Wiki Ed receives grant from the Hewlett Foundation

Today, we announced that the Wiki Education Foundation has received a two-year operating grant totaling $500,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. I’m incredibly grateful for the Hewlett Foundation’s recognition of the impact that Wiki Ed’s programs are having in improving Wikipedia, the world’s largest open educational resource, through having students edit Wikipedia. When students learn to contribute to Wikipedia, they’re engaging in open educational practice, and I’m thankful for the Hewlett Foundation’s support of our work in this area.

Grants like the one we received from the Hewlett Foundation are crucial in enabling us to continue improving the content on Wikipedia millions of people read every day. Like most nonprofits, we are reliant on the donations of grantmaking institutions like the Hewlett Foundation and the generosity of individuals to continue providing the services we do for free. This term, we’re supporting more than 260 courses in incorporating Wikipedia assignments into the university classrooms, and we’re expecting that more than 6,000 students will add around 4 million words of high-quality content to previously underdeveloped topic areas on Wikipedia.

As an independent nonprofit organization, we don’t receive any of the money raised off the donation banners you see on Wikipedia at the end of the year. That’s why we’re so grateful for gifts like the Hewlett Foundation’s to help us achieve measurable impacts on learning and expand the public’s access to high quality information on Wikipedia.

We are actively seeking new support for 2017 and beyond. You can make a difference today by donating online at wikiedu.org/donate, providing gifts of stock, or by starting a conversation about corporate and foundation support. To learn more, contact Tom Porter, Director of Development at tom@wikiedu.org.

Frank Schulenburg
Executive Director