Grants:APG/Proposals/2017-2018 round 1/Wikimedia Israel/Proposal form

Proposal by Wikimedia Israel to support its annual plan with 1,075,000 ILS.

Our work plan for 2018 is characterized by stabilization of our current activities and development of new activity directions. We will continue to examine the mix of continuity and innovation in the strategic planning process that will take place during the second half of 2018 and will be based on the the Wikimedia movement’s strategic direction, which is being written these days.


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A few terms used in the form:

FDC proposal form terms Wikimedia terms Learning & Evaluation terms

Overview edit

1. In order to support community review, please provide a brief description of your organization's work in the upcoming funding period.

Our work plan for 2018 is characterized by stabilization of our current activities and development of new activity directions.

Stabilization edit

 
Wikimedia Israel celebrates its 10th anniversary - 6/9/2017
  • Staff: Every organization seeks stability and continuity. In recent years, WMIL suffered from a high level of employee turnover, as five employees left the organization (three held the community coordinator position, one held the position of education coordinator for Arabic language, and one held the academic coordinator position). These frequent changes of staff members slowed down the organization’s activity and consumed much of the staff’s time, as well as the time of the board, as they had to devote more of it to recruitment and training. In the past four months we recruited new employees to the following positions: academic coordinator, administration coordinator, community coordinator and education coordinator for Arabic language. All new coordinators are highly motivated, so the current staff is cohesive and fully committed. In an attempt to acheive better employee retention, the board has approved salary raises to all coordinators from mid-2018, based on performance. It should be noted that the basic salary in WMIL is less than the average salary in Israel. In addition, we will make an effort to allow the team to participate more in the international activity, by attending the movement’s conferences, presenting WMIL's activity there, and enhancing their relations with their counterparts abroad.
  • Activity:The program 'Students Write Wikipedia' (Hebrew), our day-to-day relations with the he-wp community, and the academic article writing program, all work as planned. In 2018 we will slightly expand the activities and outputs of these programs. As far as the Arabic-language education program is concerned, it is important that we enhance our existing collaborations and increase the level of independence of teachers who lead content-producing projects in classrooms. In the academia, a change in the method of work requires attention to see whether it works in practice, hoping that only minor adjustment will be necessary in the future.
  • Relations with the he-wp community continue, based on trust and partnership. Any change in the nature of activities will be made with the community’s approval.

Growth and new audiences edit

 
Wikimedia Israel 10th anniversary - Winners of the Wikimedia Awards for the promotion of open knowledge in Israel

The development process of new programs and exposure to new audiences is divided into long-term and short-term activities.

