Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round2/Wikimedia Hong Kong/Proposal form
Proposal summary for Wikimedia Hong Kong
Funds requested from the FDC: US$ 211,916.67 US$ 211,660.26
APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round2/Wikimedia Hong Kong/Proposal form
Proposal by Wikimedia Hong Kong to support its annual plan with Template:Usamountrequested/2012-2013 round2/Wikimedia Hong Kong.
Template:Summary/2012-2013 round2/Wikimedia Hong Kong
We ask that you please don't make any changes directly to this page after the proposal submission date, but comment on the discussion page.
For some guidelines, please see this example proposal form.
If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them at the editintro.
All eligible entities will need to complete this form to request funds from the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC). The completed document must be published in English on Meta by the deadline for each round (23:59 UTC 1 October for Round 1, and 23:59 UTC 1 March for Round 2).
The purpose of this document is to provide the FDC with an overview of your annual plan, the alignment of the plan to the Wikimedia movement’s strategic goals, and the potential impact and effectiveness of the plan. This proposal should complement any annual planning documents you may have: please complete all fields as mandatory and add links to supporting documents where relevant.
Each section of the proposal provides guidance on the amount of detail expected in response to each question or field. If you have additional questions about the form, please contact the FDC support team.
A few terms used in the form:
Basic information[edit]
In order to support community review, in no more than one paragraph, please provide a brief description of your entity's forthcoming annual plan, with focus areas and key objectives.
- Expectations for Wikimedia entities have increased considerably since Wikimedia Hong Kong's establishment in 2007. With the legacy of a Wikimania to capture and a professional accountability standard to comply with, Wikimedia Hong Kong plans to hire its first members of administrative staff to take the burden of chapter administration off heavily overworked volunteers, and professionalize the chapter's daily operations.
Table 1
| Organization information | Legal name of organization | Wikimedia Hong Kong Limited |
| organization's fiscal year (mm/dd–mm/dd) | 01/07-30/06 | |
| 12 month timeframe* of funds currently requested (mm/dd/yy–mm/dd/yy) | 01/07/13-30/06/14 | |
| Contact information (primary) | Primary contact name | Tango Chan |
| Primary contact position in organization | Treasurer | |
| Primary contact username | User:Tsugiko | |
| Primary contact email | Tango.chan wikimedia.hk
| |
| Contact information (secondary) | Secondary contact name | Jeromy-Yu Chan |
| Secondary contact position in organization | Councillor | |
| Secondary contact username | User:yuyu | |
| Secondary contact email | yuyuwikimedia.hk
|
*Timeframe should ideally be for a 12 month period that begins after the FDC decision.
Table 2
Currency requested: HKD
- Currency requested is defined as the currency in which you wish to receive funds (e.g., EUR, GBP, INR). Note that the FDC makes grants in local currency when possible.
Exchange rate used (currency requested to $US): 7.8 (28/Feb/2013)
- Please use Oanda.com on March 1 2014 to determine the exchange rate. Please use five decimal points.
| Currency requested | US$ | |
| Total annual expenses of organization | ||
| Amount proposed to the FDC for the coming year's annual plan | ||
| Amount to be raised from non-FDC sources | 2,000 | 256.41 |
| If applicable, amount of FDC funds allocated to organization last year | N/a | N/a |
Background, history, and mission[edit]
This section provides the FDC an overview of your entity's background and history. Please respond to each question below with 1-2 sentences to a maximum of a paragraph.
- When was your entity established?
- 14 Jul 2007
- What is the mission of your entity, and how does it support the strategic priorities of the Wikimedia movement?
- Wikimedia Hong Kong (WMHK) is a charitable non-profit company, by the regulations of Hong Kong's Company ordinance, approved by Wikimedia Foundation as a local chapter. The main mission of WMHK is promoting the use and content creation of Wikimedia Projects, as well as advocating Free culture & exchange and dissemination of academic knowledge to the general public.
- What is its current leadership structure (e.g., executive staff structure, board / governance structure)?
- A 6 member board (include a President, a Deputy president, a secretary, and a treasurer)
- A 5 member council (who supervise the board)
- What is the role of volunteers in your entity (e.g., help develop entity plans, participate in programs, edit Wikipedia)? Approximately how many volunteers does your entity have?
