Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Maintaing sustainability and community growth towards ensuring free access to knowledge for all

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statusUnder review
Maintaing sustainability and community growth towards ensuring free access to knowledge for all
start date2024-07-01
end date2025-06-30
budget (local currency)701363.11 BWP
amount requested (USD)53401.78 USD [note 1]
grant typeNonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission
funding regionSSA
decision fiscal year2023-24
funding program roundRound 2
applicant and people related to proposalShoodho
organization (if applicable)Wikimedia Community User Group Botswana (registered organization)

This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their application. 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.

Applicant information[edit]

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)
Wikimedia Community User Group Botswana (registered organization)Shoodho
Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)
Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund
You are applying as a(n). (required)
Nonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission
Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)
Yes
Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
Yes
Fiscal organization name.
Wikimedia ZA

Main proposal[edit]

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)
Maintaing sustainability and community growth towards ensuring free access to knowledge for all
2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year funding or renewal process? (required)
No but we would like to apply for multi-year funding next time
2.1. For how many years of multi-year funding are you applying? (required)
N/A
2.2. 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? (required)

N/A


3. Proposed start date. (required)
2024-07-01
4. Proposed end date. (required)
2025-06-30
5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
No
6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
No
7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Botswana
8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Community Engagement: Encourage active participation from the local community in contributing to Wikimedia projects. This can be achieved through workshops, edit-a-thons, and outreach campaigns that will promote awareness and involvement. Capacity Building: Provide training and resources to empower community members with the skills and knowledge needed to contribute effectively to Wikimedia projects. This will include workshops on editing, citing sources, and understanding Wikimedia policies. Content Creation and Improvement: Focus on creating and improving content related to Botswana on Wikimedia platforms. This will involve creating articles about notable people, places, history, culture, and other topics relevant to Botswana. Language Localization: Support efforts to localize Wikimedia content into Setswana. This can help make Wikimedia projects more accessible and relevant to a broader audience in our country. Technology and Infrastructure: Ensure that community members have access to the necessary technology and infrastructure to contribute to Wikimedia projects. This may involve providing internet access, computers, and other resources in areas where they are lacking, this will involve seeking partnership with institutions to support our community for this. Partnerships and Collaborations: Build partnerships with local organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies to support Wikimedia initiatives in Botswana. Collaborations will help amplify efforts, reach new audiences, and access additional resources. Awareness and Advocacy: Raising awareness about the importance of free knowledge and the mission of Wikimedia within the Botswana community. Advocate for policies and initiatives that support open access to information and the growth of Wikimedia projects.

Challenges that our community faces:

Limited Awareness and Participation: Low awareness of Wikimedia projects and limited participation as we are. mostly limited to one city Gaborone, the local community hinders the growth of content related to Botswana on Wikimedia platforms. Strategy: We plan to run an awareness campaign "I Know Wikipedia" an outreach campaign which is designed to help us understand the depth of people's understanding on Wikipedia. The awareness campaign will include small video clips on people's responses.

Access to Resources: Limited access to resources such as internet connectivity and computers is quite a challenge not having a dedicated space for the community to freely contributed whenever they wish to Wikimedia projects. Strategy: We plan to lease with universities like the University of Botswana, Francistown Library and other universities to run events and create a go to place where editors can visit on dedicated days determined by these institutions.

Language Barriers: The dominance of English in Wikimedia projects is a challenge for community members who prefer to contribute in local languages such as Setswana. Strategy: Will plan to run several Setswana Wikipedia Challenge and increase Setswana wiki projects like Setswana Wikiquote.

Content Bias and Gap: The gender gap extends to content biases and gaps on Wikimedia platforms, where articles about women and gender-related topics are often fewer in number and may suffer from systemic biases or inaccuracies. We have close relationships with established Wikimedian affiliates communities such as the Wiki In Africa where Oteng is active as one of the Focus group members hence this will provide guidance and support for our community on best practices to host these events and engage more female editors. Strategy: Identify gender gaps and biases in existing articles related to women and gender in Botswana. Prioritize the creation and improvement of such articles through targeted edit-a-thons, where participants can collaborate to write and enhance content. Liase with projects such as Art & Feminism and WLW to increase women visibility on Wiki.

