Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Sverige – Supporting an equitable free knowledge movement by expanding our global initiatives and local fundraising/Yearly Report (2024)
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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.
We focused on four different challenges in our proposal, one per programmatic area: (1) For the Access program we focused on the efforts to develop the Content Partnerships Hub; (2) for the Use program we focused on increasing accessibility through Wikispeech; (3) for the Community program we focused on efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups; and (4) for the Enabling program we focused on the efforts to fund all the work.
1. Developed the thematic hub for Content Partnerships
The challenge outlined in our proposal is the need to define the scope, structure, and organization of thematic hubs within the Wikimedia 2030 strategy. To address this, we proposed experimenting with a Thematic Hub for Content Partnerships; developing programs, approaches, and strategies to test different models, engage stakeholders, and share insights for future implementation. The Hub portal has continuously been updated and expanded upon during the year with the intent to provide relevant information to the Wikimedia community.
During the project, we continued to develop the hub model, including frameworks, functions and mechanisms. Concepts were tested and developed iteratively, leading to a clearer understanding of how to organize the hub's work effectively and purposefully. We increasingly involved volunteers, affiliates, and partner organizations in the work, including in underserved and underrepresented communities. And supported other Wikimedia organizations in engaging content partners more effectively through shared tools and best practices.
During the year we switched focus. In the beginning of the year we focused on providing hands-on support with the intent to move from experimentation into implementation of the services provided. In the second half of the year the focus changed into developing our concepts further in preparation for a joint application with other affiliates in 2025. This change happened as the funding available from Wikimedia Foundation drastically changed during the year. A larger application was submitted to the Wikimedia Foundation in June. However, the week after the application was submitted, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to retroactively change the focus of the call. Funding was therefore not secured. The new funding opportunity presented included a demand for joint applications and a focus on governance. As such we had to refocus our work.
Some of the ways we addressed the challenges during the year includes:
- The development of a detailed plan for how the working groups in the Helpdesk could be structured.
- Research through interviews with current and former Wikimedians in Residence. The goal was to identify the type of knowledge that a Wikimedian in Residence needs to carry out the assignment. Based on the responses, a report was produced. The insights are valuable when developing a plan for a training course for Wikimedian in Residences positions, especially within the UN. The plan can form the basis for a larger application in the area.
- The creation of a White Paper for Metabase. It describes our lessons learned from setting up a Wikibase, how we experimented with structuring information from our association and what lessons can be learned from it, and how we structured information from the global movement.
- The development of a survey to better understand what educational resources different Wikimedia organizations produce. The answers have given us a better understanding of how to prioritize work with Metabase. The results were compiled in a report.
- By applying for two project grants from Swedish Institute, we have secured project funds for the thematic hub. The projects we have received funding for build better foundations to support the digitization of endangered natural and cultural heritage and support digitization efforts at cultural heritage institutions in Ukraine. One of the projects also gives crucial insights in natural heritage preservation that will help the hub in better supporting the Wiki Loves Earth international team – lead by Wikimedia Ukraine – in spreading the campaign globally. In these ways, the projects also develop the association's network and expertise and open up new funding opportunities. This year's Wikipedia Day, organized in partnership with the Swedish National Archives and the Army Museum, included as part of their own program, highlighted various aspects of the work of working digitally with cultural heritage in Ukraine.
- Development of the OpenRefine software was prioritized this year, partly as the association itself actively uses the tool, partly as it is crucial for delivering on the requests to the Helpdesk. This is not a tool we built ourselves, but we contribute to already active tools, which has been done in close collaboration with other developers and the user community. Our major development effort focused on adding a new desired functionality for uploading large files in addition to which we supplied a number of other smaller improvements. This is something that we also benefit from in our internal projects. We also trained partners on how they can use the tool.
- The continuous development of Metabase which increased to over 4,400 objects. In addition, there were a large number of discussions about how data could be structured and included on Metabase, which prepares for the coming year's work. Initial work to spread awareness and knowledge about Metabase has been done.
Obstacles
One area where this change created obstacles was the support given through the Helpdesk. Despite a large interest the team had difficulties following-up on the requests due to limited resources. Therefore we intentionally stopped marketing the opportunity and started developing the concept with working groups supporting the Helpdesk. The lack of requests in turn created limited work for the international expert committee and the number of committee members have decreased over the year. The limited number of requests also led to fewer opportunities to work on large data uploads than expected which affected our Core Metrics.
Another area affected was the IGO work as we have formed agreements with a number of UN agencies, but we have not been able to organize any pilot activities. The process of forming agreements with the agencies is a demanding one and we are very happy about each success. We are planning to continue limited piloting with them until the new application has been developed in 2025.