  • Long-term - Enhancing and expanding existing activities:
In 2017, we began a project with senior citizens, which seems to have a lot of potential. With the support of a local philanthropic foundation, we will hold four courses for senior citizens this year. The objective is to produce high-quality content, as well as integrating as many of them as possible in the activities of the Wikipedia and Wikimedia communities. Up until now, the products from both courses were below par. However, 30% of the participants continued to edit, though not very frequently, and joined various WMIL activities.
Another activity that started recently is WikKaytana '(kaytana - a summer camp in Hebrew). During the last week of the summer vacation, we held at WMIL's offices a meet-up of young Wikipedians (aged 10-17). The meet-up was organized by the community coordinator and two young Wikipedians. Its goal was to bring together young editors and encourage their editing activity. The meet-up was attended by nine youngsters (eight boys and one girl). A month after, a request came to hold another such meet-up in October. We see in this activity a potential to empower the next generation of editors and to encourage some of the Hebrew-language education programs’ participants to join the group. We intent to make these meet-ups regular scheduled ones.
Increasing the use of the translation tool - Up until now, few workshops have been held for usage of the translation tool. Most of them were attended by editors of different editing skills. In 2018 we intend to hold two-session workshops for learning how to use the translation tool and other editing tools and how to integrate the translated article in Wikipedia.
The 'Students Write Wikipedia' program in Arabic is the biggest success of 2017. Half a year after being launched, the program meets its goals. The interest of students and teachers proved beyond doubt that the target audience is willing to embark on it. The philanthropic foundation that finances the entire program invited WMIL to submit a request for funding for another two years (!) One of the major challenges we face is the lack of supporting community of volunteers. Therefore, we developed a follow-up program that aims to train several high-performance students in every school to act as Wikipedia ambassadors. In addition, for the first time in Israel, a Wikipedia editing course for Arabic-speaking adults will be held. We hope that these activities will provide the basis for a group of Arabic-speaking editors.
  • Long-term - New directions in known fields:
Our activities in schools and academic institutes revealed that librarians played a major role in the article writing programs. In several schools and in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, librarians showed great interest in joining the program, especially in the preliminary source finding stage. The fact that the WMF expanded its activities in this direction, also encouraged us to check this option in Israel too. In mid-2017, we started to send appeals to foundations in order to obtain financial resources for this project (we acted in a similar way to secure funds for the Arabic-language programs). If we are able to recruit the necessary funds, we hope to start planning courses for librarians in high-schools, and in public and academic libraries during 2018. In the meantime, we will continue to support and encourage local cooperations.
Collaborations with GLAM organizations started in Israel in 2012, mainly based on initiatives from WMIL volunteers. Lately, we see a change, as various bodies have taken the initiative and appeal to us to examine options for cooperation. We hope this is the start of a new trend in Israel regarding the release of free-license materials that is compatible with Wikipedia’s requirements.
  • We will continue to examine the mix of continuity and innovation in the strategic planning process that will take place during the second half of 2018 and will be based on the the Wikimedia movement’s strategic direction, which is being written these days.



2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
  • Legal name of organization: Wikimedia Israel
  • Organization's fiscal year: 01/01-31/12
  • 12-month funding period requested: 01/01/18-31/12/18
  • Currency requested: LIS
  • Name of primary contact: Michal Lester Levy


3. Amount requested.

Table 1

Currency requested US$
Total expenses for the upcoming year 1,644,220 458,010
APG funding requested for the upcoming year 1,075,000 299,398
Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year 860,000 226,979


4. How does your organization know what community members and contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments or consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?

For several years now, WMIL conducts very good relations with the community of he-wp editors. WMIL organizes several social gatherings for he-wp editors every year, including summer and winter meet-ups attended by 60-70 Wikipedians, social gatherings, editing meet-ups and various events for specific occasions. Some of these events are organized upon the initiative of the editors themselves, who contact WMIL directly to obtain support. Other events are organized directly by the WMIL staff. Most of the long-standing editors have met members of the WMIL staff face to face and have regular contact with the organization, including with the executive director, sending questions and suggestions. Following the expansion of activity, a trend started in the second half of 2017 and expected to continue throughout 2018, we expect further cooperation and fruitful contact between WMIL and the community of editors also during 2018.

In April 2017, a community coordinator started to work at WMIL, who is also an active Wikipedian and an administrator on he-wp. His activity is focused, among other things, in maintaining continuous day-to-day contact between WMIL and the community of editors (long-standing as well as newcomers), through discussion pages, e-mail, phone calls and personal meetings, in order to allow editors to raise suggestions, ideas and various questions in which WMIL can provide help. The community coordinator also follows the discussion pages of the he-wp community on a daily basis, as well as the Hebrew Wikipedians’ closed facebook group and other relevant platforms. In addition to the various social activities organized by WMIL (conferences, talks, social gatherings etc), it also holds two monthly editing meet-ups for the community of developers on he-wp and for the WikiWomen community, which is active on Wikipedia. These monthly meet-ups, attended by central editors of the he-wp community (including one of the he-wp bureaucrats and several administrators), form another open platform that offers WMIL an opportunity to listen and understand what the editors need, and act upon these needs within the limits of our organizational competence.

