Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Armenia General Support Fund/2023-2024/Final Report
Report Status: Draft
Due date: 2024-07-30T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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General information
[edit]This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.
- Name of Organization: Wikimedia Armenia
- Title of Proposal: Wikimedia Armenia General Support Fund/2023-2024
- Amount awarded: 146692 USD, 56916335 AMD
- Amount spent: 67392986 AMD
Part 1 Understanding your work
[edit]1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
First of all, it should be mentioned that all activities planned for the 2023-2024 reporting period were carried out according to the yearly plan. Some of the activities were implemented due to the General Support Fund provided by the Wikimedia Foundation; however, Wikimedia Armenia was able to secure funding from other sources, making new collaborations possible.
Considering the temporary suspension and inactivity of the organization, a lot of editors and contributors became less active or stopped contributing at all. As a result, it was difficult to restart everything from the beginning. However, through all projects and activities planned within this reporting year Wikimedia Armenia was able to not only restart its activities but also to start new collaborations and engage many newcomers.
One of the important factors for achieving our goals was the recruitment of new editors which also ensured the liveliness of the movement in Armenia. Along with this, Wikimedia Armenia also continued working with experienced editors giving them an opportunity to engage in various organizational activities, as well as raise their concerns and share their ideas. Due to these approaches which we will continue in future years as well, the community engagement gradually increased.
The approach of organizing Wikipedia training courses before each project also contributed to Wikimedia Armenia’s goals; on one side, it enabled us to recruit newcomers and, on the other side, provide high-quality contributions from each project.
While successfully implementing our activities, Wikimedia Armenia always kept transparency and open communication in its mind. For this reason, Wikimedia Armenia organized several community meet-ups and shared the ongoing developments within the organization, future plans, as well as international news and developments related to the movement with community members.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
Wikimedia Armenia has its Strategic Plan for 2023-2026 and follows the strategies and approaches defined in the plan. As per Strategic Goal 1, which defines the expansion of Wikimedia projects and tools to all regions of Armenia, Wikimedia Armenia was able to open one new Wikiclub in Syunik region of Armenia and reopen another one in Tavush region of Armenia. Expanding the network of Wikiclubs around Armenia ensures the Wikimedia movement's presence in the country's farthest parts. It acts as Wikimedia Armenia’s delegation and awareness-raising support in the country. Due to Wikiclubs we were able to implement a new process of recruiting and teaching newcomers. Before each project, newcomers have a mandatory Wikipedia training course; reaching Wikimedia Armenia’s office for in-person training is usually difficult. To solve this problem, WMAM allows those who want to take the courses in person to visit Wikiclubs near their residence. As a result of this new process, the importance of Wikiclubs has increased, and they have become hubs in their regions.
Another strategy implemented successfully during this reporting period is promoting free knowledge through collaborations and joint projects. Wikimedia Armenia was able to secure four high-level collaboration opportunities with various organizations - Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Central Bank of Armenia (along with the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Armenia and the Armenian Motor Insurers’ Bureau), Institute of Liberal Politics NGO, and Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports along with the Museum of Folk Arts.
For awareness-raising and outreach purposes, Wikimedia Armenia decided to bring its social media presence to a new level. From the beginning of this reporting period, WMAM hired an SMM specialist who especially developed Wikimedia Armenia’s Instagram page and further improved the existing Facebook page. Considering the feedback from the newcomers, many joined after viewing our posts, stories, or reels.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
Wikimedia Armenia used its social media pages to provide information about its current and future works. The most popular method that is used within the Armenian wiki community is the “snowball method,” when an inspired newcomer brings his/her friends. Another method is the engagement of community members with the help of Wikiclubs and university internships. Wikicamps also act as an engagement method, especially for newcomers. Usually, newcomers participate in a project or projects and later become active and experienced editors. Already experienced ones not only participate in projects by learning about them from each other, social media, or telegram groups but also have their contributions as organizers, assistants to projects, team leaders, etc.