Here are the progress we plan to run to mitigate the above challenges;

  • WLA
  • WLW
  • Art & Feminism
  • "I Know Wikipedia" Outreach campaign
  • Adopt a school
  • Wiki Loves Botswana (articles in English about Botswana)
  • Librarian Workshop
  • Setswana Wikipedia Challenge
  • Strategic Meeting
9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)
Category Yes/No
Education No
Culture, heritage or GLAM Yes
Gender and diversity Yes
Community support and engagement Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests Yes
Public policy advocacy No
Other No


Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)
Documenting or incubating languages on Wikimedia projects, Supporting GLAM professionals to incorporate use of Wikimedia in their work, through documentation, training, or Wikimedian in Residence programs, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues
Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Gender and diversity

9.3. Select all your programs and activities for Gender and diversity.
Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Focusing on creating content about women and/or gender diverse groups, including biographies, intersectional topic areas and/or adding images, Focusing on creating content about marginalized (underrepresented) communities and their knowledge, Focusing on knowledge equity by bringing in contributors from underrepresented communities, Building organizer skills in women and diversity groups, Sensitize and educate for gender perspective among Wikimedia projects stewards and editors
Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.
On-wiki training of community members, Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events, Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences
Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)
Art+Feminism, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Women
Other programs and activities if any: N/A
10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CrSe2JVfUNTWrLvqZefuu77B9zaASzOPEpgvQj1M4XQ/edit?usp=sharing
11. Describe your team. (required)
12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

We will liase with Wiki In Africa on and get mentorship and coaching trainings on their WLW focus group as well as Art Feminism and Black Lunch Table to host gender gap related projects/ panel discussions. We will also work with Wikimedia ZA for mentorship and advisory discussions on best practices to run a community and best approaches for certain projects.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics[edit]

Wikimedia Metrics[edit]

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)
14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers
Metrics name Target Description
Number of all participants 150 N/A
Number of all editors 60 N/A
Number of new editors 100
Number of retained editors 50
Number of all organizers 10 With the Adopt a school program we anticipate to train and have community leads in each institution.
Number of new organizers 10
14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)
Contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project Created Edited or improved
Wikipedia 600 700
Wikimedia Commons 500 200
Wikidata 800 1000
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator 400 100
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote 500 300
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia
Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

We are planning to launch Setswana Wikiquote Incubator to the community hence we anticipate a lot of new created articles rather than improved.

Other Metrics[edit]

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)
Yes
Other Metrics Description Target
I know Wikipedia Outreach campaign We plan to interview random people and find out how much they know about Wikipedia. 20
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A

Budget[edit]

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)
No
16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

N/A

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)
N/A
17. Your local currency. (required)
BWP
18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)
701363.11 BWP
Multi-year funding request summary
Year Amount (local currency)
Year 1 N/A BWP
Year 2 N/A BWP
Year 3 N/A BWP
Requested amount in USD
53401.78 USD [note 1]
Multi-year funding request summary in USD
Year Amount USD [note 1]
Year 1 N/A USD
Year 2 N/A USD
Year 3 N/A USD
  1. ↑ a b c The following amount in US dollars was calculated by Wikimedia Foundation staff using the fixed currency rates. This amount is approximate and may not reflect the actual currency exchange rates on the day of submission or distribution. If the application is funded, the funding will be sent in the recipient’s local currency.
19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)
Yes
19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)

Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.

We plan to have a team of 4 part time staff personnels to help with expanding and growing the community as well as managing the Adopt a school program which will draw in a lot of new editors who will need to be closely trained and nurtured in their journey of becoming editors. Below is a list of the roles we will have:

1. Program Coordinator (Part Time)- Assist with planning and coordination of programs and their activities. Monitor implementation of program policies and practices. Work to keep programs on schedule, within stated budgets and functioning smoothly. Support program growth and development as necessary.

2. Project facilitator (Part Time) - A project facilitator combines management skills and administrative duties to help a team working on a project to complete it on time and to proper specifications. As a project facilitator, your job duties include creating budgets and proposals, handling staff issues, and monitoring the project throughout each phase.

3. Community outreach facilitator (Part Time) : Outreach program officer oversee the policies and strategies for outreach programs, which include budgeting, communication, education, marketing, donor relationships, and events coordination.

4. Accountant: Ensures our finacial books are balanced and tax obligations are covered

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)

Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.

N/A
19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)
We discovered that we need an accountant all 12 months, and we had a $30 increment across all roles from last year's stipends.
20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).
Budget category Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs 24000 BWP
Operational costs 7000 BWP
Programmatic costs 15003 BWP
21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WHP3d773Ey5cfZcGrgyu7q84Z_HQaG8j/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112179996594021215799&rtpof=true&sd=true


Additional information[edit]

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

Here is a link to our Annual plan: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM_Botswana_Annual_Strategic_Plan_2024


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]

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