Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Building a firmer base for knowledge sharing on Wikimedia projects./Final Report
|
|
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.
The best way to learn about Wikimedia Norge's work, learning and goal delivery in the past funding period, is by reading our Annual Reports for 2023 and 2024 and the corresponding audited accounts.
The introduction to our 2024 Annual Report summarises how our efforts and strategies address our challenges and what we have learned: “The Wikimedia projects in Norway and Sápmi have many volunteer contributors, and an overwhelming number of readers, but Wikimedia Norge is a small members’ organisation with limited resources. Even so, in 2024 we proved that the organisation could maintain a high activity level and work comprehensively to strengthen the Wikimedia projects and free knowledge in general. We succeed when we forge good collaborations within the Wikimedia movement or with non-profits, GLAM and the educational sector.
Our most important asset is the people of our organisation, and our board and staff interact in a timely and constructive manner. Recent years our staff priorities have been carved out more clearly, and how staff collaborate with members (and other volunteers), is continually improving. Positive meeting grounds throughout the year mean that we are cognisant of and able to nurture volunteer initiatives. And, equally important, WMNO’s work benefits from the help and guidance that is offered.
In 2024, WMNO organised 43 digital or on-site activities, with a total of 273 participants. The activities ranged from one-hour Wikipedia Kickstart sessions to weekend retreats for members or Wikimedia projects admins. Even though our organisation and this movement as a whole is male dominated, the female ratio of participants was 52 percent. This is a direct result of our three-year project Growing the female ratio on Wikipedia. One particular piece of good news is that regular Wiki Meetups are now being organised in Trondheim, where a group of experienced Wikipedians have been joined by project course participants.
External partnerships are key to our efforts to close knowledge gaps in the Wikimedia projects. In 2024, we worked with The Norwegian Federation of Cultural Heritage Organisations and Arts and Culture Norway on documenting cultural heritage, and we partnered with The National Museum for two of the efforts within our women’s initiatives. Our collaborations with educational sector partners were kept at a lower pace this year, while we await capacity to move on full force with the Wiki into education project. But a new development this year was closer collaboration with a group of researchers that work on disinformation and AI.
WMNO’s operations are sustainable and long-term, and the largest share of the 2024 revenues was funding from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) in the US. But even though we have not yet been granted state funding in Norway, the ratio of revenues from other sources than the WMF has increased. The WMF funding was sufficient to provide job security for our small staff, but the fast-paced activity level was made possible by project funding from other granters. As 2024 comes to an end, we have started to prepare for Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary in 2026. We will stick to our current approach: We succeed when we collaborate with the wiki community and external partners – and that goes for our day-to-day operations as well as when we celebrate!”
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)
In our 2025 Annual Plan we build on our successes and stay true to our strategic choices. We learn from our temporary setbacks, but growing pains are to be expected and mustn’t dictate our choices moving forward. Key priority in the first half of 2025 is to grow the WMNO staff capacity and competence, and in April we will be onboarding a new Communications Coordinator with a strong background from marketing. That will enable us to work more systematically on membership and donor growth. Also, our ED will be taking on a more active role in the project Growing the female ratio on Wikipedia in order to bring new partners into the project and improve goal delivery. For our Wiki into education project, which had to be put on hold in the last half of 2024, we have shifted focus: We will not be developing digital teaching tools that are custom-made for learning platforms used in Norway. Instead, we will make use of wiki teaching tools that have been tried and tested by other affiliates and movement partners. We will free up the right staff to work on these teaching aids, while also stepping up our efforts to formalise partnerships and secure funding for the project.
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).
Our Annual Reports for 2023 and 2024 are comprehensive summaries of our operations, and the most relevant metrics are also found here: no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Statistikkbank/en. Our website www.wikimedia.no and our social media platforms (links in the footer of the website) provide info about our activities at a glance.
How we delivered on the affiliate health criterias 2.1 and 4.1-4.3 is described in detail in the above mentioned materials.
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)
Yes, we share our experiences in different programs when relevant.
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.
We sent surveys to the participants at three key events or series of events. So far, we have little knowledge about long-term impact, but we expect to have more data as we move into the second half of our 2023-2028 strategic period.
The Annual General Assembly in Trondheim 9-11 February 2024: The feedback was not indicative, as only three out of 23 participants responded to the survey. Our board later evaluated the AGA and the corresponding financial report, and the overall conclusion was that Board and members were pleased with the programme and how it all went. The Board made the following recommendations about how to stimulate members to take a more active part in the formal AGA discussions:
- Host a Wiki Lunch Break or conference call before the AGA to present the matters that will be up for discussion. Not all read the AGA documents.
- Offer inexperienced attendants to take part in an intro session about the AGA formal procedures.
- Organise a session of preparatory group discussions on the day of the AGA.
Growing the Female Ratio on Wikipedia: Metrics for the nine Wikipedia editing courses held July 2023-December 2024 show that 23 out of 64 participants were active Wikipedia editors for at least one month after their training. All course participants are surveyed after their training is completed, and in 2024, on a satisfaction scale from 1 to 3, as many as 79 percent gave the highest score: "[The course was] really good. I learnt a lot."
