Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Belgium Yearly grant 2025 (renewal in 2024-25)/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.
Please find our Activity report on Meta activity report on Meta.
We performed 4 Wiki Love photo contests about Monuments and Heritage in Belgium. We hosted the contest for Luxembourg since they don't have a local organisation committee.
We co-organised the Public Domain day in the Royal Library in Brussels.
We collaborate and are partner of multiple (regional, and local) cultural institutions and projects (Koninklijke Bibliotheek Brussel, meemoo for their Visual Name Authority project).
We had writing sessions with the Planetary and Aeronomie institute, the Musical Instruments museum, the Women and ICT organisation, Teacher training to apply Wikipedia in the classroom.
We completed one external heritage project, started two Wikimedian in Residence projects, and received one more request to start in 2026.
We consulted heritage institutions on how to use Wikidata, Wikipedia, and Wikimedia Commons to document heritage archives.
We delivered a Wikidata and OpenRefine training.
We were partner with mutiple archives about using Wikidata.
We published a book "Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikimedia", and published 2 other articles about Wikipedia in magazines. Other institutions published similar articles about how they amend Wikidata, Wikipedia, and Wikimedia Commons in their projects to describe their collections.
We kept the same Board members as in 2024. We collaborate within the Board in a good way.
We worked very well together with a freelancer Communications- and Project manager to manage our websites, the social platforms, our newsletters and public relations. We created two new websites to document our proceedings and projects. We started using Bluesky instead of Twitter/X. We are active on LinkedIn (professional audiance), and Facebook (general audiance).
We were able to attract journals. radio, TV willing to report on the state of Wikipedia, its platform, community, and the risk of Artificial intelligence.
We were lucky to attract 5 addional volunteers willing to lead writing sessions and projects, beyond the volunteers we already had and kept motivated.
We participated in international conferences (Wikimania/online, Wikimedia Europe, Hackathon Istanbul, Nederland Wikimedia Conference WikiconNL).
We implemented the Event registration and the Outreach dashboard on all the platforms we are using: Meta, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia in the different languages in Belgium. This way we can better report on activity results.
We continue developing Pywikibot scripts to automatically update Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia (all languages). We develop Wikidata queries to support our projects.
We continue to collaborate with other affiliates (WMFR, WMNL). We collaborated with WMNL on communication and project management with the freelancer. We are contributing to and learning from GLAM EU.
We are maintaining our project management environment. We register Wikipedia pages being part of our WikiProjects. We pay attention to our public relations, press and media.
We intervened in cases of (in)correct application of Freedom of panorama, privacy problems, articles about living persons, questions from the general public about the WMF fundraising.
We support local fundraising via the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund, supporting tax certificates. This way we can financially support socio-cultural projects that are using Wikimedia platforms. We are supporting local volunteers (Train tickets, admission fees, Museum pass).
Statistics
- Since 2019 Geertivp has thought 211 programs (17 sessions in 2025) and trained 2541 volunteers (180 in 2025)
- My students performed:
- 74.5 mln words added
- 304 k references added
- 1.37 mld Page views
- 503 k pages edited
- 46.8 k pages created
- 132 k uploads to Commons
- 74.5 mln words added
- 304 k references added
- 1.37 mld Page views
- 503 k pages edited
- 46.8 k pages created
We have a new teacher:
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)
We build upon the results and preparations we attained with partners in 2025, to either execute similar projects in 2026, or to continue to execute the longterm projects.
For some organisations new to the Wikimedia platforms it takes a longer time to learn how to take benefit from free knowledge, the systems that thrive them, and the way volunteers interact. Some organisations (Literair Gent) already contacted us in 2002, and only in 2025 we executed the first 4 writing sessions. Since then we have a writing session nearly every month. This will continue in 2026. Some institutions need more time to think and react to be able to execute projects together. We have to convince them the benefits of releasing their collections and web sites under a free license.
Most institutions are a bit afraid of the involvement of volunteers, and how "reliable" they are...
We continue the above activities and processes. We are negotiating with other museums and heritage institutions to use Wikimedia platforms to implement their archiving and collection building activities (Histories, West-Vlaanderen, Modemuseum Antwerpen, Fotomuseum Antwerpen, local heritage organisations like Denderland).
We make a balance between the demands we get and the (human, and budget) potential we can offer to partners or institutions. We try to work as efficiently as possible, making use of the different platforms, both Wikimedia, Google Suite, and our different websites. We are able to convince institutions to train their personel to use the Wikimedia platforms to their own benefit (make their collection known to the public).
The Planetary project continues in 2026.
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).
Please see our activity report on Meta activity report on Meta.
Describe your activities engaging new users, new members for your decision-making body(ies), and developing leaders and organizers (2.1).