The Metabase platform has expanded quickly and we have built it into a valuable but limited resource. However, the amount of work to make it truly useful is very big and the need to engage volunteers and affiliates into improving the database is key. We did start to communicate about the platform and invite people to participate, but it has turned out difficult to get people to stay. We are not yet sure if it is due to difficulties using and contributing to the platform, if the purpose or value proposition of the platform is unclear or something else.
2. Increased accessibility through Wikispeech
The challenge focuses on the fact that Wikipedia is not accessible for people that cannot read well for different reasons. To address that we are focusing on developing an open source software solution, a text-to-speech tool created for Wikipedia and the other platforms using the MediaWiki software. The tool is working along the same principles as Wikipedia, where you can improve the content if you encounter a mistake. To allow for the text-to-speech to be scaled in a cost-effective way to all of the languages Wikipedia exists in, we will also develop tools for speech data collection. The speech data (lexical resources and speech recordings) will be hugely valuable also for other purposes, including for different AI initiatives.
In 2024 the association secured the largest project grant the organization has ever received from the Swedish Inheritance Fund (Allmänna arvsfonden). The three-year project received funding of over SEK 10 million to further develop the speech synthesis Wikispeech, the new speech resource collector tool, and to establish the Wikimedia Accessibility Academy, within which we will support various aspects of digital accessibility. It took significantly longer to secure the funding for the project than initially thought and the work originally planned for 2024 had to be postponed until 2025.
Some of the ways we addressed the challenges during the year includes:
- A developer has been hired to contribute to the technical development work.
- We secured support from a legal professional to help clarify the legal situation for the work with the speech resource collector.
- Agreements have been signed with the Swedish Inheritance Fund and our internal procedures have been adapted to the Fund's strict requirements.
- A kick-off event for the project was held where the internal structures were discussed and we celebrated the successful application with our partner organizations.
Obstacles
The main obstacle to solve for this challenge was the significant delay in securing the funding. This is partly due to the specific ways this funder has structured the application process, but it was unusually difficult to finalize as the Swedish Inheritance Fund itself was under significant political scrutiny at this time and had to add a number of new steps to improve their control of all applicants and proposed projects and we happened to be applying when the Swedish Inheritance Fund was developing these new processes.
The delays have had an impact on the planned partnerships with different organizations that we hoped to either reinvigorate or initiate during the year, despite a strong initial interest. We have had positive initial meetings with e.g. the Lingua Libre team.
3. Increased participation from underrepresented groups
As a movement we have a challenge regarding a lack of participation from underrepresented groups. This is a multifaceted issue and many different actions are needed to engage different groups to join us in developing Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia platforms. We believe in the idea of subsidiarity and that it is beneficial if we can develop more local teams to help contribute. In 2022 we secured a grant to develop our capacity to support local volunteer communities and engage more people both in the organization and on the Wikimedia platforms.
Some of the ways we addressed the challenges during the year includes:
- Our targeted efforts led to a massive increase in visibility of our organization, with thousands of new followers on our social media accounts.
- The number of entries to the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest increased by 90 percent compared to 2023.
- The number of community inquiries increased by 114 percent compared to 2023.
- A new agreement with Retriver was signed, which means that the association can continue to provide support for identifying high-quality sources for Wikipedia.
- On the e-learning platform learn.wiki we completed and launched 10 modules that will provide an easy way for new members and volunteers to engage.
- Various settings and features within the learn.wiki platform were explored and tested. We provided feedback to the Wikimedia Foundation for further development.
Obstacles
To reduce the threshold for volunteers and partner organizations to contribute we had planned to deliver a number of different toolkits to make it easier for them to contribute and join our work. These toolkits included both case studies on how to work with specific partners and learning modules on learn.wiki. However, due to a number of staff changes there were significant delays in launching them and they came into place very late in the project. We saw a strong interest to work with us and to meaningfully contribute in engaging both with our organization and the platforms. Due to the delays we were not able to fully use this energy and organize as many activities as we had originally envisioned. Through further investments in event and volunteer management we hope to restart, and in some cases scale up, the work again.
4. Increased and diversified revenue streams
The association has many ambitious projects and initiatives in the pipeline and all of these costs money to execute. The funding from Wikimedia Foundation and different project grants are key to be able to scale the work, but there is a challenge with too much dependence on a few funders as changes in priorities would significantly affect the association. To tackle this challenge Wikimedia Sverige has continued to work to ensure long-term financial and operational sustainability.