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- All infographics, photos, and outcomes are available in our monthly reports:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Armenia/Reports
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Not applicable to your fund |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| 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. | Agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
This year, Wikimedia Armenia had an outstanding project, the purpose of which was to create and improve content on underrepresented topics, such as women's rights, popular women, women in finances, and women's health, by underrepresented groups - women aged 16-24. This became possible with the funding from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. As a result, 53 participants created 517 articles on vital articles on women’s health, women in the financial sector, successful women, women in science and technology, and women's rights. As there was a lot of interest in these topics, we believe this collaboration may be continuous in the future.
Part 2: Your main learning
[edit]8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
In our application, we separated our questions into two parts - questions regarding the events and projects and questions about internal organizational issues. One of the learning questions was whether the training for newcomers before large projects ensures the necessary quality of created/improved articles and what the newcomers think about this practice. In this reporting period, the collected information (mainly outcomes, results, and feedback) showed that this practice is crucial for the successful and productive implementation of not only large projects but any project that targets newcomers. The latter usually mention that the training courses made them feel less nervous or worried about making mistakes and more confident while creating or improving articles. One of the internal organizational learning questions was whether we were able to provide transparent and open communication with our community members through discussions and meet-ups. With the help of 4 community meet-ups and in-person meetings during various project gatherings, Wikimedia Armenia was able to share information regarding internal and external Wikimedia developments with the community. One of the 4 community meet-ups was organized offline and during the two days of extensive discussions and brainstorming, some community members learned about ongoing projects and our international engagement and shared their ideas on the future of various projects and the movement as a whole.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
Wikimedia Armenia has always paid attention to teachers organizing specific Wikipedia training for school teachers. However, this year, it became clear that year after year, the teachers’ training courses were the least productive in terms of long-term retention of editors, as well as the quality of articles created or improved by teachers. Though we will still continue to work with teachers if there is interest, we will not organize separate training for them in the format we did before.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
As mentioned in the previous question, based on the lessons learned, Wikimedia Armenia decided to stop doing Wikipedia training courses specifically for teachers. However, it will still continue working with them within the frameworks of other projects if there is interest from their side.
Based on our other learnings, offline events and activities remain priorities for Wikimedia Armenia as a useful and effective method of keeping contributors active and engaged.
Following successful collaborations with several organizations, finding financial resources outside of the Wikimedia Foundation for specific content development (financial-economic topics, human rights, women’s rights, etc.) is a goal for our future.
Based on what we have learned, we would like to expand collaboration with other Wikimedia affiliates, and we have already started working towards it.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- Wikimedia Armenia has been doing this during this reporting period. We shared our experience with representatives from different communities during the CEE Meeting 2023, as well as CEE Youth Group meetings and Wikimedia Summit. Besides Wikimedia Armenia has been actively sharing its achievements and project successes and lessons learned with the wider community through Diff, Education News and CEE Newsletter. Here are the links:
1. Wikimedia Armenia's Educational Workshops - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/News/January_2024/Wikimedia_Armenia%27s_Educational_Workshops 2. University Students' Internships at Wikimedia Armenia - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/University_Students%27_Internships_at_Wikimedia_Armenia
Part 3: Metrics
[edit]13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikicamps | We want to organize more Wikicamps as they prove to be very efficient in engaging more people and keeping them interested in continuing their contributions (the most active and qualified editors are chosen to participate in Wikicamps).
We are planning to receive feedback from participants through surveys to understand what is the actual impact of the camps on the participants and what can be done better. |
6 | 3 | We applied for multi-year funding but got 1-year funding that's why targets are achieved based on 1 year. | N/A |
| Newcomers’, Teachers’ and Coaches’ training | 1. Before the start of each project, newcomers will pass special training to be ready to efficiently contribute to projects. In this case, we also plan to have a survey questionnaire.