During 2014, WMIL chose to focus on reviving the Hebrew Wiktionary project, which, at the time, suffered from a very low number of edits per month and a single-digit number of editors. During the past three years, a tight continuous cooperation has been formed with most of he-wiktionary’s active editors. There is a particularly tight cooperation with the project’s bureaucrat, and constant contact between the community coordinator and him in various subjects. As of today, WMIL is involved in all of the various processes taking place in the project. The community coordinator, in addition to his direct contact with the bureaucrat, constantly follows the various discussions at the project’s village pump and the talk pages of its major editors. During the past six months, WMIL closely follows and supports the process of rethinking the best methods to expand activity. Final decisions are expected by the end of 2017.


5. Please provide a link to your organization's strategic plan, and a link to your separate annual plans for the current and upcoming funding periods if you have them.

Financials: current year edit

The purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is receiving funds and spending funds toward your current plan. Your current funding period is the funding period now in progress (e.g. 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 for most organizations).


Table 2

Financials for the current funding period
Revenues or expenses Planned (budgeted) Actual, until one month before the proposal due date Projected
Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars
Revenues (from all sources) 1,328,400 350,605 1,252,784 330,647 1,430,384 377,521
Expenses 1,347,100 355,540 818,246 215,960 1,347,100 355,540

Table 2 notes:

  • There is a ILS 25,000 remainder which comes from a private donation of ILS 11,000 and a donation from an Israeli foundation of ILS 14,000.


Programs: upcoming year's annual plan edit

This section is about your organization's programs. A program is a defined set of activities that share the same objectives and a similar theory of change. Please share the general goal of each program, and then list the specific objectives that the program will meet. Please do not include information about your organization's operating activities in this section. You may provide information about activities like administration, staff and board training, fundraising, governance, and internal IT in another section or in a supplementary document, but please do not include these activities here as programs.

1. For each program, and overall
  • Include targets for each of the three shared measures for each program, and overall. If one or more of these required metrics are not relevant to any of your programs, please consult your program officer.
  • Also choose at least two grantee-defined metrics to highlight in this section, and include targets for each of these grantee-defined metrics for each program, and overall. (Other program-specific metrics may be included in your program objectives, in the detailed program sections below.)


Table 3

Shared metrics

  1. Participants: The number of people who attend your events, programs or activities, either in person or virtually. This definition does not include people organizing activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
  2. Newly registered: The number of participants that create new accounts on a Wikimedia project. These include users who register up to two weeks before the start of the event.
  3. Content pages: A content page is an article on Wikipedia, an item on Wikidata, a content page on Wikisource, an entry on Wiktionary, and a media file on Commons, etc. This metric captures the total number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects.

Grantee-defined metrics

  1. A - First index of choice:
  2. B - Second index of choice:
Program Participants Newly registered Content pages A - First index of choice B - Second index of choice
Community Support: Hebrew Wikipedia 650 200 500 articles, 150 images, and 5,500 WikiGnomings 80 continuous editors 300 unique participants in face-to-face activities
Hebrew Wiktionary 25 18 150 Participants in WMIL activities from the Wiktionary community - 30 Number of participants in training courses - 18
Developers' meet-ups 80 20 N/A Number of completed projects - 3
Local Wiki-Arabic Group 15 15 20 Number of follow-up sessions / activities that participants will attend - 4 Number of participants who edit more than one article - 5
Education: Middle & High schools (Hebrew) 2,500 1000 840; 510 articles and 330 images Content retention - Three months after upload, at least 90% of the content is kept, with only minor changes. Continued cooperation -
  • Teachers’ training: both partners organizations (CET and MOE)
  • 'Students Write Wikipedia': Three umbrella organizations + 7 educational organizations
  • 'Students Phototgraph Wikipedia' and 'Students Write Wiktionary': at least 50% of partner organizations
Education: Arabic-speaking high-schools 140 60 110 No. of school who join the program - 4 No. of schools continued to the next academic year - 4
Higher Education 1,100 650 650 No. of newly-joined professors - 12 No. of professors continued to the next academic year - 15
Training Curriculum Development and Training Team 55 volunteers 500 Wikipedia courseware users 400 new articles + significant expansions Number of training tools developed or improved - 10 Number of volunteers and partners who have been initiated exposure to training tools - 45
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 4,565 2,463 2,340 articles; 480 images; 5,500 Wikignomings;

Total: 8,320


Changing the index of article quality evaluation

Following changes to the methods of evaluation in the movement, we were asked to define for ourselves one index of success.