During the year, special focus has been placed on developing fundraising and membership recruitment work. In order to create better conditions for effective and long-term fundraising work, technical solutions have been implemented and communication has been strengthened. An important step in this process was the adoption of the new Ideas Program at the 2024 annual meeting, which gives the association a clearer identity and a framework for explaining its operations in a more accessible way. Through increased visibility and improved communication, the association has worked to engage more people in the different programmatic activities and create a deeper understanding of the importance of free knowledge. A large membership base is also a crucial part of the advocacy work, as it gives the association a stronger voice in the debate and makes it possible to better identify and address obstacles that affect both those who contribute to and those who consume free knowledge.
Some of the ways we addressed the challenges during the year includes:
- During the year, a new CRM system for member and donor care was chosen and implemented. Direct debit (Autogiro) has been integrated through the system, which quickly had an impact and was used by both donors and members.
- A major digital fundraising and membership recruitment campaign has been carried out via social media, which has resulted in increased visibility and more followers on all platforms where the association is active. For the first time, a digital fundraising campaign has also been carried out via banners on the association's website wikipedia.se, an initiative that aims to diversify funding sources and create a more stable financial foundation for the operation. We invite our members to help shape the content we display in these banners.
- Another central part of the year's work has been to increase and broaden funding through applications. The work of identifying and applying for external grants was given particular priority during the first half of the year, which resulted in the association being able to secure funding of a total of SEK 23.35 million (incl. the next WCF-grant), with a grant success rate of 99.74 percent (of the total funds applied for). In addition, the association's project partners received SEK 2.1 million for work linked to free knowledge.
- In addition to its own applications, the association also participated in four applications led by other organizations. These had a combined budget of almost SEK 16 million, of which two applications were approved and resulted in SEK 11.6 million in grants. By strategically designing project applications together with partner organizations, the association has contributed to more actors being able to prioritize work with free knowledge, which in turn strengthens the long-term development of the area.
Obstacles
Despite the successes achieved, the year has also been characterized by certain challenges. The implementation of the CRM system took longer than planned, which meant that more resources than expected had to be devoted to the process. Although the number of donors has increased, the number of members has not, which shows that there is still a need to experiment with new strategies for recruiting members. In addition, it has become clear that the association's visibility and brand awareness are weaker than expected. Building a stronger presence is a time-consuming process that is also difficult to measure and test in a systematic way. Finally, the planned Face2Face fundraiser had to be postponed, as the CRM work needed to be prioritized and the association's limited human resources were affected by the absence of key people during parts of the year.
Despite these challenges, this year's efforts have laid an important foundation for continued development. By investing in both technical solutions and communication strategies, the association has taken important steps towards more sustainable and long-term funding, which strengthens the possibilities to continue working for free knowledge on a broad front.
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, we have a clear plan to build on our key successes, ensuring that our achievements in governance (2.1), engagement (4.1), leadership development (2.1 & 4.2), and partnerships (4.3) continue to expand and create lasting impact. Over the past year, our work has led to several new priorities, activities, and goals that will shape our future initiatives.
Developed the thematic hub for Content Partnerships
As part of the Hub initiative, we focused on preparing governance structures, recognizing the need for well-defined decision-making processes. To support this, we:
- Developed key governance materials to guide decision-making frameworks and structural planning. As part of this work, we have engaged in discussions with Wikimedia affiliates about potential collaborations, which in turn has led to the planning of a governance meeting during the first half of 2025.
- On several occasions, including Wikimania and the Wikimedia Europe general assembly and through dedicated meetings, we have discussed synergies between different hub initiatives, and based on these conversations we have initiated collaborations and potential partnerships with several regional and language-based Wikimedia hubs, resulting concretely in a joint funding application and multiple opportunities for future collaboration.
- We delivered on several requests to the Helpdesk and gave continued support to several Helpdesk projects where communities needed further support to implement the output of the projects in their communities. During the year, we also refined the Expert Committee function, which prioritizes the work of the Helpdesk, to ensure it plays a central role in decision-making within the Helpdesk. To give this work further weight, we opened a call for applications in late 2024 for a secretary position of the Expert Committee, aimed at providing structured support and resources for committee members in maintaining and developing their leadership roles. A next step in the development of the Helpdesk is to launch working groups to support the preparation and execution of tasks. These working groups are one of the priorities of the new secretary together with the project manager.
- We also adapted the international expert committee concept to be implemented within Sweden, ensuring a structured approach to prioritizing community support, such as funding project proposals and acquiring necessary technical resources.
