Hi all,

We realized we had shared the wrong date for the Equity Fund Office Hours.
Lisa's email initially said these would be Monday, June 13 - that should be
Monday, June 14. Sorry for any confusion - Updated times below. You can
also find these details and  more information on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund


   -

   Monday, June 14 at 0100-0200 UTC meet.google.com/myf-zcaw-ubg
   -

   Monday, June 14 at 1500-1600 UTC meet.google.com/dzu-edej-wva

ᐧ

On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 10:15 AM Lisa Gruwell <lgruw...@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I’m excited to share more information about the Wikimedia Foundation’s
> Knowledge Equity Fund.
>
> The Equity Fund is a pilot initiative that came out of the commitment the
> Foundation’s leadership team made in June 2020 [1] in the wake of global
> protests against racial injustice. Our goal was to create a grant-making
> fund with an explicit focus on addressing barriers to free knowledge
> experienced by Black, indigenous and communities of color around the world.
>
> This is a $4.5 million USD fund to address racial inequities that impact
> the work of free knowledge. It was created to provide focused grants to
> organizations that are advancing knowledge equity, one of two key pillars
> of our 2030 strategic direction of becoming the essential infrastructure of
> free knowledge. Specifically, the fund is meant to support organizations
> working to address the racial injustices and barriers that prevent
> participation in free knowledge.
>
> We allocated funds for the Equity Fund at the end of the Foundation’s
> fiscal year last June. [2] It took more time than we expected to share our
> plans for this pilot program, as we’ve been navigating the operational
> and logistical issues of creating a new type of fund. Over the past
> several months since the Equity Fund was first announced, Foundation staff
> and volunteers have been meeting to discuss the goals and the details of
> the Equity Fund, and we finally have more to share.
>
> The Equity Fund will be used to support local and international
> organizations that don’t currently qualify for grants funding from the
> Foundation, such as external organizations that can help advance our
> mission and are not working directly on wikiprojects. We recognize that the
> work of knowledge equity is work that we as a movement cannot do alone. Our
> projects can only do so much when, for example, academic and mass media
> representation of marginalized communities remains insufficient, which in
> turn limits citations and primary sources for us to build from.  Through
> Equity Fund investments, we wish to create an ecosystem of partners,
> collaborators, and grantees working on knowledge equity that will benefit
> the movement. This could include journalism projects to increase content
> about underrepresented regions of the world, or scholarship and research
> initiatives that are focused on expanding academic understanding of
> structural barriers to knowledge and potential solutions.
>
> The Equity Fund is separate from the grants that are available for
> community groups and the ongoing Grants Relaunch [3]. It is a new pool of
> funds that we can use to directly impact knowledge equity, and specifically
> barriers due to race that prevent access and participation in free
> knowledge.
>
> We are currently working to identify the first grant recipients for the
> Equity Fund.  The Meta page for the Equity Fund [4] includes more
> information (the members of the Equity Fund Committee, the five specific
> focus areas we will be investing in) and next steps. We are also currently
> looking for recommendations on organizations for grants - you can visit
> Meta or fill out this survey [5] if you have organizations that are already
> doing this work and would be a good fit.
>
> Lastly, we do want to emphasize that this is a pilot. There are a lot of
> open questions that have been raised by community members that we are still
> figuring out, on topics such as ensuring investment in global organizations
> and inclusive definitions of racial equity. We welcome additional questions
> as the project evolves from this early stage. We’re answering questions on
> Meta, so please join us there. We will also be hosting Office Hours in the
> coming week:
>
>    -
>
>    Monday, June 13 at 0100-0200 UTC meet.google.com/myf-zcaw-ubg
>    -
>
>    Monday, June 13 at 1500-1600 UTC meet.google.com/dzu-edej-wva
>
>
> This is an active step towards addressing the barriers that perpetuate
> knowledge gaps on our projects and prevent participation in free knowledge.
> We’re excited to try this new pilot and share our progress.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Lisa Gruwell, Janeen Uzzell, Tony Sebro and the Equity Fund Committee
>
>
> [1]
> https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/we-stand-for-racial-justice-49c31afbabca?source=collection_home---4------6-----------------------
>
>
> [2]
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2020-December/096022.html
>
>
> [3]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunch_2020-2021
>
>
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund
>
> [5] https://forms.gle/gzqRH7yMFEGgZb4e6
>
>
> --
>
> Lisa Seitz Gruwell
>
> Chief Advancement Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
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-- 
*Nadee Gunasena*
Executive Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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