For some of our programs, we chose the index of “article quality”, out of conviction that the main strength of our programs, namely the quality of the products, was not fully reflected in the reports we submitted in the past.

Following a long process, we developed a tool for evaluation of article quality. It is based on human evaluation rather than computer-generated evaluation. The evaluators use a guiding table and grade each article in various fields, such as content, structure, etc.

We conducted workshops for our staff and volunteers to examine the tool and improve it in an effort to achieve consistency among different evaluators.

However, at the end of the process, we feel unfortunately that we have to abandon this direction for the following reasons:

  1. For a reliable evaluation, the evaluators must attend a long training workshop. Each article must be evaluated by two evaluators, so we can verify that the difference is not too big. Finally, the whole process is more time consuming than we expected.
  2. The evaluation process is not appealing for volunteers, as it involves monotonous tedious work. Since our workforce is based primarily on volunteers, we will not be able to carry out this evaluation process.

We suggest a different index, which is much easier to collect: successful retention of contents in Wikimedia projects during a period of three months after their upload. We suggest a threshold of 90% successful retention as an indicator that the content were of sufficient quality.

Our suggestion is based on the fact that the he-wp community is very vigilant and tends to quickly remove contents of low quality.



2. Please list your goals and objectives for each program. Please be sure your objectives meet all three criteria for each program
  • The objectives listed are each SMART: specific, measurable, attainable and relevant, and include time-bound targets.
  • Include both qualitative targets and quantitative targets, and remember to highlight your baseline metrics.
  • Provide any additional information that is important to our understanding of this program. For example, you may include needs assessments, logic models, timelines, tables, or charts. Share how this program will contribute more broadly to movement learning, or explain how your program aligns with important Wikimedia priorities such as increasing participation and improving content on the Wikimedia projects.


Community Support edit


Hebrew Wikipedia edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Continuous No of unique participants
Community Support: Hebrew Wikipedia 650 200 500 articles, 150 images, and 5,500 WikiGnomings 80 300


Continuous Editor - A new editor that participated in one of WMIL's activities and continued editing for two months after being recontacted.

Number of unique participants in face to face activities.


The Current Situation edit

 
Hebrew Wikipedia annual summer picnic - July 2017

Approaching the end of 2017, the relations between WMIL and Wikipedia editors are characterized by cooperation and mutual trust. Most of the long-standing editors of he-wp are acquainted with WMIL and its activities and turn to it with questions and various suggestions. In addition, WMIL initiates contact with many editors on Wikipedia in various fields, to receive help in various activities and for brainstorming and fruitful exchange of views in various fields of interest.

WMIL constantly receives a large number of appeals, questions and suggestions sent by readers and new editors on Wikipedia. The first contact between these editors and us is often created through long-standing editors, who choose to direct them to WMIL for guidance and consultation owing to their acquaintance with the organization and their appreciation. For example, a contact has recently been made between WMIL and a reporter of the daily Haaretz, upon the initiative of a long-standing Wikipedian who is also a Wikimedia volunteer. This contact led to a lecture given by the reporter at WMIL’s offices to a group of Wikipedians.

Another example of the cooperation between Wikipedia editors and the WMIL staff is the Wikipedia writing competitions. These competitions were originally an initiative of the he-wp community. Several competitions in various fields, led by Wikipedians, have been held over the years. In 2013, WMIL started to help in organizing the competitions. Gradually, WMIL took upon itself the organizing and managing of these writing competitions. This process was carried out with the consent of the editors community. Today, there are several writing competitions every year, and they are very fruitful. The last competition, for example, marked 50 years to the Six Day War. Several long-standing editors helped to create a list of articles for the competition and also provided technical solutions and advice to participants, in order to increase their number and facilitate the management of the competition.

