View source for Knowledge Equity Fund

== History == <!--T:3-->

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[[<tvar name="ke">Special:MyLanguage/Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Direction#Our strategic direction: Service and Equity</tvar>|Knowledge equity]] is core to the work of free knowledge and to the Wikimedia movement. In order to invite in the knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of power and privilege, we must break down the obstacles that are preventing the ability of all people to participate in sharing, creating, and accessing all knowledge. Many of these barriers are rooted in systems of racial oppression. Due to colonization and slavery, knowledge from Black, Indigenous and racialised communities around the world have been systematically excluded and erased from the Western historical canon.

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In June 2020, the murder of George Floyd in the United States (US) led to protests against racial injustice in more than 60 countries around the world. In the wake of these continued global protests, the Wikimedia Foundation made several [[<tvar name="commitments">foundationsite:/news/2020/06/03/we-stand-for-racial-justice/</tvar>|explicit commitments]] to advance racial justice through increased support and investment as a Foundation, as a part of our movement’s larger commitment to knowledge equity. The Knowledge Equity Fund was created in late 2020 as part of these commitments, recognizing the inextricable link between racial equity and knowledge equity. The Fund seeks to address barriers to free knowledge experienced by Black, Indigenous and oppressed/marginalized racialized communities around the world.

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At the same time, we acknowledge this 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/secondary sources for us to build from. The Knowledge Equity Fund is designed to provide grants to organizations outside of our movement, and, where possible, facilitate links and partnerships with organizations inside the movement. This will allow us to build a robust ecosystem of free knowledge partners working to address the barriers to knowledge equity.

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The Knowledge Equity Fund is a pilot program, and we will be continuing to iterate on the structure and goals of the Fund. In January 2023 it was announced that we would move the remainder of the Fund from Tides Advocacy back into the Foundation. This will allow for increased clarity around structure, finances, and decision-making related to the Fund. This was completed in June 2023. The Fund was created in 2020 and former and ongoing grants are all given from the initial fund; to date, no additional funding has been added to the Equity Fund.