Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Annual plan of Wikimedia Serbia 2026

Initial Feedback

Dear members of Wikimedia Serbia,

Thank you for submitting your proposal! It's great to see that you're planning to work with both members of the Wikimedia movement and external partners such as the Ministry of Culture. We also appreciate your efforts to go beyond Belgrade and engage smaller communities through the Diversity program.

Your target of 1,420 new editors is very ambitious. Could you describe your strategy for reaching this number in a bit more detail?

Additionally, have you considered other strategies to retain users beyond workshops and community events?

Thank you again for taking the time to put together this application! Nataev ^talk 03:21, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Dear @Nataev,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback and for taking the time to review our annual plan proposal. We truly appreciate your constructive comments and the opportunity to provide additional clarifications.

Below we are sharing further details regarding our strategy for reaching the overall target of 1,420 new editors, as well as our long-term user-retention approach.

Strategy for reaching 1,300 new editors through the Education Program

Our target of 1,300 new editors is based on realistic projections drawn from our pre-crisis results and a gradual year-to-year growth trend. In the year before the political crisis in Serbia, the Wikipedia in Schools program alone engaged around 970 new editors, with an additional 150 participants coming from accredited seminars for teachers, 15 from the Edu Wiki Camp, as well as several interns involved through our practical training collaborations. We are also expecting to renew the accredited seminar for librarians, which traditionally brings a new group of participants into the Wikimedia ecosystem.

The lower numbers from the part of previous year and ongoing one were directly influenced by the political crisis in Serbia and the temporary inactivity of a large number of educational and cultural institutions, a factor we could not control or predict. Our current target is therefore based on the assumption that the situation will stabilize and return to the pre-crisis operational level. Once institutions resume regular functioning, we expect to restore and further expand our usual programmatic reach.

In addition to these baseline activities, we plan to strengthen our international collaboration, organize thematic editing campaigns and introduce new forms of engagement. This includes partnering with affiliates in the region, co-creating cross-border editing campaigns and involving students in thematic campaigns. Such formats tend to attract both new editors and previously inactive contributors increasing overall participation and visibility.

Our strategy for reaching 1,300 new editors includes:

1. Scaling the Wikipedia in Schools program by expanding to additional schools and supporting teachers through improved training materials, peer-learning opportunities and more flexible implementation models.
2. Strengthening accredited seminars for teachers and librarians by updating content to reflect current digital-literacy needs and promoting them through professional networks and educational institutions.
3. Expanding Edu Wiki Camps and practical training programs, incorporating more project-based learning, mentorship elements and collaboration with university departments.
4. Introducing international cooperation formats, such as joint campaigns with regional affiliates, peer-learning sessions for educators and collaborative classroom assignments between countries.
5. Organizing competitions, edit-a-thons and thematic activities that are proven to generate significant spikes in participation.
6. Providing ongoing support to educators and institutions, ensuring continuity even in cases where external circumstances temporarily disrupt standard workflows.

By combining proven program structures with new collaborative formats and targeted outreach, we believe that the goal of 1,300 new editors is ambitious but achievable under normalized institutional conditions.

Strategy for reaching the remaining 120 new editors

Beyond the Education Program, the additional 120 new editors will be engaged through our community, GLAM and Science, Diversity Program and outreach activities. Prior to the political crisis, these programs consistently attracted between 100 and 150 new participants annually, and we anticipate a return to this level of activity as institutional circumstances normalize.

This includes GLAM editing workshops, Diversity initiatives with underrepresented communities, community-driven edit-a-thons and content campaigns, as well as outreach activities in cooperation with cultural institutions and partner organizations.

Long-term strategy for user retention

In response to your question regarding retention, we would like to highlight several mechanisms we are implementing to ensure sustained engagement:

1. Structured follow-up with participants after workshops and campaigns, including guided learning pathways for beginners.
2. Mentorship and peer-support models connecting new editors with experienced community members.
3. An improved onboarding experience with tutorials, video materials and user-friendly guidance.
4. Multiple re-engagement opportunities through thematic campaigns and activities, Community events and regional collaborative initiatives.
5. Strengthened institutional partnerships that provide continuity, even during external disruptions.
6. Recognition mechanisms such as certificates, showcasing success stories and highlighting contributor impact.

By combining established program structures with expanded outreach and a more systematic approach to retention, we believe that our target of 1,420 new editors is ambitious yet achievable, provided that institutional conditions continue to stabilize.

Thank you once again for your valuable comments and for supporting our efforts. If there is any additional information or further clarification needed, we remain fully at your disposal. Gorana Gomirac (VMRS) (talk) 10:51, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved for funding in the amount of 179,184 EUR

@Gorana Gomirac (VMRS), Mickey Mystique, and Bojan Cvetanović: Congratulations! Your grant is approved for partial funding for one year in the total amount of 179,184 EUR with a grant term starting 1 January 2026 and ending 31 December 2026. Please review the Regional Fund Committee’s feedback below:

• The Regional Fund Committee noted a number of strengths in Wikimedia Serbia’s proposal, including that its effective work in education and cultural heritage, that the breadth of its partnerships is increasing into scientific institutions, and that its regional collaborations extend beyond its main metropolitan center in Belgrade. The committee also appreciates that the chapter has been able to secure some funding from partners to support its programming.

• Last year, the chapter was provided a larger increase (over 18.5%) relative to the overall regional budget increase (15%), which was awarded in part to help cover inflationary effects in Serbia. The chapter’s budget this year has staffing costs as roughly 70% of its total budget. While many programmatic activities are not typically expensive to implement, the proportion of funding needed for staffing seems unsustainable, especially if additional staff are needed in the future. While the requested increase this year was smaller (about 7.25%), the committee was not willing to support an increase given concerns around overall staffing costs. The committee requests that future funding increases for staff – whether to cover inflation or for other purposes – need to be cofunded with other funding sources, and cannot depend entirely on the General Support Fund.

• The committee recommends developing more partnerships that are tied to resourcing or fundraising opportunities. Wikimedia Serbia should look outside of Wikimedia movement institutions either within Serbia, the CEE region or EU, or internationally for such opportunities.

• One final point of feedback is that while Wikimedia Serbia’s diversity programs appear to have potential impact for on-wiki content-related outcomes, it is less clear from the proposal how the chapter will support participation from different underrepresented communities in its programmatic work.

We look forward to Wikimedia Serbia’s work and contributions to the Wikimedia movement over the next year. On behalf of the Regional Fund Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 00:25, 10 December 2025 (UTC)