Goals and Objectives edit

 
Lecture about Wikipedia and science at WMIL's offices - July 2017
Desired change: Strengthen and tighten of the cooperation between WMIL and the community of editors, while increasing the number of Wikipedians who take part in WMIL activities.
  • Creating deeper contact and cooperation with the he-wp community through meetings, joint leading of projects, and providing support for sub-groups of the community.
  • Expanding the high-quality content on he-wp through reaching new audiences and retaining relations with them.
  • Retaining relations with some 80 participants in various activities of WMIL in order to encourage them to keep editing.
The Wikipedia community edit

We will continue to maintain close contact with the he-wp community and to provide assistance in various activities, in order to expand the community and create free content. We will continue to cater for the day-to-day needs of the community members based on their will and our organizational competence. We will initiate and promote various activities aimed at creating free content on he-wp, and we will act constantly to train new editors based on the editing rules of he-wp.

Planned activities:

  • Launching three writing competitions on Wikipedia during 2018 (in March, July and November). In each competition, at least 50 articles will be written, and at least 40 editors will participate, 20 of which will be new.
  • Holding five editors’ meet-ups throughout the year with at least eight participants in each.
  • Launching the yearly “category drive” during May-June, in which 5000 articles will be categorized.
  • Holding the traditional summer and winter meet-ups of the Hebrew Wikipedia.
  • Managing the Wiki Loves Monuments competition in October/November 2018.
WikiWomen edit

We will continue to support the WikiWomen community on-line and off-line, based on its needs as raised by the group’s leaders. We will continue to hold monthly meetings at WMIL’s offices.

Planned activities:

 
Wikimedia Israel strategic process meet-up - April 2017
  • Hosting 10 monthly meetings and two social gatherings throughout the year, in which at least 60 female editors will take part.
  • Starting an online course for women in coordination with the project’s leader (still under discussion).
  • In coordination with the WikiWomen group, we will hold on he-wp special content-creation activity for the International Women’s Day, which will produce at least 30 new articles.

New audiences

Senior citizens edit

In 2017 we started to engage this target audience. In May-June 2017, two courses were held, attended by 27 senior citizens. In November-December 2017 two additional courses will be held. This activity was characterized by a very high retention rate: about 30% of the participants took part in other WMIL activities. Nevertheless, some improvement is required in the amount of resulting products. Some of the participants had difficulties in editing by themselves. A special stuctured training was required to allow them to continue editing independently. Despite the small amount of products, there seem to be a lot of interest among senior citizens. We estimate that with some improvement in the training method, we will achieve better results.

Planned activities:

  • Training 100 senior citizens in six courses during 2018. They will improve 200 articles. Retention of 30% of the participants, who will join future activities.
Young Wikipedians edit

In 2017, two meet-ups of young editors were held (aged 10-17). The initiative came from the community coordinator, who organized the first meet-up with two young editors. The goal was to bring together the young editors, to encourage editing and to foster the next generation of the Hebrew Wikipedia. We intend to invite to these meet-ups also students who took part in the 'Students Write Wikipedia' program and continued to edit.

Planned activities:

  • Young editors’ meet-ups - 3-4 meet-ups during the year, with 6-9 participants in every meet-up.
  • Finding young editors throughout the year and inviting them to the meet-ups.
Meetings of translation and interest groups edit

The translation tools brings about new opportunities for creating new content on Wikipedia. During the year, we will hold meetings to expose the translation tool, as well as courses for audiences underrepresented in Wikimedia communities, or not well represented in he-wp articles.

Planned activities:

  • Launch of two article-translation courses in April and October 2018 (each includes two sessions). At least 10 articles will be translated in every course. At least 3 participants continue to translate at least one more article each.
  • 2-3 Wikipedia editing course for interest groups - 10 participants in each course. At least 10 articles will be written or expanded. 10% of the participants will continue to edit after the course.
  • Constant follow-up of the activity of editors who took part in WMIL activities.

