Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Annual Project Plan 2025 Wikimedia Kenya Usergroup/Final Report
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Part 1: Understanding your work
[edit]Per the recent update on the Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy process, Wikimedia Affiliates that are General Support Fund grantees will fulfill their affiliate reporting requirements through their final or yearly grantee report.
If you are a Wikimedia Affiliate, you will use this form for your affiliate reporting and to address the affiliate health criteria. You do not need to submit a separate report to AffCom. Follow the guidance in the green boxes to report on how you met the corresponding affiliate health criteria.
If you are not a Wikimedia Affiliate, aligning your responses with the affiliate criteria is optional and not required.
1. Please share to what extent your programs, approaches, and strategies contributed to addressing the challenges you shared in your proposal. If they did not contribute as you believed they would, please share what obstacles you faced and what, if anything, you learned from them? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 1.) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 1.1 (Goal delivery). Describe how you actively delivered on mission goals, e.g. content creation.
In 2025, Wikimedia Kenya User Group (WMKE) advanced its mission to promote free access to knowledge through community building, localized content creation, and leadership development. Approximately 85% of planned activities were completed despite operational and financial challenges. Key results include:
- 51% growth in the active editor community (73 editors, up from 49 in 2024)
- 4 global Wikimedia campaigns successfully localized and delivered
- 150+ contributors trained, with a 20% improvement in on-wiki contributions
- 8.9 million article views generated by community edits
- 100% of the total approved budget spent by year-end
2. Is there a plan to build on the key successes you had? If yes, please describe the plan and if no, please share the limitations to do so. For instance, did the activities lead to any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future? (required)
Yes, there is a clear plan to build on the Key success.
[edit]Our 2025 report outlines how the lessons, achievements, and challenges of this year are feeding directly into future planning especially the development of your Strategic Plan for 2026–2027.
The team has identified new priorities such as enhancing governance and leadership structures, focusing on content quality (not just quantity), strengthening partnerships, and improving volunteer support and onboarding. Insights from operational challenges (e.g., financial constraints, volunteer burnout, coordination needs) have also been used to shape adaptations in planning processes, timelines, and program focus going forward. These developments illustrate concrete ideas for future activities and goals that build directly on what worked in 2025.
3. Please provide a link to reports that detail the activities that took place in the last year. This can include an annual report, Meta pages, and websites. If there are no links available, briefly describe the implemented activities and programs below or upload any files. (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 3.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.1 (Affiliate health & resilience), 4.1 (Internal engagement), 4.2 (Community connection), and 4.3 (Partnerships and collaboration):
- Describe your activities engaging new users, new members for your decision-making body(ies), and developing leaders and organizers (2.1).
- Describe your activities creating or hosting spaces to encourage greater collaboration and engagement among your members (4.1).
- Describe how you engage with the contributing community that you serve and/or support (4.2).
- Describe your partnerships with other affiliates or with non-Wikimedia entities (4.3).
WMKE focused on a smaller number of high-impact programs, emphasizing quality contributions, skills development, and partnerships to scale impact and brand advocacy.
WMKE implemented four major Wikimedia campaigns in 2025, each aligned with thematic priorities such as human rights, gender equity, culture, and Kenyan knowledge representation:
1. Wiki Loves Africa 2025 – Focused on visual documentation of local livelihoods & agriculture under the global campaign theme: “From Farm to plate”, resulting in 225 Commons uploads by participants, mostly newcomers.
2. Wiki for Human Rights 2025 – Delivered alongside Wikimania-related engagements, leading to 120+ improved articles, 10 new articles, and 200+ new citations, and convening editors and civil society actors around information integrity and access to information.
3. Art+Feminism 2025 (Pwani University) – Advanced gender equity and Swahili-language content through over 100 articles created, with the majority being on Swahili Wikipedia, translation of over 50 articles from enwiki to swahili, and partnerships with community-based organizations, while laying the groundwork for a university Wiki Club.
4. SheSaid 2025 (WikiQuotes) – Amplified women’s voices through 66 new Wikiquotes created by 28 editors.
5. AfroCreatives+Months of African Cinema - Bridged the Wikimedia movement with Kenya’s film and creative sectors, positioning open knowledge as a tool for cultural preservation and industry visibility under the theme, “Amplifying Kenya’s Creative Industry Through Open Knowledge & Collaboration.”
