Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Diversifying Wikimedia’s content & contributors, removing barriers to knowledge & developing new ways of engaging with the public, partners, learners & contributors in the UK 2022
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Applicant details[edit]
Wikimedia username(s):
- My username is Lucy Crompton-Reid(WMUK). I am the Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK (and as such am not very active as an editor). Very many people related to this proposal have a Wikimedia Username and there are too many to include here.
Organization:
- Wikimedia UK
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did receive a grant
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- National Lottery Heritage Fund
National Lottery Community Fund Small private trusts and foundations within the UK
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Additional information[edit]
R. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- United Kingdom
S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:
- Local
S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
@wikimediauk
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Proposal[edit]
1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?
Our VISION is of a more tolerant, informed and democratic society through open knowledge.
Our MISSION is to enable people to engage with open knowledge and access reliable information in order to develop their understanding of the world, and make informed decisions about issues that affect them.
2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?
The past two years have been dominated by a global pandemic, environmental catastrophes on an unprecedented scale, and worldwide protests about racism. These have been underpinned and exacerbated, in the UK at least, by the ugly dual legacies of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. In a nation of already deep social and economic inequality, as we grapple with the impact of Covid, Brexit, the culture war, the accelerating climate emergency and the threat of misinformation and disinformation, our overall destination is unknown.
Technology is changing everyone’s lives and the industrial, economic, political and physical landscape is being redefined. At the same time, we are seeing a lurch towards the marketisation of knowledge and the re-enclosure of information, coupled with potential legislative changes that could radically alter the free knowledge ecosystem. Against this turbulent backdrop Wikimedia UK is working towards the following LONG TERM OUTCOMES:
- 1. Wikimedia reflects our diverse society and is free from systemic bias
- 2. Our work has increased free, ethical online access to knowledge and information
- 3. High levels of information literacy have strengthened civil society and democracy
- 4. Users are able to understand the climate crisis and their role within it
- 5. Wikimedia UK is recognised as a leading organisation for open knowledge
In working towards Wikimedia UK’s long term outcomes, in the period 2022 - 2025 we will continue to work on the STRATEGIC THEMES of Knowledge Equity and Information Literacy; whilst exploring and developing activities around the emerging theme of Climate Crisis. In delivering projects and programmes around these themes, we will make use of the unique opportunities available in the UK to make a meaningful contribution to the work of the global Wikimedia movement.
In order for Wikimedia UK to create the change that we want to see in these thematic areas, a number of other things need to be in place. These STRATEGIC PILLARS underpin successful delivery across all areas of our work:
- 1. Equity, diversity and inclusion embedded across the organisation
- 2. A thriving national and international community
- 3. Public profile and recognition of the organisation and Wikimedia projects
- 4. A positive legislative environment for open knowledge to flourish
- 5. Support for/use of appropriate technology to deliver the strategic themes
- 6. Organisational resilience and sustainability
3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
As outlined above, in 2022 - 2025 Wikimedia UK will continue to focus on KNOWLEDGE EQUITY and INFORMATION LITERACY as our key strategic themes, whilst also developing work in response to the CLIMATE CRISIS. Our objectives under each of these themes are listed in our three year Strategic Framework. Our Partnerships Paper also gives an indication of the scope and scale of the work we hope to deliver.
Within the area of KNOWLEDGE EQUITY we will continue to advocate for the release of content relating to underrepresented people and subjects, and champion untold stories. In the period 2022 to 2025 we want to embed the principles outlined in our new EDI Framework, ensuring that our projects and programmes are evidence-based and shaped by underrepresented communities as co-creators. To do this we will need to develop our approach to engaging ethically with knowledge communities; building trust and focusing on quality content and better sharing rather than an extractive approach. We also aim to work with the global movement to develop and deliver the implementation plan for movement strategy initiatives related to underrepresented knowledge, including bridging content gaps.
The theme of INFORMATION LITERACY also builds on our work over the past six years. Within this we plan to continue working in partnership with the higher education sector in the delivery of institution-wide Wikimedian in Residence programmes and course-level participation in the creation of open knowledge through Wikimedia in the Classroom assignments. A particular focus of our work in the next three years will be to scale up our activities in the formal education sector, developing a UK-wide offer for secondary schools. This will require external funding as well as multi-partner working. At a public policy level, we will continue to participate in cross-sector and interdisciplinary initiatives to advocate for the importance of information literacy skills across society, and to lobby for the inclusion of Wikimedia within education curricula.
The theme of CLIMATE CRISIS is a relatively new programmatic area for us. As such, we are still exploring different approaches to this work, but are excited by the partnerships and projects that we are starting to develop. We want to explore the role Wikimedia UK can play in supporting existing editors and groups, and identify organisations from within our current cohort of partners to pilot and evaluate joint initiatives related to climate change.