Hebrew Wiktionary edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Participants in WMIL activities from the Wiktionary community Number of participants in training courses
Community Support: Hebrew Wiktionary 25 18 150 30 18



The Current Situation edit

Approaching the end of 2017, the he-wiktionary community has a low number of editors with relatively high level of activity. WMIL’s main objective for 2018 is therefore to work hand in hand with the active editors and to agree on the actions that should be taken to increase the number of editors, without compromising the quality of the entries. During the past few months, we have conducted constant dialogue with the editors of he-wiktionary in an attempt to reach a decision on the best way to achieve this objective. Possible directions are: an editing course for he-wiktionary, recruiting editors from he-wp, recruiting programmers who will introduce changes and technical adjustments that will help the long-standing editors as well as better orientation of newcomers. In previous years, we had some success in recruiting new editors through editing courses. A bot was written in cooperation with a volunteer - she was part of the developers’ group.

In 2018, the 'Students Write Wikipedia' program will expand to include he-wiktionary, as students will start writing entries.

Our biggest challenge this year will be to find the most efficient way to act within he-wiktionary. For this end, we will continue our close cooperation with the he-wiktionary editors and the representative of the Academy of the Hebrew Language who follows the he-wiktionary activity in recent years.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: To help expand and stabilize the he-wiktionary community - recruiting new editors and increasing the level of activity in the project.
  • Strengthening and stabilizing the he-wiktionary community through constant support for active editors and constant contact between the editors and WMIL’s community coordinator, also through face-to-face meetings.
  • Support for creating content in he-wiktionary through training editors, competitions and other activities.

Planned activities:

  • Starting a Wiktionary editing course - beginning or middle of 2018, at least 18 participants. 80% will finish the course. 60 new entries will be written.
  • Inviting he-wp editors to take part in Wiktionary activities.
  • Supporting three social or professional gatherings.
  • Joining the he-wiktionary community with the developers’ community to work together on 2-3 technological issues.
  • Following day-to-day activity and sending welcome messages to newcomers by the community coordinator.

Developers' meet-ups edit


Program Participants Newly registered Number of completed projects
Developers' meet-ups 80 20 3



The Current Situation edit

 
Lecture on the "Wikimedia Track" at the August Penguin Conference, September 2017

In 2016 we hosted the international Wikimedia hackathon, which was very successful, but did not result in an expansion of the local developers’ community. For about a year and a half we have been holding monthly developers’ meet-ups, which are attended by 4-5 regular developers, who are also members of the he-wp community. During these meet-ups, the developers work on their own projects. During the past few months, the community coordinator worked to increase the number of participants in every meet-up. One of the ways was leading a track at the major conference of the Israeli open-code community, August Pinguin. Another way was inviting he-wp editors with technological orientation to the meet-ups.

Besides the recruitment of new participants, a “wishlist” is being formed with the help of an active participants in these meet-ups. We will present this wishlist to the developers at the end of the year. Owing to the many challenges, we chose to focus this year on three major quantitative indices: the number of participants in the meet-ups, the number of new developers who will join the group, and, most importantly from our point of view, creating a wishlist that will be handled by the group. Working on the same wishlist will prove that the group is consolidated and works together.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: Increasing the number of members in the groups of developers, increasing the number of tasks handled in each meet-up based on predetermined wishlist.
  • Forming an active developers’ group which takes part and helps in Wikimedia communities’ activities.
  • Creating a wishlist, a list of development tasks, in collaboration with the group.

Planned activities:

  • 10 developers’ meet-ups during the year at WMIL’s offices.
  • Forming a wishlist in full collaboration with the volunteers and based on the needs raised by the communities of Wiktionary, Wikisource and other projects.
  • Inviting more Wikipedians with technological orientation to join the meet-ups, based on the wishlist.
  • Participating in competitions and other free-content-oriented activities in Israel, while presenting WMIL and inviting people to join the community of editors.
  • Examining an option to cooperate with academic institutes - having programming tasks as student assignments.
  • Organizaing a local Wikimedia hackathon in the second quarter, attended by at least 40 developers.