Wikimedia Belgium is since 2014 a non-profit organisation in Belgium. It fulfills all legal requirements, be it administration, taxes, insurances, reporting, and communication. The statutes are published in the Belgian government journal.
In 2024 we acquired two additional women board members; we have a (woman) freelancer Communications- and Project manager. Since 2024 the board members did not change. We are working very well together. This allowed us to implement more activities. One of the ladies is younger, and adds with her academic background, experience, and skills. The other has experience in Women’s organisations and culture. The third one has profound communication skills.
With the complete board every year we have a two days off-site training, evaluation and planning meeting. It is good and crucial that the board learns from each other's capacities, skills, background, ideas, wishes. It is important that the board members keep on communicating amongst each other. We allowed board members to attend international conferences. This augments their skills.
We supported volunteers in executing their projects, also financially. We facilitate volunteer meetups. This allows us to stimulate collaboration and understanding amongst volunteers.
We supported other socio-cultural organizations and programs, e.g. by organising an edit-a-thon about Women in ICT.
We have an Advisory board of 11 members, consisting of previous board members, to support the board in taking or evaluating strategic decisions.
We have a comité of 4 members Friends of Wikimedia Belgium, that help us to organise collaboration with socio- cultural organizations like museums, archives, heritage organisations, education projects.
In 2025 we have 147 associate members, who pay in principle a yearly membership fee of 20 €. In 2014 the Board decided to waive the fee for active members who actively contribute to the Wikimedia platforms. In 2025 we got 11 new associate members and 1 extra effective member. One member left the association.
Every year we organise a General assembly. The General assembly consists of 42 effective members, who have the right to vote for board members, and to approve the general ledger accounts. The yearly financial statements are prepared by the accountant, and are audited by an independent audit team. Their report is presented, and approved at the yearly General assembly.
We can request help from project managers that are willing to organise activities as a volunteer; expenses are compensated.
More information:
- wmbe:Membership register
- wmbe:Legal obligations
- wmbe:Statutes
- General Assembly minutes
- wmbe:Advisor to the Board
Describe your activities creating or hosting spaces to encourage greater collaboration and engagement among your members (4.1).
- We maintain an activity list.
- We publish a monthly newsletter.
- We have an online chat meeting every Tuesday from 19:00 to 21:00 via https://chat.wikimedia.be
- You can have a video conference at any time via https://meet.wikimedia.be
- You can ask questions via info@wikimedia.be
- We maintain a number of websites
- We are compliant with GDPR
More information:
- wmbe:Template:Wmbecontact (including Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn).
- wmbe:Newsletter
- Diff Belgium
- Video channel
- wmbe:Activities
- Activity calendar
- https://wikimedia.be (public website)
- https://wikipedia.be (gateway to Wikipedia)
- https://friendswikimedia.be (Belgium fund)
- wmbe:WMBE GDPR privacy declaration
- Event registration Country Belgium
- Event registration Search Belgium
- Campaign dashboard
- Helpdesk
Describe how you engage with the contributing community that you serve and/or support (4.2).
We co-organise a yearly volunteer meetup.
During, before and after the activities, participants can ask any pertinent questions. They get an immediate answer, or later, depending on the complexity, and if there is an immediate answer.
We facilitate Wikimedia training, most often at museums, libraries, archives, heritage organisations, education institutions.
Using any of the below channels, members, volunteers, participants, or third parties can contact us.
More information:
- wmbe:Template:Wmbecontact (including Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn).
- We write on Diff https://diff.wikimedia.be
- We published a book about how to use Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Results on activities:
Describe your partnerships with other affiliates or with non-Wikimedia entities (4.3).
We consulted the province of West-Vlaanderen how they can they can their collection using Wikidata. This project will be implemented the coming years by the IT company that is responsible for their database system. We are partner of the meemoo project "Visual Name Authority". We are partner of the MetaBelgica project. We are financially supporting external projects through the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund.
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)
We publish short activity reports on Diff Belgium.
The ISA Tool didn't work for our photo taking campaigns. We have reported this on the project discussion page.
In 2025 we published a book on the subject of “Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikidata, Wikipedia en Wikimedia Commons (2nd edition)” (budget 2024 “Learning or training expenses”). It describes how Wikidata, Wikipedia, and Wikimedia Commons can be used at edit-a-thons. It is distributed to participants of edit-a-thons, and handed out at meetings with potential partners. We donate this book at local libraries. We have deposited 2 books at the depot of the National Library of Brussels, al legally required as a publisher. This is a place where all books published in Belgium are centrally stored. Depotnumber D/2025/13702/0001.
We are willing to present our experiences on International Wiki conferences, or Let's Connect.