4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
Wikimedia UK’s strategy is informed by and supports the direction of the global Wikimedia movement. Our work focuses on the knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of power and privilege. We are seeking funding to continue breaking down the barriers that prevent people and organisations from accessing and contributing to open knowledge; supporting the development of people-centred and technical solutions to help eradicate inequality and bias.
5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
Yes
5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?
- Year 2 (2023/24) £380,000
Year 3 (2024/25) £390,000
6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.
7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
The staff team at Wikimedia UK is very skilled and experienced and the organisation has a low staff turnover. We also have a highly experienced and diverse Board.
At the start of our new financial year we will have 14 staff, representing just under 12 FTE. Whilst this makes Wikimedia UK one of the largest Chapters within the movement, we are still a small organisation within the UK’s third sector. We are able to achieve significant reach and impact through a combination of a focused approach - with delivery tied closely to our strategic aims - and the additional resource and value represented by our network of Wikimedians in Residence, community leaders and contributors.
It’s worth noting that several posts included in the staff chart are funded by external grants, including the Connected Heritage Project Leads (funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund until March 2023). Richard Nevell is currently splitting his time between his substantive Programme Coordinator role and the new role of Project Advisor for Connected Heritage, with two days a week of his salary covered by the NLHF grant.
In 2022 we are planning to create a new, part time role of Community Development Coordinator to add additional capacity to our work with volunteers; particularly from underrepresented communities. This will initially be funded by NLHF as ‘backfill’ for Richard. As this grant comes to an end in March 2023 we are seeking funding from the WMF for the continuation of this part-time post from April 2023.
We are also requesting a small uplift each year, of less than 3%, to help offset high levels of inflation within the UK (expected to be 5% by the end of this year) and the new Employers Health and Social Care levy.
Another priority in terms of the team is to recruit an education specialist to support the delivery of our work in schools. However, we will be seeking external funding for this work and haven’t incorporated the post into our funding request to the Foundation.
8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Content Gender gap, Age (regency) , Geography, Language, Socioeconomic Status, Sexual Orientation, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.
9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Advocacy, Human Rights, Climate Change and sustainability, Public Policy, Open Technology, Diversity
10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Disabilities, Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status, Age, Digital Access
11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?
Wikimedia UK’s work on the Wikimedia projects has a global reach, and volunteer contributors to our programmes could potentially be based anywhere. As a well-resourced chapter we are keen to support activities beyond our borders, which raises complex questions around who we are trying to engage with and what we are measuring. However for the purposes of our EDI work we have benchmarked ourselves against demographic data for the UK, and participation targets are set with these in mind.
Over the past six years, half of our lead volunteers have been women. Whilst we know that we have also involved many other underrepresented groups in our work to diversify Wikimedia’s content and contributors, our data collection on the participation of these communities has not been as robust. However, we do record the proportion of our events that are focused on underrepresented content, which in 2020/21 was 50%.
Within our new Strategic Framework for 2022 - 2025, there are several objectives that relate specifically to community development, including:
Diversify Wikimedia UK’s community of community leaders and contributors, and offer training and support to people who volunteer as a form of knowledge activism in order to address inequality and bias and improve representation online.
Develop and deliver initiatives that focus on recruiting and retaining more editors from Black and Asian backgrounds, who are particularly underrepresented within the UK’s editor community.
Support the development of minority language Wikipedias; in recognition of historical systems of oppression and the complex history of migration to the UK, as well as its current makeup (including diasporic communities).
Within our model of participation, Wikimedia UK focuses on supporting and amplifying knowledge facilitators as a means to reach knowledge seekers and develop knowledge creators. For example, we provided promotional and financial support for Women in Red’s recent Ada Lovelace Day Editathon, which involved 75 contributors editing 1170 articles and creating 90 new ones. Residents are also key to us being able to recruit and retain newcomers.
We try to ensure a low barrier of entry to people wanting to join our training and editing events. There is, of course, a different entry requirement to become one of our accredited trainers. We are targeting a diverse cohort of trainers for our next Train the Trainer programme, with expectations set out in the Call for Participants.
12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?
WMUK is committed to upholding the Universal Code of Conduct (the Code), Friendly Space Policy and our own Safe Space Policy; particularly within our own events, where we are able to monitor behaviour and encourage participants to flag concerns. When training editors we share tips for online safety within the Wikimedia environment.
One of our objectives is to support the development of a more inclusive culture across Wikimedia. Participants from underrepresented groups have welcomed the introduction of the Code of Conduct, and the increased protection and culture change that this implies. We look forward to collaborating with WMF on the implementation of the Code, exploring the lines of responsibility between affiliates and WMF, and distinctions between on-wiki and off-wiki enforcement. We have proactively engaged in consultations about the development of the Code and the enforcement Guidelines. Our CEO has also joined the Trust and Safety Team’s peer-support networks initiative.