- We have supported several IGOs in attracting or preparing for Wikimedian in Residence positions, which opens up further streams of revenue for the movement as well as better and closer partnerships with central knowledge institutions. Given the growing demand from IGOs for Wikimedians-in-Residence (WiRs), we developed a structured IGO WiR program proposal to train and support more Wikimedians in leadership roles. We are working closely with Wikimedia UK in this regard, leveraging their experience with WiRs to develop a long-term education program for scaling the initiative globally.
- To strategically manage our many potential collaborations with IGOs, we introduced the "Sharing is Caring" concept, prioritizing partnerships focused on health, gender, and climate to maximize impact. To implement the work in this concept, we finalized MoUs with IGOs such as the European Investment Bank and have ongoing negotiations with other organizations. We also jointly applied with FAO and UNESCO for a best practice project to be presented at Expo 2025 in Osaka, where 30 million visitors will engage with our collaborative Wikipedia initiative, showcasing work we have already done to support the implementation of the Sharing is Caring concept and hopefully get more IGOs as well as Wikimedians on board.
- The work around software development has allowed us to create new partnerships and allowed our developers to learn new skills and further increase the areas where they can contribute. We also had training for the staff to improve their skills and familiarity with the improved tool. We plan to both continue to support OpenRefine (albeit in a reduced capacity) and to bring the knowledge gained from the work into other areas of our batch upload work.
- From our initial work with joint applications with Wikimedia Ukraine, Georgia and Poland and the CEE Hub we see opportunities to complement funding from WMF. The concept of thematic and regional hubs is an interesting dimension to include in internationally oriented projects as it highlights the coordinating role of the organization and showcases an international approach when solving complex issues. Anecdotally this seems to create interest and increase our chances to secure different project grants.
Beyond the Hub initiative, we have taken strategic steps to promote leadership development, increase engagement, and strengthen governance within the national activities and initiatives of Wikimedia Sverige.
Increased accessibility through Wikispeech
The Wikispeech project is one example of such a strategic step. The project, for which we successfully applied for a very large grant securing substantial resources, has been a key success and has opened doors for long-term impact in digital accessibility. The funding allows us to expand partnerships with civil society organizations focused on digital accessibility, shift the existing project from a technical-only approach to include volunteer engagement, fostering community participation, and leverage the project as an opportunity to develop new leaders, particularly from underrepresented/marginalized groups.
The AI components developed within Wikispeech will also strengthen our position in national and international policy discussions on AI. This ensures that Wikimedia Sverige is recognized not only as an advocate but also as an AI stakeholder, allowing us to influence discussions with practical expertise.
Finally, the application secured resources from a new, major Swedish funder, which opens opportunities for potential large scale funding in the long run.
Increased participation from underrepresented groups
During the year, we also finalized the work with an “Idéprogram” (Program of Ideas), an ideological document putting down in words what our motivating ideas as an association are. The program, which was developed through an iterative process including many, and deep, conversations with members, was approved at the 2024 Annual General Meeting and now serves as a guiding framework for supporting emerging leaders and enhancing engagement at all levels. In addition to the Idéprogram, a series of learning modules hosted at Learn.Wiki have been developed, to further support and systematize the efforts to support new leaders emerging in the organization. In 2025, we plan to more actively test, iterate and use these modules and ensure they are used by leaders in spe. The Idéprogram also makes communication about the association, our founding ideas and motivations much easier. During the year, in this regard, we have actively increased our communication efforts, to increase visibility and interest in our work.
One of our flagship events, Wikipedia Day, was also restructured, to increase engagement and outreach. Instead of organizing it in conjunction with the annual meeting, we hosted it as a standalone event. We co-organized it with two external partners (National Archives and Army Museum), to enable network sharing and a greater audience reach, and successfully engaged existing members and new target groups, with plans to continue refining this format in the future.
Increased and diversified revenue streams
The newly implemented CRM system enables us to engage with, follow and support volunteers systematically, mapping competencies and interests to improve leadership development and participation. Our CRM system also provides new opportunities for effective engagement with members and donors, ensuring long-term commitment and increasing financial sustainability. Our long-term goal, as outlined in our Guidelines for Member Engagement, is to transition passive members into active contributors and, ultimately, leaders. The CRM system is paramount to support both the development of leaders and diversification of revenue streams. The system will also allow us to better analyze who engages in the association, in what role and to what extent. It will also help to highlight who we are missing and should actively engage with. We will use the insights to further develop our yearly Diversity report.
In collaboration with Deloitte, we developed a preliminary plan for a Wikimedia Openness Certification, which will:
- Create new revenue streams.
- Establish new institutional collaborations.
