Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2024-2025/Goals/Effectiveness
Strengthen performance and effectiveness
Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt our processes for maximum impact with more limited resources.
To respond to a rapidly changing world, we need an effective and resilient organization committed to delivering the maximum impact possible, given our resources and role as responsible stewards of donor funds. Movement Strategy recommendation #10 guides us to "adapt to meet new and altered situations and challenges by adopting policies and procedures based upon evaluations of the changing Movement and the changing world." This is what we set out to accomplish in the Foundation's Effectiveness Goal.
Last year, the Foundation advanced our Enterprise Risk Management program by identifying the highest risks to the Foundation and mitigation plans for these risks. We harmonized our translation and interpretation program which allowed us to grow from 6 to 34 languages translated and from 0 to 9 interpreted while reducing costs. We deployed new workflows and systems to power our work that will lead to higher service levels and sustained costs, including a new HR system and a new tool and workflow for staff travel. We refreshed our organizational values and embedded them into our recruiting process so we can continue to attract the best talent. We also continued to develop and support our employee resource groups.
This year, the Foundation will continue developing a more diversified revenue strategy to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of our mission. We are focusing our people and strengthening our processes to improve performance and effectiveness. This will enable us to deliver the maximum impact towards our mission with our resources.
This work is informed in part by the following External Trend:
- Search: Consumers are inundated with information, and want it aggregated by trusted people.
As consumers increasingly shift how they search for and consume content online, it is becoming more difficult to raise funds through the primary revenue banner stream that has traditionally funded Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement. Ensuring the financial sustainability of our mission is a core responsibility of the Wikimedia Foundation, so we will continue to commit to making the best and most efficient possible use of our funds. (See the financial section below for information on the Wikimedia Foundation's financial model, our goals to raise our annual fund, and how we're investing in long-term revenue initiatives like the Wikimedia Endowment and Wikimedia Enterprise.)
The Talking: 2024 conversations we've been having with movement entities also highlighted the need for multi-year financial certainty in financial support from the Foundation. This year we will work to ensure affiliates are well-positioned to engage in multi-year budgeting and planning. We will work directly with the Regional Funds Committees to offer a three-year view of the Foundation's grantmaking budget, and make joint decisions on how movement funds should be distributed over the next three years.
Centering our people to enhance staff experience
[edit]Compensating and developing our staff is the Foundation's biggest financial investment. Of course, enabling our staff to do their best work goes beyond financial remuneration. We want our staff to enjoy their work and be able to focus on advancing our mission, not navigating our systems. Investments made to improve our staff experience increase both individual and team productivity, and thus the Foundation's overall effectiveness. In the year ahead, we will continue to complete comprehensive evaluations of our HR offerings, policies, procedures and experiences and make impactful changes where needed. We are currently exploring initiatives to strengthen managerial capabilities, align our performance management system with our compensation structures and further embed our values and DEI best practices into our policies, practices and processes. Our goal is not only to make sure that everyone feels valued, heard, and integral to our collective success, but also to enrich our workplace and empower our staff to thrive.
Evolve processes and the way we work to strengthen our effectiveness
[edit]Our workflows, systems, and cycles serve as operational tools to help us complete our work efficiently and effectively. Part of our efforts to build an effective organization is to evaluate, iterate, and adapt processes, infrastructure, and ways of working for the maximum impact of our resources. In the year ahead, we will work to:
- Improve fundraising infrastructure, making our current and future fundraising efforts more effective and efficient.
- Further develop our Enterprise Risk Management program to fully integrate risk management activities into our daily operations and measures.
- Provide operational support to staff, including meeting in person and virtual gathering needs as we continue to evolve as a globally distributed organization across 50+ countries. This includes moving to a smaller office as our lease ends in 2024, and identifying more flexible and cost-efficient options for in person convenings.
- Evolve our quarterly review and decision-making cycles to better serve our annual plan goals.
Every goal in the annual plan is supported by Product and Technology work.
The OKRs below detail Product and Technology work that will happen in service of the Effectiveness goal:
- Product and Engineering Support objective 1 and its key results: 1, 2, 3, and 4.