Admin and mentor retreats, 28-29 October 2023 and 26-27 October 2024: Most importantly, these surveys indicate which topics the participants found most relevant, and which topics they want to learn more about. Almost without exception, admins emphasize that the number one benefit of meeting on-site is to have ample time for sharing their experiences and to consult their peers. Updates on platform changes, workflow and a WMNO campaign were appreciated, but topics that can help admins and mentors cope with relational issues on-wiki, were the most important to them: Conflict resolution, burnout prevention, skills to cope with unexpected or difficult user behaviour.
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, indigenous groups , young people, speakers of minority languages
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women, indigenous groups, speakers of minority languages
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, Organizers, Partnerships, Wikimedians in Residence positions, other
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)
Because we are building a public presence by communicating professionally in our different channels, we now get invitations to collaborate when it comes to gender gap and cultural heritage. Opportunities are opening up. We are taking the same approach when it comes to our Sámi efforts, but that’s a harder nut to crack, and we need more time to build relationships.
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):
Permanent staff outreach, Staff hired through the fund, Partners proactive interest
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 500 | 625 | Events = 351
Monthly contests = 10+34+17 Fix it! competitions = 32+30+29 Cultural Heritage photo competition (WLM and living heritage combined) = 71 National Museum editathon = 15 Wiki meet ups outside of Oslo = 36 |
| Number of all editors | 375 | 282 | Manual summation of dashboards, contest pages and participant count spreadsheets. |
| Number of new editors | N/A | 126 | |
| Number of retained editors | N/A | 34 | |
| Number of all organizers | 30 | 80 | Running manual count (spreadsheet updated after each event). |
| Number of new organizers | N/A | 8 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 933 | 7467 | ||
| Wikimedia Commons | 847 | |||
| Wikidata | 22 | |||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | 11808 | 2340 | ||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
11. Did you set other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): Yes
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.
- Facebook and Instagram reach, i.e., the number of individuals that see our content
- Page views on wikimedia.no.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wiki meetups: # of first-time participants | 30 | 41 | Manual counting. | |
| Wikipedia Kickstart: percentage of participants that are active editors on Wikipedia for at least a month. | An active editor makes at least five edits within a month. | 50 | 46 | Manual counting and dashboards. |
| # of WMNO members by the end of June 2024 | 85 | 70 | ||
| Percentage increase for mass media coverage and owned media reach | ||||
| 25 | ||||
| # of Wikimedia language versions that our contributors and partners represent. | 20 |
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).
During the funding period we replaced our accountancy system (also used for HR, wages, time-management and more) and our CRM, and staff have received the necessary training. This enables us to fulfill the reporting requirements for our growing external project grants without adding to our admin load, and it sets us up for future growth of members and donors.
September 2023-February 2024, the wages for our new Communications Co-ordinator were subsidised by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration as part of an employment scheme. They also covered the cost of a part-time course at BI Norwegian Business School (equivalent to 25 % of full-time studies) on strategic use of social media, while being onboarded at WMNO. The GSF grant contributed to our investment in this long training period, which unfortunately did not lead to a permanent hire. The time and effort spent to train and onboard this new staff member, was a drain on our total output. Because the position was then left unstaffed for a long period, our operations suffered even more.
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)
We need to ensure that all staff have a basic understanding of project management tools and how to successfully self-manage their time. Training will be provided, and our ED will keep working on how to professionalise and improve workflows.
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).
The bylaws dictate how our organisation is governed, membership, elections and decision-making processes: no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vedtekter/en The members of our Board, the Audit Committee and the Nomination Committee are listed in the minutes of our Annual General Assembly and in our Annual Reports.
The Universal Code of Conduct applies to all of our activities, but we are also doing our best to aid implementation in the Norwegian and Sámi Wikimedia communities at large. UCoC and corresponding topics were discussed at our admins and mentors' retreat in October 2023, and one of our board members and a volunteer Wikipedian then translated the UCoC into Norwegian Bokmål and started to work on implementation. We followed up with a second UCoC workshop at our members' weekend in August 2024. At the 2024 admins and mentors' retreat in October, we continued to work on related topics, such as how to support eachother and avoid burnout.
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 (NOK) | Amount spent (NOK) |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 2432382 | |
| Operational costs | 424393 | |
| Programmatic costs | 673225 | |
| Total General Support Fund | 3530000 | 3530000 |
| Other revenue | 1305104 | 1145579 |
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | N/A |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
3530000 NOK
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 424393 NOK
- Programmatic costs: 2432382 NOK
- Staff and contractor costs: 673225 NOK
17. Did you have any other revenue sources (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): Yes
- 17.1. Provide the total amount received from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 1305104 NOK
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 1145579 NOK
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.
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)
Actual costs compared to budgeted costs are listed in our Accounts for July 2023-December 2024. Details are given in the Finances section of our Annual Reports: 2023 (pages 5-7) and 2024 (pages 5-8).
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
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds, where the user has submitted their report. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.