13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
Yes
13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
We have sought to incorporate a range of perspectives into the development of our new strategy and programme. Focused discussions have taken place with our Partnerships Advisory Board and Development Advisory Board, which are both made up of staff, trustees and volunteers. We held a meeting for all staff and lead volunteers working with major institutions, to explore our partnerships through an EDI lens. We held a community consultation meeting attended by volunteers, donors, staff and trustees - https://wikimedia.org.uk/2021/11/talking-strategy-with-wikimedia-uks-community/ - and openly shared the draft framework for input via our mailing list and on wiki. We have met with partners and allies to share our emerging strategic pillars and identify areas of synergy and collaboration. We have also been proactive in talking to other groups and individuals within the movement about our priorities, participating in Europe-wide meetings about collaboration as well as EU Advocacy planning.
14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
Yes
14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.
WMUK has a strong track record of partnership working and has relationships with an extremely diverse range of local, regional, national and international organisations. Some of these are major partners with whom we have a formal agreement setting out delivery expectations, while others represent smaller-scale interventions, or less formal partnerships.
The PARTNERSHIPS paper included with this application gives an overview of our partners as we enter 2022. It’s not possible to include every organisation that we are likely to work with over the next three years, but we hope this gives an indication of the scope and scale of our activity.
We are required to report on Gifts in Kind in our Statutory Annual Accounts. These are almost entirely based on the salary costs of Wikimedians in Residence, where we have a formal agreement with the host organisation. For 2021/22 the forecast year end result for Gifts in Kind is £165,000, and we are anticipating a similar amount next year.
15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
To ensure delivery beyond 2025 we are committed to growing our voluntary income whilst developing self-sustaining communities, projects and partnerships.
WMUK has had a mix of income for a number of years. With the creation of our Development team leading to a rise in small donations and successful applications to NLHF and others, we are well placed to diversify our income further. However, increased fundraising income is predicated on receiving a core grant from the Foundation, which gives confidence to external funders and supporters.
We ensure sustainability by focusing on skills transfer (training staff and volunteers) and organisational change (policy and practice). This enables us to move onto new partnerships whilst knowing that the work to open up knowledge continues; for example through organisations continuing to share content and upskill staff, or course leaders running their own Wikimedia projects.
We support the recruitment and retention of newcomers to the movement by identifying potential community leaders and training them to be able to deliver activities on our behalf. This way, we are capacity building both for scale and for sustainability. Examples of this include our work with the Scots Wiki community, the IDEA Network at St Andrew’s University, the UAL Decolonisation Network as well as our Train the Trainer programme. We plan to put more time into capacity building and volunteer support going forward, with an emphasis on underrepresented groups.
16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.
- n/a
17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.
Ensure Equity in Decision-making, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge
18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
- Upload Strategic Plan
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
As an organisation with a strong track record of monitoring and evaluation (see https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Organisational_theory_of_change) we aim to continue to learn from our delivery over the next three years. We capture ongoing progress through a wide range of metrics; monitoring outputs and assessing outcomes on a quarterly basis. We also capture a range of summative evaluation contributions, aimed at learning about the impact of the interventions we deliver. For example, all of our Wikimedians in Residence deliver a reflective final evaluation report, which we couple with an exit interview to learn about challenges, successes and unexpected outcomes. This feeds into our understanding of the programme and future iterations and partnerships, and also enables us to share our learning widely with others.
The emerging strategic questions that we hope to explore over the next three years - gaining insights which we will share widely within and beyond the movement - are:
How can WMUK help the global Wikimedia movement to achieve knowledge equity? Within this, we anticipate a focus on understanding and closing knowledge gaps (an agreed movement strategy priority) and exploring what decolonisation and knowledge justice mean in the context of Wikimedia.
Where can Wikimedia UK have the strongest impact in terms of the climate crisis?
In what way can we deliver on building information literacy, and, in the long run, on creating an empowered civil society in the UK?
20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.
| Main Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Reach of content - image/article views | By measuring the number of views of images and articles released/created directly through our programmes, we can have a better understanding of Wikimedia UK's reach. This is an important metric for our partners and external funders, and was introduced in 2019. The target for articles is 123 million. The target for images is 5 billion. The composite target is therefore 5,123,000,000. | 2147483647 |
| Images/media added to articles | % of images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons which have been added to Wikipedia articles or other Wikimedia projects. | 20 |
| Education courses | The number of courses organised across the UK. These might have run over several semesters or spread over only one semester at a higher education institution. Please note that this is a cautious target that reflects the impact that the pandemic has had on this work, with our results falling from 20 courses in 2019/20 to 9 in 2020/21. | 8 |
| Policy touchpoints | WMUK-led responses to public consultations, policy discussions, and interactions with policy/decision makers on issues relating to open knowledge. | 15 |
| Policy change | A step further from ‘taking part in consultations’, this metric looks at the instances of when our advocacy work results in policy change on an organisational, sector or UK level. | 5 |
Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Partnerships with external organisations to deliver on our strategy, active in a given year | 40 |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | Every year we survey our community leaders about their participation in the Chapter over the previous year. This includes a number of questions on demographics, and we will continue to report on the results of this survey. This information is presented numerically, but since it surveys across various characteristics, it's not possible to propose a single number here. We continue to aim for 50% of our community leaders identifying as women.