- 1 capacity-building workshop andedit-a-thon focused on documenting African and Kenyan cinema that delivered
- A high-level creatives roundtable convening 15 key representatives from government, media, film agencies, regulators, and the creative sector, including leadership from the Kenya Film Commission and the Kenya Film Classification Board, that Increased awareness of Wikimedia platforms as infrastructure for documenting and promoting Kenya’s creative and film industries
4. Are you interested in sharing what you achieved or learned this year with the wider community through different peer learning programs (e.g. Let's Connect program, Diff)? (optional)
-Regional Affiliates - We engaged regional Affiliate leaders in our strategic Plan Development and continued to collaborate with communities under EARTHub, especially the ones we were engaged in the CLI fellowship with; Wikimedia Uganda, Open Knowledge Arusha and Wikimedia Uganda.
-Non-Wikimedia entities - We collaborated with KEY Libraries for a joint Wikimania session titled Bridging the Digital Divide: The Role of Libraries in Supporting Access to Information and discussions are underway for a sustainable collaboration on projects in 2026.
-We also collaborated with two other non-profits; Haki Jamii and the World Wildlife Fund, for a panel discussion during our workshop for human rights workshop.
-Baraza Media Lab also supported our Months of African Cinema campaign by providing a venue.
5. Did you collect feedback from your community or target groups on how the activities implemented impacted them? If yes, please attach/provide information on the results (e.g. community surveys, stories, impact booklets/reports, interviews with partner institutions, etc). Did you collect other impact-specific data? (required)
For affiliates, the response to Question 5. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criteria 4.1 (Internal Engagement), 4.2 (Community Connection), or 4.3 (Partnerships & collaboration), where applicable.
Ongoing Community Engagement WMKE sustained regular community engagement through monthly meetings, open communication channels (WhatsApp and email), and peer-to-peer collaboration and the annual General meeting. These mechanisms supported transparency, trust-building, and continuous feedback between leadership and members.
Key engagement approaches included:
- Monthly community meet-ups and coordination meetings
- Open and responsive communication channels
- Peer-to-peer leadership development and mentorship
- Low barriers to entry to encourage newcomer participation, with a focus on marginalized communities in coastal Kenya
In 2025, Wikimedia Kenya User Group successfully convened its Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually on 17th December, providing a critical platform for accountability, reflection, and collective decision-making. The AGM:
- Presented a review of programmatic achievements, financial performance, and challenges from the 2025 grant year
- Enabled community members to engage directly with leadership through questions, feedback, and recommendations
- Strengthened transparency and trust around financial management and decision-making
- Reinforced shared ownership of the User Group’s strategic direction
- Importantly, the AGM also served as a strategic checkpoint ahead of the 2026–2027 planning cycle.
Community feedback gathered during the AGM informed priorities for governance strengthening, editor support, and partnership development, and directly contributed to the ongoing development of the 2026–2027 Strategic Plan.
6. During the fund period, did your efforts do any of the following? (required):
For affiliates, the response to Question 6. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criterion 2.2 (Diversity balance).
- 6.1 Bring in participants from the following groups: women
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, Organizers, Partnerships
7. What, if any, effective tactics or approaches can you share that worked well when dealing with the programs under points 6.1-6.3 that you selected? (optional)
- Training in areas that included:
- Wikimedia Commons Policies
- Wikipedia Editing Basics
- Translation tools
- Fact-checking and research skills
- Leadership development
Capacity-building initiatives emphasized quality contributions, reflected in increased article improvements and stronger sourcing practices.
8. If you developed partnerships, which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors (optional):
Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 100 | 73 | Dashboard |
| Number of all editors | 100 | 73 | -Dashboard |
| Number of new editors | 50 | 51 | |
| Number of retained editors | 100 | 22 | |
| Number of all organizers | 6 | ||
| Number of new organizers | 2 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 100 | 200 | 101 | 334 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 500 | 300 | 607 | |
| Wikidata | 500 | 1000 | 74 | 190 |
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | 67 | 111 | ||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
11. Did you set other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): No
11.1. Other Metrics.
In your application, you outlined some other open metrics that you would like to measure. Please fill out the achieved results for each of the open metrics you defined.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Part 3: Skill Development / Capacity Building
[edit]12. Reflecting on your programmatic (external) and organizational (internal) work, did your grant support you to undergo any skill development that made a difference to your success? If yes, what skill was developed, and how did it lead to success? (e.g. received coaching on public speaking, attended training on nonviolent communication, hosted professional development conversations on leadership, learned and used a new tool for project management, etc.)? Can you share any materials? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 12.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.2 (Diversity balance) and 3.1 (Diverse, Skilled, and Accountable Leadership):
- Describe actions taken to prioritize gender balance in affiliate leadership, as well as any areas of diversity relevant to your affiliate's context (2.2).
- Describe the management, financial, or other leadership skills of your affiliate leaders. If you have a succession plan, please include it here (3.1).
- Describe any training or skill development (as outlined in the question above) (3.1).
