Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Earth 2025 in Serbia (ID: 22963527)/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)
This year’s edition was generally successful, with more than 2,300 uploaded photos and almost 20 videos. Roughly 100 different contestants took part in WLE 2025 in Serbia (almost 60 uploaders, close to 10 editors, and nearly 30 people involved in photo tours, organization, and events/exhibitions).
Cooperation with both Institutes for Nature Protection (state and provincial) was very fruitful, as both parties actively participated in the preparation, organization, and hosting of the award ceremony (this year’s host was the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia). A dozen local tourist organizations and media outlets supported and promoted the competition. The local organizing team put a lot of effort into promoting the competition through the official website, media, social networks, and partners, with a special focus on a successful social media campaign. The edit-a-thon and photo tours were also very successful — five photo tours were organized this year.
Serbia won second place in the inaugural year of the video contest (2024), which clearly boosted promotion efforts in 2025. The official website reached a record of over 85,000 visitors since WLE’s comeback in Serbia. The official Instagram page increased its number of followers by roughly 30% (now over 840). The YouTube channel improved its visibility and upgraded its content. The official map showing exact locations of protected natural habitats had more than 16,000 visits.
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
WC page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2025_in_Serbia WP page: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0:%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8_%D0%97%D0%B5%D0%BC%D1%99%D1%83_2025.
Tracking: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Earth_2025_in_Serbia https://wikiloves.toolforge.org/earth/2025/Serbia Event photos: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Award_Ceremony_of_Wiki_Loves_Earth_2025_in_Serbia Exhibition photos: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photo_Exhibition_of_Wiki_Loves_Earth_2025_in_Serbia
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
Official website: https://wle.rs/ Official social network page: https://www.instagram.com/wle_srbija/ Official YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WLE_Srbija-ft7xt Media coverage: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OX0EX4SSOq3aVJ-TWGT7JzPBkJdNKLXLlvR8_mTm3sA/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 | Not applicable |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Not applicable |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Not applicable |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Not applicable |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Not applicable |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Not applicable |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Not applicable |
| 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: All potential learning outcomes from this WLE edition are listed as follows:
- How does changes in categories (adding video) affect potential contestants and will that attract other competitors?
- Does this project attract new participants?
- What are the effects of WLE in Serbia on the development of the informal Wiki community in Serbia?
- How does changes in categories (adding video) affect potential contestants and will that attract other competitors?
Inplementing new category definitelly had an impact on attacting new participants which are more focused on video contest. Improvement is maybe not significant in term of crude numbers, but in percenatge it is roughly 300% increase.
- Does this project attract new participants?
Yes, there are almost 50% of new participants in this year, which shows that WLE is still very attractive for newcomers. If we put in eqation people involved in diffrent aspects of WLE (organizers, suporters, community on Wiki etc, this increase could hit almost 70%.
- What are the effects of WLE in Serbia on the development of the informal Wiki community in Serbia?
People around the WLE are still motivated to take part in the events, which is encouring for the organizers. We can say that informal WLE community gathered roughly 100 people year-round with significant increase uring the time.
All togehter - these outcomes show that every new step and improvemnet or addfition to the next edition of WLE will attract some contestants and this is something which should be developed and analysed fot the upcomming 2026/27/28 editions.
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)
Complex social and political circumstances in the country definitely had an effect on this year’s WLE edition in Serbia. Several natural areas were unavailable to the public, and frequent public gatherings across the country affected contestants’ ability to take part in organized tours or even plan their own visits (due to road blockages, traffic redirections, etc).
Even so, overal focus of the potential participanst was destracted, contestants were highly encouraged to participate in all activities - both organized and individual. This specific situation put organizing team in new position - planning more than two or three different backup plans for all events. This specific situatuon was very consuming on time-spending and number of people involved.
Very positive outcome was significant increase in social network followers and their interest for the event (both apssive and active). Inauguarl exhibition of the winning photos and videos was very popular with more than hundred visitors throughout the first month. Very significant improvments were maed on the official website in category of news section which came up on very positive reactions throughout the community.
Despite all the spectacles and challenges, Serbia finished in Top 10 countries in final score, which is very affirmative and one big push factor fot the upcomming seasons.
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)
All the project learning and results are already shared with community members via internal mailing list, WP pages, and both official website and Instagram page. During the Award Ceremony all the outcomes and learning were publicly announced for the contestans, organizers and all active and passive participants.
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 | 100 | 100 | |
| Number of editors | 20 | 25 | |
| Number of organizers | 5 | 5 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 50 | 23 | 37 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 2500 | 2387 | 5 |
| Wikidata | 30 | 5 | 25 |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | 10 | 10 | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Used photos (%) | percentage of used photos in Wiki projects in first two months following the competition | 10 | 5 | |
| Photo walking tours | number of organized tours | 4 | 5 | |
| Exhibitions | number of the exhibitions following the competition | 2 | 2 | 2nd one will be organized in near future. |
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)
4305
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
5000
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Provide the link to the financial report https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16e77DUBYO-aEbBWVGwg168EARbZ-PGelGIxSQWoNwvE/edit?usp=sharing
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)
Significant US dollar value drop during the March-July 2025, had major effect on total budget, since the decrease of value was roughly for 350 EUR in total, and even bigger in exchange rates.
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
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)
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A