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.
Partners are very happy with the technical support they get from the WMBE project teams.
We systematically use the Campaign dashboard and Event registration tool to gather user statistics. You find the results at different project web pages at wmbe, nl.wiki, fr.wiki, en.wiki, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Meta (multi-lingual projects).
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, young people
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, Organizers, Partnerships, Wikimedians in Residence positions
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)
- Writing sessions International women's day
- Writing session about women in ICT
- Writing on women in science
Archiving heritage. We give assistance to communes, and local Heritage organizations on how they can use Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons to document their heritage. We inform them how to use a proper free license, and to properly curate copyright. We assist archives to publish their collections on Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia.
- Wiki Loves Denderland photo campaign
- Wiki Loves Denderland exhibition
- Huis van Alijn
- [4]Meemoo photo collection
- [5]Industriemuseum Gent
Universities:
General public:
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, Board members’ outreach
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 400 | 450 | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uGZWBG0yQQTN_i42KYoWWHEaTdH8KHY3LKWwCGgH6gI
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/explore?search=Belgium https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:AllEvents?wpCountry=BE https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:AllEvents?wpSearch=Belgium |
| Number of all editors | 250 | 429 | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uGZWBG0yQQTN_i42KYoWWHEaTdH8KHY3LKWwCGgH6gI |
| Number of new editors | 150 | 5 | |
| Number of retained editors | 50 | ||
| Number of all organizers | 5 | 10 | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uGZWBG0yQQTN_i42KYoWWHEaTdH8KHY3LKWwCGgH6gI |
| Number of new organizers | 3 | 4 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 1000 | 10000 | 1214 | 7123 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 16124 | |||
| Wikidata | ||||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
Tool used and comments (optional):
Outreach dashboard and the Events Registration tool. Before 2025 we only used the Event registration tool only on Meta. Since 2025 we are using it on all platforms.
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).
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).
We were able to attract a (female) freelancer, thanks to the budget we received from the WMF NWE Grant committee. This communications and project manager helped us a lot to develop our communications to the members, the press, radio, TV, and the general public.
- Writing sessions International women's day
- Writing session about women in ICT
- Writing on women in science
Describe the management, financial, or other leadership skills of your affiliate leaders. If you have a succession plan, please include it here (3.1).
We trained a board member to take over the general ledger and bank payments.
Describe any training or skill development (as outlined in the question above) (3.1).
We had a 2 days resident board meeting, where we learned from each-other, and where affiliate administration and management was presented and discussed.
One board member participated in the Hackathon in Istanbul, and the WMEU General assembly in Prague.
We are using the Event registration tool and the Campaign dashboard for all activities. Project managers from institutions we work with take over this way of working themselves. It is well perceived by the participants when registration is going fluently.
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)
Building a three year plan, as a preparation for next year's grant.
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).
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).
All decisions and organisational procedures are published on https://be.wikimedia.org.
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).
Complaints about UCoC in Belgium can be issued via complaints@wikimedia.be.
We adhere to the Friendly space policy. In March 2025 we had a (small) incident during an edit-a-thon. In the first place we interacted with the concerned parties, and helped them clarify the issue. We subsequently discussed this amongst the Board. We mentioned the issue in the next newsletter, and we appoint since then a conflict coordinator at every activity. We request participants to adhere to the Friendly space policy when subscribing to and starting an activity.
More information:
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 (EUR) | Amount spent (EUR) |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 2000 | 61728.34 |
| Operational costs | 5250 | 5225.25 |
| Programmatic costs | 5250 | 5280.19 |
| Total General Support Fund | 70860 | 78089.28 |
| Other revenue | 1011 | 0 |
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | 2770 |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
78089.28 EUR
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 5225.25 EUR
- Programmatic costs: 5280.19 EUR
- Staff and contractor costs: 61728.34 EUR
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): 1011 EUR
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 0 EUR
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.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JbTwhGCB0kzuJ4U5_koZS_3BCs7eBya6 (details)
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)
No changes
19. Do you have any unspent funds from this funding?: Yes
- 19.1. Please list the amount of unspent funds in your local currency. (required)
- 2770
- 19.2. Explain why you did not use the amount. (required)
- No particular reason. This represents an underspending of less than 3.4%.
- 19.3. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future request with PO approval
- 19.4. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
- We would like to transfer the unused amount of € -2,770.72 of the grant 2025 to the grant 2026 budget to cover the operational costs. The grant committée underestimated the required budget for 2026. They allowed only € 2,970.00 for 2026 while the budget for 2025 was already € 6,000.00. By transferring the remaining budget 2025 to 2026 we would be able to cover estimated operational cost for 2026.
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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