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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 (ID: 22894603)/Final Report

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ZI Jony
Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025
07 February 2025 - 30 June 2025
Report ID: 11999
Report status: Under review
Report due date: 30 July 2025
Grant ID: G-RF-2411-17595
Amount funded: 12855.5 AED, 3500 USD
Amount spent: 12856 AED
Rapid Fund 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)

During the Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 campaign, we carried out a range of outreach, training, and contribution-focused activities with the aim of documenting Ramadan-related cultural heritage across Wikimedia projects. The main activities included online and offline edit-a-thons, a global launch event, community mentorship sessions, collaboration calls with regional leads, and a campaign-wide social media drive to encourage contributions in underrepresented languages and regions.

We exceeded our expected number of participants (280 vs target 200) and organizers (68 vs target 35), which really helped keep the momentum alive across different time zones and communities. In total, 2820 new Wikipedia articles were created, with additional contributions on Wikimedia Commons (141 files), Wikidata (29 items), Wikiquote (166 quotes), Wikivoyage (58 articles), and even some entries on Wikimedia Incubator (11 pages). While we fell short of our target on Wikipedia page creation (4500 target), we still consider it a strong achievement given the quality-focused approach and the diversity of topics.

What worked best for us was decentralizing the campaign model — instead of trying to control everything centrally, we empowered regional leads and local organizers with toolkits, design materials, and regular support calls. This made them feel more ownership and brought better localized outreach. Our “Ramadan Circles” (informal online hangouts for participants and newcomers) also helped build trust and solve technical or community issues early on. Social media, especially Telegram groups, turned out very effective in engaging youth and first-time editors.

Overall, the flexible support from the Rapid Fund allowed us to adapt quickly, test new ideas, and build stronger global connections around a shared cultural theme.

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
Project Page
Tracking Dashboards & Tools
Photos
Social Media & Outreach
Surveys & Feedback

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
Documentation

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)

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups Neither agree nor disagree
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Strongly agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement 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: Through the Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 project, we aim to achieve several learning outcomes that will enhance our understanding of community engagement, cultural documentation, and the global representation of traditions on Wikimedia platforms. Specifically, we hope to:

  • Understand Effective Community Mobilization: By organizing and coordinating across 32 countries and 26 Wikimedia projects, we aim to learn how to foster collaboration among diverse linguistic and cultural communities. This includes understanding the challenges and best practices in engaging underrepresented groups, particularly those from the Islamic world, in Wikimedia activities.
  • Improve Content Creation Strategies: We expect to gain insights into the most effective ways to inspire contributors to document customs, traditions, and biographies of significant Islamic figures. Learning how to balance quality and quantity in content creation while encouraging multilingual contributions is a key focus.
  • Enhance Tools and Infrastructure: The project will provide an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the technical tools and guidelines we provide to national organizers and participants. This will help us refine frameworks for organizing large-scale campaigns and ensure they are scalable and user-friendly.
  • Strengthen Cross-Cultural Collaboration: By working with communities across continents, we hope to learn how to bridge cultural differences and create a shared sense of purpose. This will help us build a more inclusive Wikimedia ecosystem that values diverse perspectives.
  • Evaluate Impact Metrics: Through tracking participant satisfaction, articles, and community engagement, we aim to develop more robust methods for evaluating the impact of Wikimedia initiatives. This will allow us to better measure the effectiveness of our outreach and identify areas for improvement.

We outlined several learning goals in our proposal, and during the project we gained valuable insights that will shape how we approach future global campaigns.

