The executive team at the Wikimedia Foundation presents periodic updates about the states of their projects. The January 2025 update presents and links to narratives categorized as technological developments, legal challenges, the state of Wikimedia Movement fundraising, the budget for spending those funds, staff-organized communication into Wikimedia audiences, and the Wikimedia Foundation-developed pilot projects which are the alternative direction from the now deprecated Wikimedia Community Movement Charter.

The Wikimedia Movement has always aspired to community governance and oversight. As such, letters such as this one are Wikimedia Foundation staff responses to Wikimedia user community requests, petitions, and calls for action. As is usual for these things, the letter is rich with links to even more documentation, and that documentation is often the present culmination of hundreds of Wikimedia user community discussions over years. Aspects of this kind of shared governance which work well include mutual good will, the intent of transparency, invitations for community inclusion, and the Wikimedia platform's history of success in inviting and collecting community conversations which often satisfy the volunteers who participate and the Wikimedia community organizations which promote and observe them. Any Wikimedian who has participated in these process will be able to offer either criticism or suggestions for improvement, but whatever anyone says, they will want to know that the Wikimedia Movement empowers staff, volunteers, and allies of all backgrounds to grow their ability to advance Wikimedia project goals and to distribute power and resources appropriately.

Interested readers should check out the update, and are invited to post questions on the talk pages of various projects. Those with lots of questions are invited to interview Wikimedia Foundation staff for upcoming articles in The Signpost, and outspoken commentators are invited to submit opinion pieces for publication here. – Br

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