Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/WoALUG 2026–2028 Multi-Year Plan of Activities

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Dear Albanian Language User Group

congratulations on submitting another great multiyear grant application. It is indeed a very ambitious application with many activities planned, but I am sure with your capacity, they will all be implemented effectively.

Just a few points to consider:

1. Under question 9.3 you mention Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Focusing on creating content about women and/or gender diverse groups, including biographies, intersectional topic areas and/or adding images, Focusing on creating content about marginalized (underrepresented) communities and their knowledge, can you please elaborate on plans to make these goals become reality please

2.Under question 12, you mention external partnerships, can you please elaborate on numbers of how many new partners you have brought in please

3.Under 19.3, you mention The main change in staffing for the upcoming year is the plan to hire two part-time staff members to support our education program. As this is a transition period, we are still assessing whether both part-time roles will be dedicated fully to education or whether one of the current roles will spend half of its time on education. do you mean one of the current roles will focus part time on education as plan B if you dont get 2 part-time staff?

4.In the previous round of grants when you submitted the application, there was a comment that said: The committee supported full funding for the proposal for this year and next year. However, the overall budget for funding in the region has grown only about 8.5% overall since last year, and funding growth next year is expected to be even smaller. The committee stresses the need to 1) prioritize your current budget carefully, 2) prepare for more modest growth in future years from General Support , and 3) to invest time into seeking other funding sources to support additional growth for your organization.

the total grant amount in the region did increase by around 8% and your requested budget is higher than this percentage. As recommended in 2023, have you considered or initiated any effort into finding other funding sources? thank you and best of luck OkutS (talk) 09:51, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello @OkutS! We thank you for your feedback and for reviewing our grant application. Please find below our responses.

1. About question 9.3

Gender and diversity have been important for us, which over the years have evolved into a mission to include in yearly activities.  

For several years, we have worked intensively to bring more women, gender-diverse participants, and marginalized communities into our Wikimedia activities by collaborating with universities, civil society organizations, interest groups, and community events. Because of this experience, we will continue working on these goals and expanding the number of participants.

Some of the approaches we have used, and we will continue to use, are:

• We will approach and invite women participants from different events, LGBT+ organizations and communities, university departments, and organizations that work with marginalized communities.
• We will follow up and keep working with partners that work with the gender-diverse themes, embassies, organizations, and educational institutions that include marginalized communities.

For example:

1. Inclusion of more women in educational activities
2. Gender diverse topics regarding topics of WikiGap, Roma International Day, LGBT+, etc
3. Inclusion of underrepresented or marginalized groups such as people with learning disabilities.

• We have so far collaborated with different partners and stakeholders, to create and improve content about women, gender-diverse topics through biographies, images, and Wikidata items. Topics such as STEM, women in journalism, women that have inspired other women.
• Making sure that every event offers a safe and supportive space so that participants feel respected and appreciated. We have incorporated the Event Code of Conduct. In events for underrepresented groups events we have guided the community to use safe usernames and always fact-check the input information about the underrepresented and marginalized groups.

Here are some examples of our ongoing work:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/Celebrating_10_years_of_the_Wikimedians_of_Albanian_Language_User_Group

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Albania_report

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/May_2025/Contents/Albania_report

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2025/Contents/Albania_report

2. About question 12

Over the past 2 years, we have worked hard to bring in 36 partnerships within 3 programs. These partnerships include universities, non-governmental organizations, cultural institutions, and target group communities.

Education

1. 13 new school partners in Albania and Kosovo
2. 8 university partners in both countries

GLAM

4 GLAM institutions in Albania and Kosovo

1. Skampa Theater in Albania
2. General Directorate of Archives in Albania
3. Museum of Mitrovica, Kosovo
4. Ethnographic Museum in Elbasan, Albania

Youth, community organizations, and international collaborations

1. 5 youth centers in Albania with youth groups, educational outreach for the first time in 2025
2. 1 LGBT organization and lgbt community
3. 2 partners and the community from the Roma and Egyptian communities in Albania and Kosovo, with Cikat n'STEM in Kosovo and Klaudio Taho in Albania.
4. TOKA, an educational partner organization in Kosovo
5. Collaborations with 2 Peace Corps Volunteers in Albania for educational purposes

3. About question 19.3

Our aim is to have two part-time staff in addition to the two full-time staff we already have. In this setup, the current staff can continue with current activities while development and activities of the Teach with Wikipedia programme we are launching next year will be handled by this part-time staff. Eventually, these positions will be expanded to full time and be dedicated fully to the Education pillar as the one with most potential for our UG.

4. About last question

We are continuously looking into other sources of funding. However, a balance has to be made between the applying and reporting overhead and the size of the grants available to us. For 2026 and beyond the goal is that the rest of the funding for part timers is secured from other sources so they may become full time. Vyolltsa (talk) 20:31, 17 November 2025 (UTC)