Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Lunch and Learn for Cultural Heritage Organizations in the Bay Area (ID: 23553298)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
On November 18 we held the launch event for a lunch and learn series for GLAM organizations in the Bay Area. We had 41 people in attendance, including 5 local Wikipedians. We built on the workshops of the 2025 Washington DC GLAM bootcamp to develop a presentation targeted to this audience, focused on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons on Wikidata. The link to the slides can be found below. In addition, we offered support to attendees in making their first contributions, and updating pages related to their organizations. This was meant to build community around open knowledge principles, and explore the needs and interest of GLAM organizations in the region for Wikimedia projects.
This collective approach (instead of reaching out to organizations individually) seemed particularly efficient, as was to extend invitations to multiple stakeholders within each organization, ask for recommendations about whom else to contact and build on our existing network. Participants feedback’s through informal discussions at and after the events made clear that those social dynamics were important to create and sustain interest – in comparison to finding one champion within an organization to work with.
As planned, participants also completed key tasks from the GLAM workbook, including identifying what kind of wiki-related activities they would be interested in conducting or participating in, and reflecting on the differences in approaches between GLAMs and Wikimedians and how these may create conflicts.
Participants included Mechanics Institute, Society of California Pioneers, Letterform Archive, Institute of Contemporary Art SF, UCSF library, San Francisco Heritage, Presidio Historical Association, La Raza Historical Society, Vacaville Museum, Bethlehem Shipyard Museum/Historic Pier 70 and the Japantown Task Force, San Francisco Public Library.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
The intended impact of this rapid grant was two-fold: some content and coverage improvements; and to set solid foundations for establishing a GLAM-Wiki community in the Bay Area.
In terms of short-term content improvements, the Wikipedians involved made the following improvements:
- Added Wikidata item for every organization who did not previously have one (e.g., https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q136831203)
- Updated Wikidata items for every participating organizations
- Created pages for organizations (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth%27s_Table) or their projects (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Light_Project)
In terms of longer-term content improvements, we received two requests for support in uploading databases to Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. In terms of impact as community building, the day and following discussions highlighted the current challenges for GLAM-Wiki projects. Changes in the funding landscape and lack of resources are far more of a blocker to participation than lack of knowledge in how to participate, although we did confirm with this larger group that support in this area continues to be needed as well. While about half of the participants joined one of our mailing lists, no further group discussions started online. On the other hand, we received a lot of positive feedback about the events, requests for the slides, and questions about future learning opportunities, suggesting that while the type of peer-based community we envisioned may not be possible, we have more than achieved our goals.
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
We created this slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ki4G_m4FB4GjhWoDwCUxFSTrOWnBZLl8JGL2DYs6LWc/edit?usp=sharing
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Neither agree nor disagree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Strongly agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: Learn more about how Bay Area Wikipedians can assist cultural heritage organizations based in the Bay Area.
The participation model on Wiki projects is often to invite and train new editors. An example relevant to our participants is Wiki Education’s 250 by 2026 course, which trains personnel at historical associations and societies in editing Wikipedia while building professional connections. This event instead highlighted how much demand there is for support by existing Wikimedia volunteers. In fact, an attendee discussed how they had enrolled in the aforementioned programs but was never able to complete it. They had a strong understanding of the gaps in content, but not the resources needed to address them as culture professionals.
While this might change with time, in the short and mid-term, proposing to organizations specific activities or tasks our volunteers can lead appears as a better approach. Organizing regular community learning events however remains important for nurturing a community around open knowledge.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
As outlined above, this event enabled to reconcile different views of what participating in Wiki projects may be like for GLAM organizations, and what supporting GLAM organizations might be for local Wikimedia volunteers. This should perhaps not have been a surprise, but it did lead to re-evaluate our approach for future events. The in-person events, rather than mailing lists, seem to be where the peer collaboration for GLAMs can happen. Redirecting requests, materials and projects to the organizing committee of the user group is a more efficient way to address gaps in content currently.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
Learnings from the event were shared at the North American Regional Wiki Hub and Lab’s meetings, in GLAM wiki chats and the GLAM USA report of November 2025. They were reported to the larger user group during their December meetup. We are also building a page of resources for organizations wishing to collaborate with Wikimedians. We are aiming for a presentation at WCNA 2026 as well.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 40 | 33 | Counting |
| Number of editors | 5 | 5 | Counting |
| Number of organizers | 10 | 8 | Counting |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 20 | 4 | 24 |
| Wikimedia Commons | |||
| Wikidata | 7 | 50 | |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will participate in later lunch and learn events | n/a | 25 | No further event organized yet. We counted only 14 sign-ups on the mailing lists, but the no participants requested to not be informed of future events and we sent a follow-up email with resources which was well received. We believe this reflects the stated lack of resources to get involved – versus making requests to Wikimedia volunteers through direct email. We collected 30 completed worksheets, but some attendees left with them. We helped create 4 accounts on that day. | |
| Will join the mailing lists | n/a | 30 | ||
| Will complete task 2 and 3 of the GLAM workbook | n/a | 40 | ||
| Will create an account | n/a | 25 | ||
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
698.01
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
698.01
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
$42.12 USD
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. 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
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
Organizing these kind of events represent a significant investment in time for small non-profits such as ours (San Francisco Historical Society), which is not represented by the amounts requested.