- Provide training for employees within partner organizations.
We plan to further develop and implement the certification, as we believe it holds potential for financial growth, educational outreach, and organizational partnerships.
As we have seen initial success in developing large multi-year applications with an international angle we will continue our investments in this area. We plan to further develop our expertise, engage new staff and/or consultants to apply for even more grants and to actively develop our network. This will hopefully allow us to keep our very high success rate steady while securing even more funds for our work.
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).
- Annual report (in English): https://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Verksamhetsberättelse_2024/en
- [1]Blog posts from 2024: [2]
- [3]For each project we compile Core Metrics for the events: https://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Globala_mätetal_2024
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 are interested in sharing our achievements and learnings with the wider Wikimedia community through various peer-learning programs, as well as exploring new ways to enhance knowledge exchange within the Movement.
Wikimedia Sverige has engaged in Let's Connect on several occasions during the last few years. For example, we organized a session in three parts together with Wikimedia Uganda on batch uploads and data integration in Wiki Loves campaigns, and the same was done with Wikimedia Italy, Indonesia, and Colombia on public policy work and promoting more flexible copyright legislation. We greatly appreciate WMF’s efforts to facilitate knowledge-sharing and are keen to continue contributing to the peer learning programs and thereby sharing insights, achievements and learnings with the wider community. Moving forward, we see opportunities to share insights on affiliate collaborations for joint funding applications, building networks for copyright advocacy or batch uploads of heritage data.
Through the Helpdesk, we provide a structured approach to peer-learning and knowledge exchange. This is a novel approach to jointly identify knowledge in the Movement and compile it based on actual direct needs, identified through the requests sent in to the Helpdesk. The insights of what material is available will subsequently be shared through the Metabase platform, ensuring accessibility across the Movement.
For Diff, we intend to continue to share updates on the developments in the thematic hub for content partnerships, our work with Wikispeech and efforts to improve digital accessibility and joint funding opportunities for affiliates.
We actively contribute to community learning by sharing our work at various Wikimedia events and networks, such as Wikimania, where we have delivered presentations on e.g. UN collaboration, GLAM, and content partnerships. In 2024, we organized a joint UN Day as part of the official program together with FAO as well as UNESCO and FAO. This makes our expertise widely accessible for the community present at Wikimania. We also organized the final event of the Heritage Guard Network with this in mind in November 2024, in Warsaw together with Wikimedia Poland, Ukraine and Georgia, a successful event that provided valuable insights for future work. The approach of organizing a larger final seminar to share the insights is something we plan to replicate in the future. The insights from e.g. Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia UK and professional experts fed into our work ahead and brought insights to develop, and now we are talking with others, including WMF staff, on how we can share learnings from the event with other movement actors present in conflict zones. We are also actively sharing insights through different national conferences and events to engage with the Swedish community and external partners. One example of this is the Wikipedia Day that in 2024 for the first time was organized as a standalone event, which we will continue with in 2025.
We will continue to participate actively in Wikimedia networks to learn about what is going on, to learn from others' work and share our insights. Such networks include public policy networks among such staff members, the Wikimania Steering Committee, the Open Science Network currently being established, the GLAM Wiki Network, etc.
We see a need to develop even more paths for peer-learning and training in the future. We have started looking into this and two examples where we have initiatives planned are on: Developing 1) a training program specially targeted towards WiR positions at UN agencies and 2) an application for the Grand Tour of Wikimedia, as an exchange program for Wikimedia affiliates.
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 have actively sought feedback from our community and target groups on multiple occasions to assess the impact of our activities. One of the most significant opportunities for this engagement is our Annual General Meeting (AGM), where a key agenda item is the discussion on the orientation of activities (Swedish: verksamhetsinriktning), which shapes the development of our plans for the coming year. Members thus play a fundamental role in influencing the association’s direction (including to completely change it), ensuring that our activities align with the community's needs. The most recent verksamhetsinriktning decision was made at our 2024 AGM.
In recent years, we have increasingly used the AGM as a platform for practical input on operations, incorporating workshops and member meetings while many members are already present. At the 2024 AGM, we organized workshops focused on communication strategies and advocacy work, the latter which proved particularly valuable as it coincided with a key deadline for a consultation on a government bill that could significantly impact our operations (most notably with a proposed revision of the freedom of panorama provisions). These workshops not only ensured broader member involvement but also strengthened the foundation for our policy response.
