Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/WoALUG 2024-2025 Biennial Plan of Activities/Yearly Report (2025)
|
|
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.
In the second year’s proposal, the Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group implemented a mix of programs, approaches, and strategies, already settled in the yearly calendar of activities and ad-hoc initiatives, to contribute to increasing the quality and quantity of the articles, multimedia, items on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage, and Wikidata.
These approaches have helped us work on recurring obstacles such as:
- Raise awareness of the community to approach and use free knowledge.
- Lack of internet access and appropriate digital equipment.
- Issues with blocked IP ranges, especially in Albania and that affected contributors’ work.
- Bureaucratic barriers from the institutions and partnerships for multiple reasons: limited understanding of Wikimedia projects' goals, delayed responses, limited in people’s capacities etc.
- Partners or participants do not complete till the end the agreed activities.
Despite the challenges we faced in the second year of the proposal implementation, some of the lessons learned this year are:
- Investing in community motivation and recognition by inviting the experienced contributors to co-facilitate activities, editathons, and workshops at 2 Wiki Camps.
- Strengthening relationships with partners, organizations, education, and cultural institutions by following up with invitations to our major events.
- Clear instructions and communication to increase the capacity building among partners, contributors, the community, and colleagues.
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 do have a plan to build on things that worked well this year. Based on our prior activities, lessons learned, and challenges, we developed strategies and opportunities to reach more educational and youth centers, with a specific focus on remote areas in Albania and Kosovo, to reach new audiences. For example, this year we were in Kruma, Krusha, Berat, Lushnje, Shkoder, Peshkopi etc., and we organized a 3-day WikiCamp in Gjakova to engage the local community.
We were able to explore and manage new organizations and partnerships to develop our projects and to strengthen the collaborations in new local communities and GLAM institutions. For example, we have invited librarians from a remote area to Wikidata + Wikipedia activities.
We encouraged our community to participate in the CEE Youth Conference to connect with other CEE Wikimedians and share experiences and exchange ideas to make the Wikimedia projects attractive.
We had engaged well-thought strategies to develop events to commemorate important milestones and dates of our User Group, such the 10th anniversary of Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group where we planned celebration events in both countries. We also started a new initiative to create our user-groups library, where wikimedians can use these books to enrich the content.
One of the major activities we utilized to better understand our community and how Wikimedia projects are used is the community survey. From the survey, we wanted to focus on gathering information, knowledge, opinions, points of view, attitude, and engagement of the community with the Wikimedia projects. We believe that these results will help us plan more targeted activities, improve strategies, and create ways that respond to the community's needs.
Below are the major activities that lead us to new priorities, strategies and ideas:
- 2 Wiki Expeditions,
- 2 WikiCamps in Kosovo, respectively in Gjakova and Prizren
- 5 activities with Youth Councils in Albania
- Increased Wikivoyage activities to extend the project in remote areas in Albania and Kosovo
- GLAM activities with one theater and museums in Albania and Kosovo
- 2 activities for reviewing pending articles in Albanian Language Wikipedia
- Traditional Albanian food campaign inviting food afficionados to upload pictures
- Involving more underrepresented and marginalised groups within Wikiclubs
- Increasing our presence in participating in technology fairs in Albania and Kosovo
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).
Activities from this year:
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 shared with the wider community that this year we celebrated the User Group’s 10th anniversary by publishing the following article on Diff, along with other presentations that we presented during CEE Meeting 2025 and EduWiki Conference 2025, and several newsletters from different projects in Albania and Kosovo:
Community Health Research Report (being finalized)
Presentation at CEE Meeting 2025: Reasons to organize Wikivoyage Editathons
Presentation at CEE Meeting 2025: Digital Competence Enhancement via Wikipedia: Connecting Practice to the DigComp Framework
Presenation at EduWiki Conference 2025: [4]
Kosovo and Albania Teaching with Wikipedia Curriculum (being finalized)
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.
Yes, we have received a mix of written and oral feedback from contributors, participants, and partners throughout the year. We have used feedback from Google Forms and channels of communication as WhatsApp and Telegram, to gather ideas and insights through conversations during and after activities.
Even though some of this feedback is not documented formally, it helped us understand what went well and what we could improve.
Another crucial point to focus on next year is the strengthening of our feedback collection process.
Below are some of the documented feedback forms.
In addition to the ongoing feedback collected throughout our activities, we are also conducting a more comprehensive independent community health study, which includes structured interviews with active and former editors, participants, and community members. This research aims to better understand motivations, challenges, and participation barriers, as well as to generate practical recommendations for improving recruitment, retention, training, and community integration across Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. Although the study is still in progress, we expect the final report to be ready by next year. Once completed, we will also be able to share the questionnaire forms and summarized findings as part of our documented impact data.
