Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Folklore 2025 in Ethiopia (ID: 22894651)/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)
Outreach & launch (2 March – 28 May 2025) We ran a cross-platform social media campaign on Telegram, Instagram, and local news groups, which reached over 3500 users. In the first two weeks, 30 new members joined our dedicated Telegram group, helping us build momentum and answer questions in real time.
Contest & community vote (1 April – 18 May 2025) Participants uploaded 84 images to the Commons category “Wiki Loves Folklore 2025 – Ethiopia.” We hosted highlights on our Telegram and Instagram channels, and community members cast 286 votes to select their favorites.
Closing workshop & awards (31 May 2025) We held an in-person awards ceremony in Addis Ababa, attended by 14 contributors. Winners received cash prizes and certificates, and all prize-winning images, along with workshop photos, were archived to Commons for future reuse.
Most effective approaches
Creative Portal partnership: Collaborating with Creative Portal gave us direct access to an active photographers’ network, boosting both the quantity and quality of submissions.
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
- Google drive folder for everything related : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E7tsGxtKhxkT9NkcJP53QsrVQ21Nk2JT?usp=sharing
- t.me/wlfethiopia : Telegram Channel
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2025_in_Ethiopia
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
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E7tsGxtKhxkT9NkcJP53QsrVQ21Nk2JT?usp=sharing
Google drive folder
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 | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Not applicable |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Neither agree nor disagree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| 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: From this project, we hope to learn:
Community Engagement Strategies: The most effective ways to engage diverse communities, including underrepresented groups and cultural practitioners, in contributing to Wikimedia projects.
Preservation Techniques: Best practices for documenting and preserving Ethiopian intangible cultural heritage (e.g., oral traditions, music, dance) on Wikimedia platforms.
Collaboration Impact: How partnerships with cultural organizations can enhance the quality and reach of Wikimedia content.
Knowledge Gap Challenges: The specific barriers contributors face when documenting intangible cultural heritage and how to address them effectively.
Sustainability: Strategies to encourage long-term engagement and contributions from participants even after the project ends.
- Community Engagement Strategies: The most effective ways to engage diverse communities, including underrepresented groups and cultural practitioners, in contributing to Wikimedia projects.
- We discovered that bite-sized, daily “photo-of-the-day” prompts on Telegram and Instagram drove the highest spikes in participation, and active contributors were more likely to upload when given a clear theme.
Next steps:
- Automate scheduled micro-challenges across Telegram, Instagram Stories, and Facebook to reach different audiences and time zones.
- Recruit 3–5 community “champions” from under-represented regions to craft localized prompts in Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya.
- Preservation Techniques: Best practices for documenting and preserving Ethiopian intangible cultural heritage (e.g., oral traditions, music, dance) on Wikimedia platforms.
- This year we focused solely on photographs, which built a solid visual archive but lacked the richer context of sound and stories.
Next steps:
- Require a 10–20 second audio snippet alongside each photo to capture music, chants, or ambient sound.
- Introduce structured metadata templates prompting contributors for date, location, and a one-line cultural context note.
- Collaboration Impact: How partnerships with cultural organizations can enhance the quality and reach of Wikimedia content.
- Our Creative Portal partner provided most of the images we flagged as “featured quality” through professional guidance, social-media amplification, and special event access, raising our overall standard and attracting new participants.
Next steps:
- Formalize Memoranda of Understanding with two more institutions (e.g., Fendika Cultural Center, Ethiopian National Museum) to co-host photo walks.
- Co-brand promotional materials and encourage partners to feature our campaign in their newsletters and social channels.
* Knowledge Gap Challenges: The specific barriers contributors face when documenting intangible cultural heritage and how to address them effectively.
Answer: The biggest hurdle was simply understanding how to upload to Commons—over 50 % of rural participants needed step-by-step guidance. Confusion also arose over what qualifies as “folklore” imagery. Next steps:
Create a one-page infographic and a short video showing “Photo → Metadata → Upload” in three easy steps.
Host live “upload hubs” at partner venues where volunteers guide groups through their first uploads.
Publish a mini-style guide with clear examples of acceptable folklore submissions versus non-thematic photos.
- Sustainability: Strategies to encourage long-term engagement and contributions from participants even after the project ends.
- Our Telegram mentorship channel helped 10 of 25 new Commons editors stay active for at least a week, but engagement dropped off quickly afterward.
Next steps:
- Appoint two volunteer mentors on a rotating schedule, each running a monthly micro-challenge in the chat.
- Organize a quarterly showcase event—online or in person—where top contributors present and inspire others.
- Distribute a bi-monthly newsletter featuring highlights, tips, and community shout-outs to maintain connection.
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)
Positive surprises
- Our 1st- and 2nd-place winners hailed from Hosana and Adama, far outside Addis Ababa , proving there’s deep enthusiasm in regions we hadn’t actively targeted.
