF Board of Trustees

[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_approval_of_FDC_recomm...)

[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_recommendations/2015-2016_rou...