- Incorporate into the annual report a disclosure of conflict of interests (if any) from the leadership (3.1).
WMKE Team Lead continued to provide strategic leadership and technical support throughout the year, working closely with the Core Team members. 2025 marked a milestone year for leadership growth:
- CLI Fellowship: Team Lead Winnie and Co-founder Carol completed a 10-month Pan-African leadership fellowship by the Isroff Foundation that enhanced their leadership and project management skills. The 2025 grant supported logitical support for the team to engage in the program.
- WMF Affiliate Communications Training: One core team member was trained in Cohort 1, which helped strengthen her communications & community outreach skills. After a successful completion of the training, she was assigned the responsibility of updating the newcomer database and overseeing onboarding.
- Leadership Structure Formalized:
- Introduction of a Regional Coordinator role to lead our Pwani Wiki Club
- Core team expanded from 3 to 8 members
- Board formation and organization registration discussions initiated
- 3 members trained in campaign organizing
- Strategic Plan 2026–2027 development, which now lays the foundation of our approach and strategic priorities for the next two years.
13. What is one capacity/skill area that you would like to focus on for the next year? And how do you plan to achieve this capacity? (required)
For next year wee would like to expand our project monitoring and evaluation skills and also wiki data understanding. We plan to engage Wikimedia Deutschland for wiki data training and leverage our CLI network or WMF teams for training on Monitoring and Evaluation.
14. If you have additional information or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. Use the space below to upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your report.
For affiliates, also use this section (Question 14) to fulfill the Affiliate Health Criteria requirements.
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for affiliate governance, including affiliate leadership and membership with a breakdown of the demographics; how elections are conducted; how conflicts of interest are declared; and how decisions are made and communicated (2.2, 2.3, 3.1).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for activities incorporating, promoting awareness about, or enforcing the Universal Code of Conduct in your affiliate's activities (3.3).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for internal membership engagement, such as notes from your regular meetings and how you communicate to or involve your membership (4.1).
Key Challenges Encountered
[edit]- Inflation and unforeseen operational costs are leading to budget pressure
- University academic calendars limit continuous student participation
- Rapid community growth increased coordination and support demands
- Emerging signs of volunteer burnout
- Added administrative work with the fiscal sponsor
- Administrative expenses such as transport and airtime not covered in budget that led to use of personal funds during stakeholder engagement meetings
Adaptation Measures Implemented
[edit]- Earlier submission of funding requests from fiscal sponsor and campaign plans
- Segmentation of editors by interest areas and skill levels
- Expanded core team (from 3 to 8 members) and initiation of board formation discussions
- Integration of learning outcomes into the 2026–2027 Strategic Plan
10. Conclusion
[edit]2025 was a progressive year for Wikimedia Kenya User Group, one that combined growth, experimentation, and reflection. Through the Wikimedia Foundation’s General Support Fund, WMKE strengthened its community, improved the quality and reach of Kenyan and African content, and invested in leadership systems that will sustain the movement locally.
The lessons from 2025 are directly shaping our 2026–2027 Strategic Plan, with a stronger emphasis on partnerships, realistic timelines, editor wellbeing, governance and long-term impact. As we move forward, WMKE remains committed to advancing knowledge equity through collaboration, culture, and community.
“Shaping Knowledge Equity through Collaboration, Culture, and Community.”
Supporting documentation: Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard (2025), campaign Meta pages, and the Wikimedia Kenya User Group Strategic Plan 2026–2027.
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]For affiliates, also use this section (Part 4: Financial reporting) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 3.2 (Financial & Legal Compliance).
| Description | Planned / received budget for this category (KES) | Amount spent (KES) |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 460000 | 560000 |
| Operational costs | 2165450 | 350616 |
| Programmatic costs | 2625450 | 1593734 |
| Total General Support Fund | 20000 | 2504350 |
| Other revenue | ||
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | N/A |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
2504350 KES
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 350616 KES
- Programmatic costs: 1593734 KES
- Staff and contractor costs: 560000 KES
17. Did you have any other revenue sources (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): No
- 17.1. Provide the total amount received from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): KES
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): KES
18. Provide a financial report document which will provide the details of funds received and spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
Please note: Remaining Funds: We overspent our total budget by 28,000 Ksh, occasioned by forex exchange losses in the total amount we received in Ksh 2,476,416 ($19,256) from the fiscal sponsor vs the total amount of Ksh 2,609,150 (20,000) our 2025 budget was pegged on.
18.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
N/A
19. Do you have any unspent funds from this funding?: No
20. Final confirmations (required)
- 20.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement? You must be in compliance with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement. In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
- 20.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
- Yes
- 20.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
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