As per our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Framework and accompanying Action Plan, we are exploring ways of effectively measuring the diversity of our broader participant community (beyond community leaders) and will share the results of this through our reporting to the Foundation. |
N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | This metric measures Wikimedia UK’s media presence by capturing everyone that has engaged with the chapter’s social media platforms (including engagement with the Welsh community). To note, all of our social media activity is very closely related and strategically relevant to promotion of the work within the proposal. We include WMUK Twitter, WMUK Facebook, WM youtube, WMUK instagram, WMUK blog views, WMUK website views within this target figure, for the first year of this proposal. | 65000 |
| Number of activities developed | This metric tracks the engagement efforts with volunteers across the UK, widening the charity’s geographic reach. We will desegregate by Location as we track the geographic spread of our activities, especially away from London. This is tracked manually. | 150 |
| Number of volunteer hours | Hours spent on activities by people involved in WMUK activities, and by leading volunteers. | 25000 |
21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | Metric Description: # of people participating in WMUK activities either in person or virtually. With a variety of programmes we deliver, this is a very wide and diverse set - including attendees, trainees, volunteers, etc. The threshold of involvement is attending a talk by a WMUK representative, or higher. This definition does not include people organising activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly (i.e. people who donate money or in-kind resources to support the chapter’s activities). On the whole it is not relevant to our work to disaggregate between new and returning participants, although we do so for specific programmes where we want to show a total of unique participants (e.g. Connected Heritage programme). | 8000 |
| Number of editors | Metric Description: # of NEWLY registered editors contributing to Wikimedia projects through WMUK activities - at events, project grants, through partnerships, course extensions and/or contests. Please note that because of the focus on outreach and community building within our work, we focus on capturing new editors only. | 1000 |
| Number of organizers | Metric Description: we’ve been tracking this metric for the past 3+ years and have a clear understanding of who counts as a movement organiser in our context (‘lead volunteers/community leaders’). We also survey them annually to check on community health.
A lead volunteer is a person who is involved with Wikimedia UK as an event organiser, trainer, facilitator, project coordinator or conference speaker. These are trusted volunteers and community leaders who are in charge of projects by coordinating and taking accountability for their successful delivery, dissemination, completion and reporting; serving as a resource and support for other volunteers. The metric is for active leaders in a given year. |
300 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Metric Description; Number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects as a result of Wikimedia UK partnerships, residencies, project grants, classroom courses, editing events, etc. The main projects that we will work on through the funding are:
Wikipedia (we work across a number of language versions) Wikimedia Commons Wikidata Wikisource As per our other metrics, the target below is for the first year of this grant, 2022/23. |
750000 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
A comment on our target outputs for core metrics - as led by our strategy for 2022 - 2025, we will be focusing on quality content, better sharing and depth of engagement, not simply the volume of content and people. We are focusing on ethical engagement with knowledge communities, building trust and curating experiences, rather than having an extractive approach to knowledge releasing and sharing.
The targets used in the application are annual, and represent our targets for 2022 - 23, not for the three years covered by this funding request. We will be monitoring and reviewing output performance quarterly, following our established processes, and iterating the targets for subsequent years in discussion and agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation.
22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
Programs & Events Dashboard - to note, we are concerned about how often this tool is not functional. We use it for running programmes (beyond just reporting metrics) Manual recording in our customer relationship management database (civiCRM) for partnerships and community leaders activities Manual recording in spreadsheets Product-specific analytics tools (e.g. Twitter analytics and Social Pilot) Pattypan Baglama PetScan Event metrics Feedback surveys (e.g. community health, literacy skills)
Financial Proposal[edit]
23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.
- 355000 GBP
23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 468000 USD
23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- The Excel document uploaded to this application has been converted from a google sheet (so please let us know of any formatting or access issues), and includes the following:
- 1. A summary three year budget showing planned income and expenditure for 2022 - 2025
- 2. A summary 2022/23 budget compared to our reforecast year end position for 2021/22
- 3. Planned movement on our restricted and designated funds
Subsequent pages include a quarterly breakdown of planned income and expenditure for 2022/23, and detailed budgeted expenditure figures, by departmental code.
23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.
- N/A
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Final Message[edit]
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback[edit]
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.