  • Understanding Effective Community Mobilization: We learned that localized ownership is key. While we didn’t reach the full 32 countries as planned, participation from 29 communities in 18 countries — many from the Islamic world — showed that cultural relevance really drives engagement. Having dedicated local leads made a big difference in mobilizing contributors, especially in countries like Bangladesh, Ukraine, Malaysia, India, Tanzania, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Guinea, Ghana, Egypt, The Gambia, Nigeria, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, United States, Canada, Germany + Global. Some challenges included time zone coordination and different levels of community readiness, but providing flexible support and open communication channels helped overcome these.
  • Improving Content Creation Strategies: We saw that contributors were more motivated when they worked on topics close to their cultural identity, like Ramadan foods, local customs, or biographies of Islamic scholars. While we didn’t hit our 4500-article target, the 2820 created articles were generally more meaningful and diverse in perspective. Quality over quantity became a natural shift, and using multilingual prompts encouraged broader participation. Future campaigns will continue promoting topic lists and cultural themes that communities can localize in their own languages.
  • Enhancing Tools and Infrastructure: Our toolkits (like the branding pack, Meta-Wiki guide, and editing support materials) were well received, but some organizers needed more technical help using the Programs & Events Dashboard and Fountain tool. We realized that having a pre-campaign training session on campaign tools would have made a big difference. For next time, we’ll create tutorial videos and offer short tool-specific onboarding for local organizers.
  • Strengthening Cross-Cultural Collaboration: The campaign created a very warm and inclusive environment — organizers and participants from different backgrounds felt united under a shared cultural moment. Collaborations across countries (e.g. between Ghana and Nigeria, or Ukraine and Bosnia) showed that thematic campaigns like this can help build bridges beyond borders. However, we also saw the need to be sensitive to how Ramadan is observed differently around the world, so flexibility in content scope was crucial.
  • Evaluating Impact Metrics: We tracked contributions using the Programs & Events Dashboard and Fountain tool, which gave us a good overview. But more importantly, our participant feedback forms revealed that many editors appreciated the campaign structure and felt it was both educational and inclusive. While we collected quantitative data (like 3,196 contributions and 212 users), we now understand the value of combining this with qualitative stories — especially from new contributors. We plan to include more structured follow-up surveys in future to better capture the human side of impact.

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)

Yes, a few unexpected things happened — both good surprises and a few challenges — and we definitely learned from them.

  • Positive Surprises: One of the nicest surprises was how some smaller or less-active communities really stepped up and contributed far more than we expected. For example, in Guinea and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the local volunteers were not initially very confident, but once the campaign began, they organized sessions, translated materials, and brought in new editors. That kind of local energy reminded us that with the right encouragement and a flexible structure, even less-visible communities can shine. Another surprise was the interest from non-Muslim contributors who still wanted to support the project, either out of curiosity or solidarity. This showed us that campaigns like this can go beyond cultural boundaries when framed in an inclusive and educational way.
  • Unexpected Challenges: On the other hand, we also faced some technical and logistical issues. For instance, a few communities struggled with internet access during their planned offline edit-a-thons/workshop, especially during power cuts in some regions like parts of Nigeria and Tanzania. We learned that having offline editing guides or printable resources would help in such cases. Also, not all organizers were equally familiar with the tracking tools like the Dashboard or Fountain. Some teams submitted contributions late or didn’t track them properly, which affected our final metrics. From this, we’ve learned to prepare better tool training sessions ahead of time — not just written instructions, but short video explainers and maybe live support calls.
  • What We Learned: The biggest takeaway is to expect flexibility. No campaign, especially at global scale, will go 100% to plan — and that’s okay. What matters most is keeping the communication open, supporting organizers without over-controlling them, and staying focused on community growth rather than perfect numbers. We’ll carry these lessons forward with more adaptable support models and a mindset of learning by doing.

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)

What We’ve Already Done
What We Plan to Do
  • Presentations at Conferences: We plan to present Wiki Loves Ramadan at upcoming Wikimedia events like GLAM Wiki 2025 or CEE Meeting, especially focusing on how global cultural campaigns can be inclusive and impactful across diverse regions.
  • Learning Circles / Office Hours: We’re thinking of hosting one or two small online learning circles or mentorship calls with other campaign organizers (e.g., from Wiki Loves Women or Wiki Loves Africa) to exchange practical knowledge.

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 200 280
Number of editors 250 212
Number of organizers 35 68
Wikimedia project Target Result - Number of created pages Result - Number of improved pages
Wikipedia 4500 2820 10
Wikimedia Commons 141 0
Wikidata 29 0
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator 11 0
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote 166 0
Wikivoyage 400 58 0
Wikibooks 100 0 0
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)

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)

12856

11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)

3500

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/1YGWKF4lCMwIT0ro4D3_ukmrDn-CLbVH4s9FxEyWDnL0


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?

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

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