Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia DC Annual Grant 2025/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.
The three program strategies identified in our application were 1. partner cultivation and retention, 2. editor cultivation and retention and 3. administrative excellence and organizational sustainability. Based on previous years, we flagged partner cultivation/retention as a known challenge due to partner capacity, shifting priorities and staff turnover. We typically approach this by reconnecting past partners who have stopped engaging and sharing mission-aligned ideas for potential synergetic programs. This approach was effective this year as we were able to reconnect with an organization that we last worked with in 2018.
We are pleased to share that, overall, we maintained strong, active relationships with last year’s partners. We are successfully courting new prospects for FY26 and are working to revive a partnership that was last active in 2022.
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 FY25, we co-presented twenty editing-focused events with institutional partners plus an intensive three-day GLAM camp where North American Wikimedians and GLAM professionals came together in Washington, DC. We were able to maintain this level of programming due to our deep network and long-term experience as a chapter affiliate.
In FY26, we will continue to build on our success as chapter with strong ties to our community by navigating this network and making new connections through community outreach.
Our key successes come from presenting approachable programs where both beginners and experience Wikimedians feel welcomed. We will continue to do this and are on track to offer more community engagement opportunities in the coming year.
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 note that annual report describes the activities of Wikimedia District of Columbia during Fiscal Year 2025, covering the period from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. The financials below correspond to the calendar year.
Annual report: [1]
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 have a long history of high-impact programming and would be happy to share what we've learned.
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.
Shared below are blogs and journal articles authored by our partners about our work together along with a link to our FY25 events dashboard showing outcomes.
Georgetown University Massive Data Institute
Blog 1: https://mdi.georgetown.edu/news/guwikieditathon2025-recap/
Blog 2: [2]
Journal of Open Humanities Data: Towards a Linked Open Index: Reconciling Museum Records to Wikidata for Index of American Design Constituents by Abigail Foster, Samantha Norling and Matthew J. Westerby: [3] - References Wikimedia DC's GLAM camp co-hosted by the National Gallery of Art.
Impact data can also be seen in our FY25 events category in the outreach dashboard. [4]
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, people with disabilities, neurodiverse people, indigenous groups , LGBTQ+ groups, young people
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women, people with disabilities, neurodiverse people, indigenous groups, LGBTQ+ groups
- 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)
The key to engaging these groups and encouraging content creation is to partner with organizations with similar goals. For example, many ouf our GLAM partners are also trying to amplify the notable contributions of women. By aligning with their missions and goals, you can tap into existing motivations.
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, Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 100 | 67 | 27 GLAM camp attendees
~30 attendees, Wikiconference North America presentation The majority of those served participated in editing events and initiative and are not included in this category |
| Number of all editors | 200 | 296 | This is estimated as the total is not accessible in the outreach dashboard. |
| Number of new editors | 140 | 148 | |
| Number of retained editors | 30 | 30 | |
| Number of all organizers | 45 | 50 | This was determined by tallying the number of employees we work with directly at each of our institutional partners. Each partner has one to three employees who collaborate on these programs and initiatives. |
| Number of new organizers | 15 | 10 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 200 | 400 | 118 | 1050 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 100 | 100 | 55 | |
| Wikidata | 11 | 514 | ||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
Tool used and comments (optional):
Outreach dashboard. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikimedia_dc_events_fy25/programs
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).
Our board continues to prioritize gender diversity and added two new members this year.
Our board members, volunteers and staff person actively participate in Wikiconferences and make use of all training opportunities provided there. We also continue to train others in partnership development and best practices for teaching new editors. This year at WCNA, Ariel Cetrone presented on navigating partnerships in times of change. Full presentation is available here. [5]
We have improved our bookkeeping practices by contracting professionals. We meet monthly with our accounting firm. This has strengthened our skills and confidence and our software setup. A professional accounting firm is conducting an audit, and asked for exact documentation on particular test transactions. As of January 2026, we have a draft from them giving us a good clean audit report.
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 plan to move forward with the creation of a strategic plan, the specific goals of which will be defined through the planning process.
It can be predicted that goals will include an increased organizational membership and partnership growth as it relates to other affiliates and new institutional partners.
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).
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 (USD) | Amount spent (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 102840 | 80737.63 |
| Operational costs | 9200 | 33025.01 |
| Programmatic costs | 4500 | 2602.1 |
| Total General Support Fund | 116540 | 116364.74 |
| Other revenue | 11666 | 0 |
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | 175 |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
116364.74 USD
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 33025.01 USD
- Programmatic costs: 2602.1 USD
- Staff and contractor costs: 80737.63 USD
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): 11666 USD
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 0 USD
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)
N/A
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)
- 175
- 19.2. Explain why you did not use the amount. (required)
- Underestimated costs in some areas while overestimated in others, resulting in a small surplus. Details are in the spreadsheet.
- 19.3. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- A. Propose to use the underspent funds within this Fund period with PO approval
- 19.4. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
- These funds can be applied against anticipated personnel costs in 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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