Beyond the AGM, we have consistently collaborated with our members to enhance our advocacy efforts. A key strength of our organization in advocacy work is our access to real-world practical examples and insights from our community. Collecting this feedback is essential for demonstrating to policymakers how legislative proposals impact our target groups in practice. This approach was evident in our public consultation response on limitations and exceptions in Swedish copyright law, including Freedom of Panorama.
In addition to legislative matters, we have worked closely with Wikimedia communities in Sweden and internationally to understand how AI developments affect their work. This includes both how they utilize AI and how AI developers use Wikimedia content to train models. These discussions have been critical in shaping both our Wikispeech project – where we are actively developing AI components – and our advocacy efforts, given AI's prominence on the political agenda. Through workshops, we have explored community perspectives on AI’s opportunities and challenges. This work will continue in 2025, with reports and insights to be published in both academic and Wikimedia community formats.
On a practical level, we have implemented various methods to assess impact. After major events – such as the AI and Text and Data Mining (TDM) conference in June 2024 and Wikipedia Day in November – we conducted participant surveys to gather insights. This feedback is instrumental in refining our events and ensuring continuous improvement. The survey results from the TDM conference were included in our final report to the funder, KR21, and used to further refine our more politically focused events.
We have also conducted in-depth interviews to document key learnings from the WikiGap initiative, a global effort to close the gender gap on Wikipedia. Organized in collaboration between Wikimedia Sverige and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, WikiGap ran from 2018 to 2023. The findings have been compiled in the WikiGap Brochure, finalized in 2024 and published in 2025. The insights gathered there will support our development of future initiatives utilizing the same federative approach and the report will also help us to communicate efficiently with potential funders.
Similarly, we have interviewed Wikimedians in Residence worldwide to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and priorities. This work is part of our broader strategy to expand opportunities within the IGO system and to provide a positive experience for both the person acting as a Wikimedian in Residence and the hosting organization. Further insights and reports will be shared in 2025.
While we have made significant strides in gathering and utilizing community feedback, we recognize the need for further improvement—particularly in surveying our communities on events and activities. Moving forward, we aim to refine our impact analysis processes to ensure that feedback translates into meaningful action. However, we remain mindful that data collection should serve a clear purpose; our priority is to gather insights that drive tangible improvements, rather than conducting surveys for their own sake.
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: people with disabilities, people from lower socioeconomic status, other
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: underrepresented geographical regions (ESEAP, LATAM, SSA, MENA, SA)
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, 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)
Our Wikispeech project has successfully brought people with disabilities into our networks through partnerships with civil society organizations representing the visually impaired. This collaboration, focused on developing speech synthesis for Wikipedia, has helped build strong alliances with a new audience. While these organizations are now engaged in the project, we continue exploring ways to involve their communities more directly on the platforms. Utilizing grant applications is a powerful tool to quickly identify joint interest and opportunities (as there is a deadline looming both organizations prioritize developing the partnership quickly).
To bring new participants into Wikimedia platforms and communities, two approaches have been particularly effective. First, our long-running technology pool allows volunteers and members to borrow technical equipment, making participation more accessible to those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This initiative has led to significant contributions, including the creation of new articles, spell checks, and content improvements. Some participants have borrowed computers for extended periods, deepening their engagement and impact. Additionally, to remove financial barriers to offline activities, we provide grants and travel compensation for meetings and events, ensuring equitable participation across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
When it comes to content development, the Helpdesk function of our Content Partnerships Hub initiative has played a key role in bringing in contributions from underrepresented communities. This has facilitated large-scale content additions, such as new data on protected nature across several Sub-Saharan African countries, which has supported the organization of Wiki Loves Earth in these regions. We have also carried out strategic data uploads, including structured data on Wikimedia Commons, to enhance the discoverability of cultural heritage content from marginalized communities and regions.
To retain editors, we host a number of events each year. The flagship annual event is the Wikipedia Day, a day that explores Wikipedia from different perspectives alongside members, editors, and partners. As an anticipated highlight each year, it fosters long-term engagement by offering deep discussions that maintain the interest of experienced contributors. Additionally, our community support program provides press accreditation to major events, such as football matches, large concerts, and political fairs. This program not only generates content that reaches millions of viewers annually but also opens unique opportunities for volunteers and members. Many participants return year after year to document high-profile events, such as Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s Eurovision Song Contest qualifier. Finally, we spend a considerable amount of time on preparations for the Annual General Meeting, to ensure that it provides a comprehensive overview of the activities in the association and an important bridge for those who want to deepen their involvement. In that sense, the AGM in itself is an important event for retaining members. This is further supported by the fact that we celebrate the (Swedish) Wikipedian of the Year award ceremony during the AGM each year.