- A handful of participants began including cultural notes (location, festival name) alongside their uploads without prompt, enriching the entries’ context.
Negative surprise
- Our grant funds arrived four weeks later than planned, which wreaked havoc on our schedule. We had to condense two in-person workshops and the awards ceremony into a single week at the end of May, leading to lower turnout, stressed organizers, and rushed logistics.
- Leverage organic participant behaviors (notes, duos, translations) by providing optional fields and encouragement, then highlighting these practices as examples for others.
- Target timing and outreach to amplify female and regional participation, continue offering workshops at varied times and in secondary cities.
- Build in buffers for banking delays, and venue confirmations , plan key events at least two weeks after funds clear and secure backup dates/venues in advance.
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)
Telegram & Social Media Summaries
Key takeaways will be distilled into a series of “lesson cards” shared via our Telegram channel (t.me/wlfethiopia) and Instagram Stories, making the content easy to digest and share.
Open-Access Materials
All slide decks, guides, and sample templates (Infographic, metadata form, upload cheat-sheet) are stored in our public Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E7tsGxtKhxkT9NkcJP53QsrVQ21Nk2JT?usp=sharing
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 | 35 | This number includes individuals who participated in uploading photos for the competition and those who attended our workshop through our partner. |
| Number of editors | 50 | 15 | We cross-referenced our Commons upload logwith our Telegram participant roster to identify which contributors both joined the campaign and created or improved content on Commons. That yielded 10 active editors. |
| Number of organizers | 4 | 4 | Our project roster listed four core team members (outreach lead, media coordinator, workshop facilitator, and data manager), but only two were consistently active throughout the campaign. This uneven participation is likely due to differences in leadership engagement and varying levels of passion among team members, constraining our capacity to drive higher community involvement and may have contributed to underperformance in some metrics. |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 40 | ||
| Wikimedia Commons | 1000 | 84 | 0 |
| Wikidata | 300 | ||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | 3 | ||
| Translatewiki | 100 | ||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | 20 | ||
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
Yes
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)
• Late Fund Disbursement & Condensed Timeline o Because our grant arrived four weeks later than expected, we had to compress key activities (two workshops and the awards ceremony) into a single week. o Impact on data collection: There was limited time to set up proper tracking tools and to train volunteers on using them, so some contributions went unlogged or were only partially recorded.
- Lack of a Unified Tracking Dashboard
o We relied on multiple platforms (Commons upload logs, Telegram stats, Instagram Insights, Google Sheets) without a single dashboard to pull data. o Impact: Manually reconciling figures across sources introduced gaps and inconsistencies.
- Limited Familiarity with Wikimedia Analytics Tools
o Our team and volunteers had not previously used tools like Toolforge, Wikistats, or ORES, so extracting project-specific contribution counts was time-consuming and error-prone.
Plans to Overcome These Challenges
- Early Data-Planning Phase
o Build a metrics framework into the project timeline before outreach begins. o Assign clear ownership for each data stream (e.g., one volunteer handles Commons stats, another tracks social media engagement).
- Centralized Dashboard
o Use a shared dashboard connected to APIs (Telegram Bot API, Commons API, Instagram Insights) so that figures update automatically. o Provide step-by-step onboarding guides for volunteers to ensure consistent data entry. o
- Technical Training for Team & Volunteers
o Host a pre-launch workshop on Wikimedia analytics tools, including hands-on practice exporting and interpreting metrics. Recommendations for the Foundation
- Offer Data-Management Templates & Tooling Support: Provide ready-to-use Google Data Studio templates or Wikistats dashboards customized for common grant metrics.
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
107100
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
750.2
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)
The only deviation is, we have merged the venue and refreshments for the one workshop together, as we got both deals in one place.
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.
Unspent balance: USD 1,420.51
Calculation: Total award USD 2,170.71 – Spent USD 750.20 = USD 1,420.51 remaining.
Reason for underspend
- Delayed disbursement: The grant funds arrived four weeks later than anticipated. As a result....
- We had to cancel two mid-project workshops because there wasn’t enough lead time to secure venues, facilitators, or equipment.
- Our timeline no longer aligned with vendor minimum order windows for printed quick-start guides, so we were unable to place the print order before the project’s closing date.
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
A. Propose to use the underspent funds within this Fund period with PO approval
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We propose to reallocate the USD remaining within the current Rapid Fund period, subject to Program Officer approval. The funds will be used to support the AWC Challenge (July 1–31, 2025) as follows -
Cash prizes
- Awards for the top three contributors, to sustain momentum and reward high-quality submissions.
Promotional materials
- Design and digital distribution of social-media graphics and custom stickers to boost participation.
Closing workshop logistics
- Host in-person edit-a-thon workshops: rent space and provide refreshments for participants.
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)