Illustration by iStock/Olena Zagoruyko
In 2020, people viewed COVID-related content on Wikipedia—the free, online encyclopedia—579 million times in more than 180 languages. In fact, medical content on the site received more pageviews than any other health information resource online that year. That might seem unsurprising considering the need and thirst for information the pandemic brought with it. But the numbers say very little about the great mobilization of volunteers who gave people free information when they needed it most while working amid a startlingly complex media environment.
There are few more vibrant global communities than the one behind Wikipedia. With more than 260,000 volunteer editors curating information for billions of people, Wikipedia’s community touches every corner of the Earth. However, daily visitors to the site don’t typically contemplate the steadfast and meticulous ways volunteers pull together and share content from news, research, books, and other reliable sources across the Web.
At the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, the pandemic laid bare just how dangerous misinformation can be. The urgency of working in tandem with volunteers to ensure that people had a trusted source of health information became a public interest imperative.
We weren’t alone in this struggle. The pandemic exacerbated misinformation and polarization for the social sector as a whole, including health and community foundations, and media and educational organizations. This, alongside declining levels of trust in institutions and the rise of more sophisticated ways to spread disinformation, continues to make strategic communications essential for foundations and nonprofits striving to build trust. Our community is at the center of this work.
The Wikimedia Foundation examines opportunities and challenges to its mission—to give everyone free access to reliable knowledge—through the lens of community. Wikipedia is one of the most-visited websites on the Internet and the only one in the top 10 run by a nonprofit. It has stood apart as a site for neutral and trusted information that embraces the boons of technology while keeping humans at its center. Volunteers— not the foundation—are responsible for creating, curating, and reviewing all of the information it offers.
Volunteers attending Wikimania Singapore in 2024. (Photo by Zach McCune, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Today, Wikipedia powers much of the Internet, including search engines and voice assistants; its human-made content is the main source of training data for generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. Volunteers’ contributions matter now more than ever; navigating the challenges of today's information ecosystem requires authentic connections and collaboration.
Here are six ways in which the foundation is advancing its mission of free knowledge for all through communications that put community building at the forefront:
1. Emphasize a Common Identity
A strong, cohesive community identity anchored in joint passions and values helps people express belonging and amplifies a brand. The foundation consistently uses messaging and narrative to draw a thread through the large, diverse Wikimedia community. For example, both the foundation and contributor community often refer to volunteers who contribute to Wikimedia’s 14 projects, including Wikipedia, as "Wikimedians" and, as a group, the Wikimedia movement. Nurturing a common identity allows them to see themselves as part of a movement with a collective goal of making knowledge freely accessible to everyone. For Wikipedia’s 20th birthday in 2021, we built a campaign called “20 Years Human” that showcased two decades of volunteer contributions to Wikipedia and its evolution from an idea to a movement. Through brand identity, storytelling, and strategic initiatives that highlight the power of collaborative movement work, we reinforce that each volunteer is an essential part of a global effort.
2. Invest in Communications for Community-Building
Community building is a vital, ongoing strategy that heavily relies on communications, and communications require consistent investment to be effective. In January 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation established its first-ever movement communications team with the goal of strengthening connection and understanding between its affiliate network, the foundation, and volunteers. Movement communications focus on creating ways for volunteers to directly access support, updates, and opportunities to connect, which builds cohesion and trust. Establishing a solid front door to the Wikimedia Foundation that makes the experience of community fulfilling and dependable is important to creating meaningful engagement. For example, the foundation-run blog, Diff, has helped improve transparency, featuring regular news and deep looks at foundation finances, fundraising, technology, and advocacy efforts. It also belongs to the movement, serving as a space for volunteers to exchange information and lessons with each other. We further co-create spaces to exchange lessons and strengthen volunteer initiatives. In addition to online gatherings, in-person events like Wikimania bring people together for hackathons, workshops, and celebrations of volunteer contributions. Communications staff organize Wikimania in collaboration with volunteers, designing it to encourage stronger connections across the movement.