To strengthen relationships with partners, we focus on working with datasets that provide value to their work, reinforcing their engagement with our initiatives. We also host an annual partner meeting at the end of the year to express appreciation for our collaborations and maintain strong, long-term connections.
One part of the work with developing a WiR training program for IGOs focused on identifying what needs exists to create an all around successful and positive experience for both the Wikimedia expert working as a WiR, for the host organization and for the Thematic hub coordinating it. We had a very positive and valuable response to this work. Through these fact gathering efforts we have a better opportunity to deliver a successful program and it has allowed us to build relations with WiR experts in the Movement that might be either taking on the WiR positions themselves later on, or mentor new people.
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, Volunteers from our communities
Part 2: Metrics for Year 3
[edit]| Wikimedia Metrics | Target (Year 3) | Results (Year 3) | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 2700 | 2731 | The overall result met our expectations with the Access program significantly surpassing them while the remaining programs fell somewhat short. The Use program expectedly resulted in less metrics overall, as a result of Wikispeech starting later in the year than first envisioned. A significant source of the increased participants was through the Knowledge Rights 21 funded advocacy work. Additionally we improved how we follow up the metrics and impact of our Community support. |
| Number of all editors | 205 | 277 | This result surpassed our expectations with WLE participation and an improved follow-up of Community support more than compensating for the slight decrease in editors to our Access program. |
| Number of new editors | N/A | 277 | |
| Number of retained editors | N/A | 277 | |
| Number of all organizers | 165 | 171 | This result slightly surpassed our expectations, despite both Wikispeech not having time to impact the metrics and the hub project not receiving funding. Again the Knowledge Rights 21 funded work impacted here, as did increased engagement by our supported community. |
| Number of new organizers | N/A | 171 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages (Year 3) | Target - Number of improved pages (Year 3) | Result - Number of created pages (Year 3) | Result - Number of improved pages (Year 3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 1905 | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | 186198 | |||
| Wikidata | 7818 | |||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| 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.
| Other Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increased volunteer involvement | An increase in the number of volunteers involving themselves in the chapter by taking on some responsibility within a project, an event or in the chapter itself. | 40 | 39 | This year the volunteer involvement increased again, but only marginally (and below our target). During the year the team kept focusing on improving the learning resources for helping members take on a role as an active volunteer. We expect to see the impact of this first in the coming years.
We did however see a significant increase in the total number of hours dedicated by the volunteers, in part due to a regular flow of students volunteering as interns with us. |
These are volunteers involving themselves in the chapter by taking on some responsibility within a project, an event or in the chapter itself. The names of the volunteers are reported by the staff member in charge of each project/initiative.
Based on the insights gathered we started the process of integrating this with our CRM system. Starting in 2025 it should allow us to get a better overview of members wishing to become more involved as well as the training received by volunteers. |
| Increased chapter membership | The number of individuals or organizations that are paying members of the chapter should increase by 40%, as compared to the previous year. | 660 | 446 | We had a very ambitious goal here of increasing our membership base by 40 %. We did not meet this target and did also not succeed in retaining the whole membership increase we experienced in 2023.
Our ambitious goal was based on our plans of having several significant digital membership and donation drives during 2024, coupled with implementing a new CRM. The drives did take place but while we see indications that it resulted in a significant increase in donations the same cannot be said for new members. The reason for this is not entirely clear. The implementation of a new CRM system happened late enough in the year to not affect this metric. We do however expect that it will have a positive impact in 2025 by increasing retention, making it easier to become a member and by helping us understand the circumstances that lead to someone becoming a member. With the CRM migration going on we sent out fewer rounds of reminders about membership renewal than previous years. This may have had an effect on the reduction of members and we can already see that some of the members lost in 2024 have returned in 2025. |
This is based on the number of fully paid members in our membership management system at the end of the calendar year. Both individuals and organizational members (6) are included in the number. |
| Increased number of organizational partners | Due to organizational changes the number of partnerships is expected to decrease as compared to the previous year. With a partnership being defined as a collaboration with an organization, rather than an individual; where there is an active choice from both sides to work together; and there is an intention of longevity of the relationship. | 100 | 84 | We saw an expected decrease in the number of partnerships this year, the decrease was however larger than expected and, as a result, we did not meet our target. The factors contributing to the decrease were the same as expected in the planning stage, namely:
With an organizational change our focus has moved towards more long term projects and partnerships, efforts therefore went into deepening existing partnerships. Our project Wikipedia for all of Sweden moved into its final phase where the focus on partnerships was less explicit than before. |
A partnership being defined as a collaboration with an organization, rather than an individual; where there is an active choice from both sides to work together; and there is an intention of longevity of the relationship. |
| Diversity of organizers | We will collect data on the self-stated gender of the organizers, with a goal that men, women and others should be well represented, with no group constituting more than 50%. | 50 | 51 | The largest group, men, made up 49 % of the organisers. Meaning 51% of organizers belong to one of the smaller groups. The goal is therefore achieved.