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, LGBTQ+ groups, people from lower socioeconomic status, young people, speakers of minority languages
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ groups, speakers of minority languages
- 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)
What really worked well in our programs under 6.1-6.3 was that we wanted to create an inclusive and supportive environment for:
- Women in the WikiGap activities to feel empowered, welcomed and safe for their voices to be heard through the article-writing process.
- Our LGBT partners and community members felt appreciated and respected as we wanted to make sure their opinions were included in decision-making, such as improving LGBT terminology about different LGBT-related topics on Wikipedia.
- People with disabilities, such as autistic students, were engaged in several activities by giving them the time, space, and support to work comfortably on Wikipedia articles.
- Returned or retained Wikimedian in Residence who shared important reflections and insights to create new content on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata with limited or no information existing before about art, media, people etc.
- Supporting our motivated community to develop activities, participate in Photowalks, Miningrats, and Expeditions, and to encourage their creativity within the group.
- Empowering the community of teachers to guide their students in WikiClub program in order to keep students engaged and align it with the school subjects.
These tactics helped us to strengthen diverse participation, consolidating the communication and building trust with these target groups.
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, Board members’ outreach, Volunteers from our communities
Part 2: Metrics for Year 2
[edit]| Wikimedia Metrics | Target (Year 2) | Results (Year 2) | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 578 | 524 | Outreach dashboard
Google forms |
| Number of all editors | 554 | 495 | Outreach Dashboard, Google Forms registrations. Most new editors were students from school and university activities |
| Number of new editors | N/A | 400 | |
| Number of retained editors | N/A | 50 | |
| Number of all organizers | 10 | 10 | |
| Number of new organizers | N/A | 5 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages (Year 2) | Target - Number of improved pages (Year 2) | Result - Number of created pages (Year 2) | Result - Number of improved pages (Year 2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 409 | 2327 | ||
| Wikimedia Commons | 1510 | 1 | ||
| Wikidata | 19 | 3151 | ||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | ||||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | 8 | 147 | ||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
Tool used and comments (optional):
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outreach Dashboard | Throughout the year, our projects show that the numbers and quality of results depend on aspects like how active our community is on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and the public's interest when we share events or activities in local newspapers.
The Outreach Dashboard is the main tool to track records and content. |
N/A | N/A | Yes, we have taken into consideration some other alternative types of metrics such as:
|
N/A |
| Google forms | We also use Google Forms as another source to collect valuable data from the community. | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 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).
Yes, in this perspective the grant supported us with some important learning moments that really helped our work.
A group of our staff and board members, together with one volunteer from the Albanian-speaking Wikipedia community attended the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2025 to meet and share ideas and build cross-border cooperation. During the conference, we joined practical sessions and discussions about how to engage communities, build partnerships, design better activities, and support community health. We came back with new tools and clear ways of working, and we started using them in our ongoing projects.
The grant also supported one staff member to attend the EduWiki Conference 2025. There, we learned new methods for designing education programs, working with teachers and students, and making learning activities more effective. We brought those ideas back and applied them in our education activities in Albania and Kosovo.
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)
Next year, we want to focus on strengthening how we engage with people and the community of our User Group in order to improve the internal membership engagement (4.1), community connection (4.2) , and build better partnerships and collaborations (4.3). These areas will help us work better inside the User Group, stay closer to the people who contribute, and create sustainable relationships with organizations and partners.
Our plan to build these capacities is simple and consists of:
- More in-person meetings, plan tasks, and have members connect.
- Regular checks through our WhatsApp group to keep everyone informed and involved.
- Encouraging members to work on topics they personally care about to keep them motivated.
- Supporting members with ideas, guidance, and resources, and connecting them with partners or communities when needed.
- Inviting members to take small leadership roles, such as co-organizing events, coordinating events, or leading a project.
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 (EUR) |
|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 21595 |
| Operational costs | 6002 |
| Programmatic costs | 47687 |
| Total (Year 2) | 47687 |
| Other revenue | |
| Remaining funds (Year 2) | 47353 |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
47687 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: 6002 EUR
- Programmatic costs: 47687 EUR
- Staff and contractor costs: 21595 EUR
17. Did you have any other revenue sources (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): No
- 17.1. Provide the total amount received from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): EUR
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 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/1VPZwkIAjWfnLVRT28GjiY0IAHJNZ7VKAJNJRcjGiTu8/edit?usp=sharing
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)
- 47353
- 19.2. Explain why you did not use the amount. (required)
- We have a delayed ongoing consultancy on Teaching with Wikipedia curriculum.
- 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.
- We propose to carry this money into 2026 towards this consultancy.
20. Final confirmations (required)
- 20.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement? You must be in compliance with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement. In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
- 20.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
- Yes
- 20.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds, where the user has submitted their report. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.