3. Showcase Collective Impact
In the nonprofit world, community building often requires that organizations demonstrate the social good they are creating. It inspires participation and reinforces shared purpose. Telling stories of volunteers providing reliable COVID-19 information at the height of the pandemic, for example, helped build public trust in Wikipedia, connect volunteers in a time of increased isolation, and highlight their joint achievements. We were able to spotlight the humans behind the content at a time when influencers are seen as more trustworthy than news media. Wide media coverage of this effort helped secure a partnership with the World Health Organization to make more of the organization’s educational resources available to Wikimedia volunteers under a free license, recognizing Wikipedia’s widespread reach. This moment created another opportunity to build trust and make clear what the community can accomplish when working together.
4. Center Equity and Transparency
No community is a monolith. While people may rally around a common purpose, their needs and experiences are diverse. At the core of our communications work is forging equitable connections across the Wikimedia movement. That means ensuring that all volunteers feel heard and valued and that all contributions count. An important part of this effort has been developing a more dedicated local focus. To listen, tailor communications, and understand on-the-ground needs, we have hired regional officers. We are also making a more deliberate effort to engage volunteers of all backgrounds in shaping our annual plan, which we publish online as a draft two months before finalizing. Their feedback influences our priorities and how we position our work, including the design of product and technology objectives to address the needs of experienced editors and the allocation of grant funding to movement groups. Breaking down language barriers has been another essential step in strengthening inclusion. Wikimedia translators in more than 30 languages translate the site’s written content, and offer live interpretation of many of our virtual conversations and presentations with volunteers. This enables two-way conversations that foster genuine understanding. By meeting volunteers where they are—both in language and with a listen-first approach—we strive to create equitable spaces where meaningful conversations and real change can take place.
5. Co-Create to Meet New Opportunities
Many people don’t know that the voice assistants they use to answer questions about the latest Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud or the origins of ironing as a sport come from Wikipedia. In 2021, we launched a global contest called the Sound of All Human Knowledge, inviting people to submit a Wikipedia “sound logo”—a short sound sequence—that could identify Wikipedia content in audio-visual or audio settings. The contest was a joint initiative between the foundation and the volunteer community, and was open to everyone, to honor Wikipedia’s collaborative model. We received 3,235 entries from 2,094 participants in 135 countries. The winner, based on votes from the movement, was chosen in March 2023. This act of co-creation built trust around a major brand initiative to modernize Wikipedia and recognize the influential role it plays in the wider information ecosystem.
6. Protect Community Rights
To truly support community building, it is important to break down barriers that stand in the way of shared goals. All Wikipedia content is open source and freely available because we believe access to knowledge is a human right. The communications, legal, and advocacy teams at the Wikimedia Foundation proactively partner with affiliates to protect this right. Together, we inform and educate the public and decision-makers to clear pathways for copyright, privacy, and other laws that allow our community to make knowledge accessible. We recently held an event at the United Nations General Assembly to encourage global leaders to protect community-governed projects like Wikipedia. We also guard our projects from censorship. When Wikipedia was blocked in Pakistan in 2023, the foundation’s outreach helped rally international support for restoring access to the site; it was back on in a few days. By taking a stand and advocating for the rights of volunteers to contribute knowledge, we are advancing our mission, showing up for our communities, and underlining the global value of their work.
Looking Ahead
Individuals decide to contribute to Wikipedia for many different reasons, but those who stay and become devoted community members often say they do it for the people—the community of Wikimedians. This pull toward human connection is not different from any organization working in the social sector. To make a mission a reality requires a commitment to building community, and communications is at the heart of it.
In looking to the future, we see another essential role for communications: fostering stronger community relationships to meet the needs of a changing Internet. We need a trusted community of many messengers to educate people about Wikipedia’s crucial role in powering the information Web and the importance of supporting human knowledge creators. As we continue to pursue our vision of a world where everyone has access to the sum of all knowledge, we will work alongside our community to ensure Wikipedia's influence for generations to come.
Read more stories by Anusha Alikhan.