- The role of volunteers is both strategic and executive, because WMHK has never had any paid staff except a short-term conference organizer for Wikimania 2013.
- 20
- If applicable, how many members does your entity have, and how do you define membership (e.g., attendance at events, paying dues)?
- 40 members, by paying annual subscriptions.
Reflection on past activities and innovations[edit]
This section provides the FDC with information about your entity's past programs, activities and strategies. Please answer the questions below with your reflections on the past fiscal year. Responses to each question should be one or two paragraphs.
- How does your entity define and measure "success"?
Wikipedia is widely used by Hong Kong citizens. Our main focus is to build:
- a diverse community with motivated members & volunteers
- a healthy relationship with various partners, especially the education sector and free culture counterparts
- a series of events that can increase participation and reach
- an increasing visibility of the chapter, Wikimedia projects beyond Wikipedia, and the free culture movement
- Please give at least three examples of successful programs or activities that your entity has completed. If available, provide links to information.
- Education toolkits for Liberal Studies aims to promote a better, more constructive way to use Wikipedia, by giving every secondary school student a set of leaflets, helping them to cope with the new subject, Liberal studies in the new school subjects (link)
- Education program course in City University: With help from Foundation staff, we secured our participation in tutoring students writing a Wikipedia essay as their term paper in the introductory course in City University of Hong Kong
- Annual Conference: In previous years, we held annual gatherings once year around the chapter's anniversary. These have reached out to our partners and counterparts successfully. (Link)
- What are the plans/strategies that did not work for your entity in the past? What did your entity learn from that experience / those experiences?
- GLAM: The development of GLAM-Wiki in Hong Kong is currently in a limbo due to the rather uncooperative approach of local museums, the vast majority of which are government-operated. The relevant department holds a rather conservative attitude towards collaboration with us, with various concerns on areas like copyrights issues. One particular obstacle is that exhibition content is often borrowed from museums beyond Hong Kong, which means the local museums do not claim exclusive rights on them. There is also a lack of locally sourced material for exhibits, so the approach of GLAM-Wiki working in other countries may not work in Hong Kong.
- What else has your entity learned or innovated upon that could benefit the broader Wikimedia movement?
- Local partners:
- By providing volunteers and other support, we are able to use our limited budget to serve our partners and refine the skills of volunteers
- These partners also provided us with resources in our previous events
Where available, please link to the following to provide supplemental information to the FDC:
- Link to previous completed fiscal year annual plan
- N/a
- Since we currently depend on a project-based grant budget, we haven't been able to have holistic annual plans. In general, we have continued to follow the strategic plan drafted shortly after the chapter was founded: A Development Plan for Wikimedia Hong Kong
- Link to previous completed fiscal year annual report
- The annual report for fiscal year 2011/12
is to be released afterhas been approved at the general assembly on 16 March 2013.
- Link to previous completed fiscal year grant report (if your entity has received funds from the FDC)
- N/a
- We received some Pre-FDC grants, reports as follows
- Link to your entity's strategic plan if you have one
- Link to your entity's current fiscal year plan and budget
- The plan and budget for the fiscal year 2013/14 will be available after the general assembly on 16 March
Drafts:Annual Plan - Budget
- For our general strategic plan: A Development Plan for Wikimedia Hong Kong
Key programs / initiatives* and objectives of the upcoming year's annual plan[edit]
These tables are intended to provide an overview of your entity's upcoming year annual plan and its alignment with the movement's strategic priorities; please provide short phrases or 1-3 bullet points for each program below. You can also link to any other documents that you think might be helpful as context.
Please ensure that your proposed programs are SMART; that is, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
If you feel you have a program that fulfills a strategic goal that is not immediately identified with a movement strategic priority ('readership' rather than 'editorship', for instance), please add that in the table and offer us your rationale.
*In the last round, the FDC used the term 'initiative', but this round, we are using the term 'program.'
Program 1[edit]
Community Support
- What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
- Secure and stabilize the current infrastructure and pool of volunteers
- Empower volunteers to work on projects for Wikimedia, the wider free culture movement, and for public good
- Enlarge current volunteer base by getting more current Wikipedians involved
- Which Wikimedia strategic priority (or priorities) does this program address?