We want to prepare coaches that will be qualified to train the newcomers. 2. In the case of Coaches' training, a focus group discussion may be carried out to measure the effectiveness of this training. 3. Teachers, being an important target group in the Armenian wiki movement, will continue to be introduced to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects through special training. In the case of teachers’ training, a survey and in-depth interview may be carried out to find out the needs of teachers, the impact of the training, and their approach to integrating Wiki projects into their daily classes. |
19 | 13 | We applied for multi-year funding but got 1-year funding that's why targets are achieved based on 1 year. | N/A |
| Community engagement | We hope to increase transparency and improve communication and trust within the community and organization through more community meet-ups, discussions, and organization members’ monthly meetings. | 16 | 4 | We applied for multi-year funding but got 1-year funding that's why targets are achieved based on 1 year. Also, one of the meet-ups was offline and had more impact in terms of active discussions and community participation. | N/A |
| GLAM collaborations | We want to start collaborations with more diverse GLAM institutions and increase the number of such collaborations. | 3 | 2 | We applied for multi-year funding but got 1-year funding that's why targets are achieved based on 1 year. | N/A |
| Partnerships with universities/educational organizations | We envisage increasing the number of partnerships with different universities and specialists in different fields.
Surveys, and newsletter articles written by the participants about the impact of the partnership on their professional skills (previously we had such experience with the students of Brusov State University). |
4 | 4 | Though we were planning to collaborate with 4 universities within 1,5 years, there was a great interest from universities, which is why we were able to start partnerships with another two universities. | N/A |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | 56285 | Wikimedia Armenia has several social media pages; the number mentioned here is the total reach for all social media pages. | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | The cumulative number of participants in different projects/events - 2400
Number of newly registered participants per project/event - 520 |
2920 | |||
| Number of editors | This is the number of editors excluded the staff, organizers, or volunteers. | 2000 | |||
| Number of organizers | This is the number of people people who actually organize the events/projects/edit-a-thons, etc. and those who assist in organizing. | 50 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | This number includes the number of created and improved articles. | 10000 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikimedia Commons | This number includes the number of uploaded media files. | 45000 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikidata | This number includes created items on Wikidata. | 10000 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | Other Wiki Projects | 6000 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
N/A
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships
[edit]17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| D. Partnership building | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| E. Strategic planning | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| J. Governance | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N. Accessing and using data | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N/A | |
| N/A |
17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of financial resources
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
N/A
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Permanent staff outreach, Volunteers from our communities
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Limited funding period
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
What Wikimedia Armenia usually does for building partnerships is first finding the right framework for collaboration, meaning suggesting something that will catch their interest and attention. WMAM’s experience showed that the partners are usually wary of the outcomes, so we usually don’t ask for more from them in the first stages. After the first stage, when they see the results and the partnership's impact on various stakeholders, we suggest ways of expanding our collaboration (this was the case with the Central Bank of Armenia, which started with a very small partnership growing into an annual long-awaited vital project). And, of course, communication and respect are vital for partnerships, valuing and emphasizing the work and the contribution they have made.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration
[edit]21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
For our organization, feeling a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia movement would mean being an integral part of a global community dedicated to the expansion and creation of free knowledge. By saying a “sense of belonging”, the first thing is having a shared mission and values, secondly, not only to engage local communities but also empower them to be and feel a part of the global movement. Moreover, it means having an opportunity to access a vast network of like-minded individuals and affiliates and sharing experience and knowledge. Though being a local Wikimedia chapter, the sense of belonging also means having a more significant and global purpose and identity than the local one.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Somewhat increased
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
N/A
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Somewhat increased
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
N/A
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
N/A
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration
[edit]We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
We shared our experiences while participating in Wikimedia conferences and summits. At the same time, through Diff posts, CEE Newsletter articles, and Education news articles, we shared information about our best practices, outstanding projects and their outcomes.
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
We do this regularly (at least once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
Via Diff posts, Newsletter articles, regional gatherings, monthly calls or catch-up meetings.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
[edit]30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
67392986
31. Local currency type
AMD
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
N/A
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
37. 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
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.