The gender of 21 % of the total organizers is not known. |
A record is kept of the number of organizers, and their genders, from each organized event. Only the self-stated gender is recorded and the presented percentage excludes any organizers for which the gender is not known. |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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).
The grant support has created opportunities for our staff and board members to participate at different Wikimedia events where the peer-to-peer sharing has improved our skills regarding partnerships, tools, project ideation and more. The grant has also allowed us to participate in different expert conferences in Sweden to keep ourselves up-to-date about different fields and improve our external monitoring.
Through our monthly internal training our staff has had multiple opportunities to learn about new tools and techniques that they find to be relevant, this include AI related topics. The staff jointly plan what areas are of interest to them to learn about and then our internal experts provide the training or we invite people from other parts of the movement to share their skills and expertise.
As an organization we continuously join different experimental projects that have the explicit goal of testing or developing e.g. a new method, process or tool. For such projects the reporting and skill sharing are always crucial components.
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 will focus on capacity building related to AI, continuing the work we began in 2024. Last year, we held several sessions for staff and members to explain the legal complexities surrounding AI and text and data mining, as these issues were central to our advocacy efforts. In 2025, we will build on this foundation in several ways:
- Staff will investigate how they can utilize different tools in their daily tasks, spanning from reporting and communication to fundraising, to improve their efficiency. We will pay for subscriptions to some tools to experiment with.
- We will organize seminars and other events to gain a better understanding of the current situation in this quickly developing field, not least around different aspects of ethics and transparency. This will be connected to our work around both public policy and digital accessibility.
- Our developers will study different aspects of machine learning, together with our partner organizations in Wikispeech, to better integrate it into the tools we are building.
The Universal Code of Conduct is a mandatory requirement for the participants in each of the events we organize and on the platforms that we host.
Membership in the association is open to any person supporting the activities of the association and to any organisation which share our values. Board elections are held yearly at the annual general meeting which is open to all members and governed by our bylaws. The work of the association is planned in accordance with 5-year strategies developed through intense member consultations.
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 | Amount spent (SEK) |
|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 5714328 |
| Operational costs | 1966134 |
| Programmatic costs | 6150179 |
| Total (Year 3) | 4608261 |
| Other revenue | 3760892 |
| Remaining funds (Year 3) | N/A |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
4608261 SEK
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 1966134 SEK
- Programmatic costs: 5714328 SEK
- Staff and contractor costs: 6150179 SEK
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): 4846419 SEK
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 3760892 SEK
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)
WMSE revised its budget during the year, in preparation for the AGM. In the previous document a comparison of the result to both the original and the revised budgets are provided. The revised budget was a result of minor revisions to the ongoing Wikispeech project application.
WMSE had a few changes to the revenue raised as compared to the budget. The increased WCF funding is an effect of the funds ear-marked for the acquiring and implementing a new CRM system, being incorporated in the WCF funding rather than handled as a separate grant. A few years back WMSE received securities as part of an inheritance. These have augmented in value since then and when WMSE restructured the securities in 2024 this increase got accounted for as revenue. Disregarding this artefact (which also shows up in the funds added to the reserves) the revenue from the financial entries followed the budget. The increase in “other operating revenue” comes from state compensation for participating in a labour market programme.
The association secured less project grants for use in 2024 than budgeted. This was a result of one large grant (the MSIG grant towards the Content Partnership hub) being denied after the call for proposals was changed, and the successful Wikispeech grant application being approved much later in the year than originally planned. At the same time we secured additional unbudgeted funding for our advocacy work, significantly increasing our capacity in this area. These changes had a direct effect on the projects in question, but also forced us to make changes to some of our other projects such as redirecting funding from New Communities 2024 project to cover the shortfall and accommodate the different staffing needs of the new projects and for handling the increase in project applications.
Changes to staffing, one staff member leaving and another going on parental leave combined with uncertainties about long-term funding until late in the year brought with it a need for bringing in contractors to work on the new projects that were secured.
Receiving external funding for our advocacy work, traditionally funded by membership dues and donations, meant that these funds were added to our financial reserves instead. Included in the financial reserves is also approx. 250 000 SEK from the WCF funding (out of the budgeted 450 000 SEK).
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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