- Increase participation
- Improve quality
- Stabilized infrastructure
- What SMART key activities and/or milestones are associated with this program?
- Supporting meetups
- Community Grant
- Scholarship to Wikimania and travel grants to WMCon
- Participation in international Wikimedian initiatives such as Wiki Loves Monuments
- Annual Conference
- How will your entity accomplish this program?
- Volunteers and executive board members, assisted by staff if hired, organize the events and provide relevant support when needed
- Council members will be responsible for the relevant grants review and approval process along with staff support if hired
- How will your entity measure and track success of this program?
- Diversity of meetup and events, including successful workshops for the general public
- A number of successful community projects funded with grants
- Reports on events, travels and community projects
- Increase number of Volunteers, members and editors
Any additional details:
Program 2[edit]
Increase outreach
- What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
- Continue the current work with the education sector
- Explore new outreach opportunities
- More education institutions
- Ethnic minority groups
- GLAM (with new approach)
- Which Wikimedia strategic priority (or priorities) does this program address?
- Increase reach
- Increase participation
- What SMART key activities and/or milestones are associated with this program?
- Talks in Secondary School
- Expansion of education programme in universities
- Workshop for secondary and primary school teachers
- Advocacy in ethnic minority groups
- Dedicated full-time staff hired to coordinate and execute outreach efforts
- How will your entity accomplish this program?
- Board members and volunteers with professional networks will be responsible for hiring the new members of staff
- The Council members will be responsible for the monitor and review of staff performance, and evaluate the relevant events and activities
- Board & Council members and volunteers will continue to provide manpower, publicity and personal network support where necessary, especially when dealing with the Wikipedians
- How will your entity measure and track success of this program?
- A series of school talks or workshops in secondary schools
- Long term collaboration in Wikipedian-involved program in Universities
- A group of teachers who understands Wikipedia well and are willing to advocate it
- A stable relationship between us and groups which support knowledge preservation and creation among ethnic minorities.
Any additional details:
Program 3[edit]
Administration & Professionalization
- What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
- Improve the efficiency of the chapter business
- Better planning, execution and tracking of projects
- Improve the chapter's transparency and publicity
- Provide solid foundation for future funding
- Which Wikimedia strategic priority (or priorities) does this program address?
- Stabilize infrastructure
- Increase participation
- What SMART key activities and/or milestones are associated with this program?
- Develop a local office in a co-working space
- Dedicated full-time staff dealing with daily operation
- Professionalize and speed up processes in financial management
- How will your entity accomplish this program?
- Board members and volunteers with relevant professional networks will be responsible for hiring the new staff members and renting co-working space.
- The Council members will be responsible for the monitor and review of staff performance
- Board & Council members and volunteers will continue to provide manpower, publicity and personal network support when is needed, especially when dealing with Wikipedians
- Board & Council members and volunteers will be responsible for drafting future revisions of the chapter's vision and strategic plans for future work
- How will your entity measure and track success of this program?
- Hire all the staff as the proposal stated, at least hiring an Executive Manager before the end of 2013
- A decent working and meeting place in a local co-working space
- Better transparency
- A more frequently updated blog, and regular submission of chapter activities reports
- Compliance with accounting standards as requested by WMF in addition to local audit regulations. This involves having a more update-to-date bookkeeping record, and shorter time between the end of a fiscal year and the release of annual reports
- Tracking developments in member numbers
Any additional details:
Additional context for the upcoming year's annual plan / SWOT[edit]
Please provide 1-2 paragraphs for each response below. SWOT stands for your organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- What organizational strengths enable your entity's plan (e.g., leadership, education program expertise, experience with outreach, governance structure, community participation, fundraising)?
- A board and group of volunteers with different skill sets, notably marketing, journalism, accounting etc
- Several partners experienced in outreach initiatives, who had worked with us in previous events & Wikimania
- A number of advisor can help us negotiate further external support
- Long-standing reputation in the Free Culture movement
- What external opportunities enable your entity's plan (e.g., socio-political context, community participation, fundraising)?
