Wikimedia Foundation elections/2025
In 2025, the term of 2 (two) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end. The Board invites the Wikimedia movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.
The Elections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff.
Single Transferable Vote on SecurePoll will be used in this year's election.
Apply to be a candidate
[edit]Shortlisting process
[edit]In the 2025 election, there will be 2 (two) open seats. In a previous cycle when there were four open seats, there was an overwhelming number of candidates for voters to review. The Elections Committee and Board of Trustees determined 10 candidates would be a reasonable number for voters to review. If there are more than 10 eligible candidates as determined by the Elections Committee, a shortlisting process will occur. The process will aim to shortlist 6 candidates, and these 6 candidates will be running in the community voting phase. If there are 10 or fewer candidates, there will be no shortlisting process. The process would be a lot of work for Affiliates only to eliminate three or fewer candidates for community voting round.
Community questions for candidates
[edit]In each selection process, the community has the opportunity to submit questions for the Board of Trustees candidates to answer. The Election Committee selects questions from the list developed by the community for the candidates to answer. Candidates are only required to answer these selected questions. Candidates must answer all the required questions in the application in order to be eligible; otherwise, their application will be disqualified.
This year, the call for questions from the community will be merged with the kickoff announcement, so we can collect questions earlier in the process. Then, the Election Committee will select five (5) questions for the candidates to answer. The selected questions may be a combination of what’s been submitted from the community, if they’re alike or related. The selected questions will be incorporated into the candidate application, so candidates only have to answer questions once. This is meant to improve and ease the burden on the candidates, and make it easier for voters to view all the responses in one place.
Conversation with the Candidates
[edit]- A panel interview will be hosted with all shortlisted candidates. This panel will be available virtually with interpretation; and recorded for those who can’t attend live.
- To ensure equity, the questions will be shared with candidates ahead of time so they can prepare. Support staff will facilitate to make sure there is equal airtime for every candidate.
Campaign rules
[edit]Voter eligibility guidelines
[edit]The timeline below is subject to change, in response to improvements to the process.
| Date | Activity | Status |
|---|---|---|
| May 1, 2025―May 15, 2025 | Community review of the selection rules |  Completed
|
| May 22, 2025 | Launch announcement with finalized selection rules and call for questions from the community | Completed
|
| Second half of June 2025 | Call for candidates (open for 2 weeks) | |
| First half of July 2025 | Candidate verification | |
| Second half of July 2025 | Shortlisting candidates, if necessary | |
| End of July 2025 | Final list of candidates | |
| Month of July 2025 | Candidate pre-onboarding | |
| Month of August 2025 | Campaigning period for candidates | |
| End of Aug - mid-Sept | Voting period (open for 2 weeks) | |
| October 2025 | Preliminary results, after votes are scrutinized | |
| October - November 2025 | Background checks on the selected candidates | |
| December 2025 | Board confirms and seats the selected candidates at the Board meeting |
What is the Board of Trustees?
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation's operations. The Board of Trustees is made up of community-and-affiliate selected trustees, appointed trustees, and a community founder trustee. Each trustee serves a three year term. The Wikimedia community can take part in selecting community- and affiliate-selected trustees.
Who are the trustees on the Board?
The trustees are people from all over the world with a broad spectrum of experiences. Find out more about who is currently on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
What is the Elections Committee and why do they decide on the voting method?
The Elections Committee oversees community elections to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. A standing Elections Committee was first instituted in July 2016, but its ad hoc predecessors have been around since the first Board election in 2004. The committee consists of volunteers from the community.
I love governance! How can I get more involved in the Board elections?
That’s great! The more community members who are involved in the election, the better the process is. Community members can become a candidate or participate as an Election Volunteer.
Election Volunteers bridge the gap between the Elections Committee, the Wikimedia Foundation team supporting the Board elections, and the wider community. They enable community members to participate in elections and contribute to shaping the movement.