- Publicity and outreach efforts during Wikimania
- The already high percentage of Wikipedia readership within the population of Hong Kong
- Increasing awareness of the necessity to preserve knowledge in the digital world
- What are key risks or threats that would prevent you from achieving your plan (e.g., leadership turnover, governance challenges, lawsuits, fundraising, community participation, socio-political context)?
- Complete reliance on volunteers, with limited availability (due to long working hours in the area). Volunteer burnout has always been the biggest threat to our charity since its foundation.
- Small number of members and active volunteers
- Local doubts on rather young and therefore seemingly "inexperienced" volunteers, a major obstacle to fundraising
- How will you minimize these risks and threats?
- Employ full-time paid stuff to take over the run-of-the-mill administrative tasks of the chapter from overworked volunteers. Shifting the administrative burden of the chapter to paid staff will also increase efficiency and stabilize availability of manpower
- Community funding to increase motivation to join the society
- Better transparency and communication
- Successful project and better communication and publicity, which a successful Wikimania can help a lot
Financials: year-to-date progress[edit]
This section provides the FDC information about how your entity is progressing against the current fiscal year's planned budget (revenues and costs).
Please provide the relevant information below. "Year-to-date" refers to the period between the start of your entity's current fiscal year and the date of submission of the proposal. Actual year-to-date financials should be provided as close to the proposal submission date as possible.
Identify the year-to-date for which you are reporting, month/year to month/year: *
Table 3
Current fiscal year planned budget Year-to-date actuals Projected final amount In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US Revenues (from all sources) 2,000 256.41 700 89.74 2,000 256.41 Spending 4,155 532.69 3,605 462.18 4,125 528.85
Table 3 details, if necessary:
- The budget and spending of Wikimania 2013, including a WMF grant of HK$333,000 (~US$42,700), which are fiscally separate from the chapter's operations and are handled via a different bank account, are excluded from this table.
- As of the 2012-13 fiscal year, the greatest expenditure (>95%) thus far has been the audit fee.
- The expected revenue of HK$2000 comprises solely of membership subscriptions.
- The HK$30 (US$3.8) expected savings in spending is due to a kind donation of postage stamps from a volunteer.
- Based on the variance percentages above, please describe how your entity is progressing against revenue and spending targets. If your projected final amount shows your entity to be significantly under or over target on either revenue or spending, please provide a detailed explanation.
Wikimedia Hong Kong is operating on an absolute barebone budget for the fiscal year 2012-13, with no expected source of income other than membership subscriptions to fund the administrative costs of the chapter. The administrative costs are currently covered using reserves from previous donations and grants.
On the other hand, WMHK is thriving in its activities: in May 2012 Hong Kong was selected as the host of Wikimania 2013; the Wikipedia Education Program also saw significant breakthrough in Hong Kong. With Wikimania fiscally separate and an extremely tight chapter operating budget, WMHK is saving every single drop from its operating costs.
The opportunity of Wikimania has emboldened WMHK's volunteer force, but the organizational and administrative burden of Wikimania (and the massive helpfulness of our full-time Wikimania contractor Kris) has shown unequivocal signs that WMHK will not be able to capture the legacy of Wikimania with a volunteer-only workforce. The development of WMHK has been stifled by a discrepancy between escalating accounting and accountability expectations by the WMF (much of which is to a professional standard typically produced by qualified paid staff), and the lack of staff force to comply with them.
It is at considerable risk of a complete volunteer burnout that WMHK "smashes the last pot", as the Cantonese idiom says, to fulfil all the deadlines of FDC 2012-13 round 2 submissions. We hope to obtain FDC funding to hire our first members of staff, to avoid the inevitability of WMHK and the Wikimedia movement in Hong Kong returning to dormancy as soon as Wikimania 2013 ends.
Financials: upcoming year's annual plan[edit]
Provide your financial overview for the upcoming year in the format below.
Please link to your detailed budget in a publicly available spreadsheet file (translation into English highly recommended) in addition to completing the tables below. Detailed budget link: Google Drive; Meta
Revenues[edit]
Please list anticipated revenues, by source (e.g., FDC, Wikimedia grants programs, grants from institutional donors, public funding, membership fees, local donations, event fees)
Table 4
Revenue source Anticipated (in currency requested) Anticipated (In $US)
Membership Subscription 2,000 256.41 FDC Grant 1,652,9501,650,950211,916.67211,660.26
Table 4 notes, if necessary:
Current entity staff and long-term contractors[edit]
Role/functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff and long-term contractors.
Table 5
Role / Function Number of staff Percentage of staff time* General Manager for Wikimania 2013 1 100% (since December 2012)
*Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members. For example, for full-time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half time staff, you would put 50% in this column.
Table 5 notes, if necessary:
- The GM is hired as a contractor on Wikimania's budget, which is currently paid by a Foundation grant for the conference. It is expected that the cost will eventually be covered through Wikimania's external sponsors.
Proposed new staff and and long-term contractors for upcoming year's annual plan[edit]
Role / functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff and long-term contractors.
Table 6
Department (e.g. Programs, Communications) Number of current staff Percentage of current staff time* Number of upcoming staff Percentage of upcoming staff time* Rationale for hiring new staff - A dedicated staffer to take over the responsibility for the day to day business of the chapter from volunteers and execute all the new programmes
- Increase efficiency and transparency of the chapter business by better communication (reports, blog post etc)
- Leading the other members of staff, benchmarking and reviewing their performance
- Provide administrative and other support to volunteers during events and other occasions when necessary
- A dedicated staffer, preferably with at least LCCI Level 3 qualification in accounting, who spends most of their time on dealing with the accounting, especially live bookkeeping of the chapter's finance. This improves upon the current position where the accounting records are only collated at the end of the fiscal year because there is limited volunteer time.
- Clean up subscription and membership
- Look for potential alternative local funding (small scale fund raising, local alternative grant)
- Support for outreach opportunities whenever needed
- Provide administrative and other support to volunteers during event organization and on other occasions as necessary
- A dedicated staffer whose main task is to seek and execute outreach opportunities wherever possible, including attending events by counterparts and partners
- Coordinate and expand education outreach efforts in universities
- Organize and/or deliver workshops for partners or the general public
- Organize and/or deliver school talks in primary and secondary schools
- Prepare material for the outreach events
- Provide administrative and other support to volunteers during event organization
*Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members and long-term contractors. For example, for full-time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half-time staff, you would put 50% in this column.
Table 6 notes, if necessary:
Summary of staff and long-term contractor expenses[edit]
Table 7
In currency requested In $US Percent increase Current staff expenses 0 0 Proposed increase for current staff expenses n/a n/a n/a Proposed increase for new staff expenses 811,700.00 104064.10 100% Total staff expenses 811,700.00 104064.10 100%
Table 7 notes, if necessary:
- The General Manager for Wikimania is hired via Wikimania 2013's budget, which is separate from the chapter's budget.
Expenses by program / initiative[edit]
Expenses are costs associated with any programs, initiatives, or projects your entity manages (e.g., event costs, materials, transportation). Please exclude any staff costs that are included above. “Programs / initiatives” might include education programs, outreach programs, microgranting initiatives, etc. Please include any administration costs (e.g., office space rental, utilities) affiliated with each program along with any overall administration costs that are not affiliated with any particular program (e.g., Administration should be considered a "Program" under the first column.)
Table 8a
Program / initiative In currency requested In $US Community Support 541,250.00 69,391.03 Increase outreach 32,000.0082,0004,102.5610,512.82Administration & Professionalization 139,000.00 17,820.51 Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 762,250.00 97,724.36
Table 8 notes, if necessary:
Summary of total revenues and expenses[edit]
Table 9
In currency requested In $US Total cash balance as of proposal submission 45,717 5,861.15 Total revenues 1,652,950.00 211,916.67 Total spending 1,652,950.00 211,916.67 Net (revenues less expenses) 45,717 5,861.15 Operating reserves,* if applicable
Table 9 notes, if necessary:
Verification that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities[edit]
Enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.
- The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. Grants for such activities (when permitted under U.S. law and IRS regulations) should be sought from the Wikimedia Grants Program.
I verify that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities yes