Local Wiki-Arabic Group edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Number of follow-up sessions / activities that participants will attend Number of participants who edit more than one article
Local Wiki-Arabic Group 15 15 15 4 5


The Current Situation edit

Up until now, WMIL’s activity in Arabic was limited to Arabic-speaking schools. In 2018 we will work to expand our activity and respond to the existing need with our available measures. The number of editors on ar-wp in general, and particularly in Israel, is not high compared with the overall number of Arabic speakers. There are also subjects and fields that are not well covered on ar-wp, whereas large groups of Arabic speakers in Israel can contribute significantly in these fields, such as groups of retired people with academic background and expertise.

Goals and Objectives edit

During the first quarter of 2018, we will recruit a group of 10-15 such people to start a Wikipedia editing course in Arabic. Follow-up meetings will be held after the course to enhance editing skills and consolidate the group of editors.

Planned activities:

  • Recruiting at least 10 adults for an Arabic-speaking Wikipedia editing course in Arraba.
  • Each participant will write or significantly expand at least two articles.
  • 25% of the participants will continue to edit in the following three months.
  • At least 20% will take part in follow-up activities (editors’ meet-up, volunteering in schools etc).

Education edit


Programs in Hebrew (Middle & High schools) edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Content retention Continued cooperation
Education: Middle & High schools (Hebrew) 2,500 1000 840; 510 articles and 330 images Three months after upload, at least 90% of the content is kept, with only minor changes.
  • Teachers’ training: both partners organizations (CET and MOE)
  • 'Students Write Wikipedia': Three umbrella organizations + 7 educational organizations
  • 'Students Photograph Wikipedia' and 'Students Write Wiktionary': at least 50% of partner organizations


The Current Situation edit

 
Teachers workshop at the Israeli Center for Educational Technology

The educational program in Hebrew currently includes three main tracks, as follows:

  • Online training seminars for teachers - online training to encourage teachers to make intelligent pedagogic use of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. This track is running for the third year, with hundreds of teachers participating. In the 2016-2017 school year the program expanded, such that it now includes the original basic training, that puts an emphasis on wise consumption of the content on Wikipedia and other WMF projects, and a more advanced training teaching how to actively create content. Our partners in this track are the Israel Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Center for Educational Technology (CET). CET is responsible for operating the training seminars, while the MOE acts as a supervisory and regulatory body, with WMIL supporting and directing the process. Naturally, we have a limited degree of control over the timetables and the scope of the training. Nevertheless, our collaboration with the partner organizations is well established, and we work together with the partners to continually improve the quality of the training and its suitability to the teachers' needs in the field, as well as to increase the number of participants.
 
Students and teachers celebrate the completion of a 'Student Write Wikipedia' project in the Leo Baeck Center, Haifa
  • Students Write Wikipedia - in this track, junior-high and high-school students create new articles, significantly expand articles and Wikignome in Hebrew Wikipedia. The program is now in its fifth year, and currently encompasses around 20 projects across the country, in various scopes. Since the establishment of the program five years ago, the program has greatly expanded and diversified. For example, in terms of participants there was a five-fold increase in the past three years, and the number of articles written or expanded grew by a factor of almost 10. This is due, among other things, to the transition from projects led by a small group of volunteers, to initiatives based on teacher leadership; diversity of areas of knowledge in which the programs are integrated; the variety of teaching tasks offered in the various programs; the persistence of partners over the years, and the expansion of continuing collaborations from year to year. We feel that given the manpower and financial resources we have, the program has reached the upper limit of the number of pages of content produced each year.
 
'Students Photograph Wikipedia' final exhbition
  • Students Photograph Wikipedia (AKA 'Valued Images') - a track in which high-school photography students compete to create high-quality images, upload them to Wikimedia Commons, and integrate them into Wikipedia's article namespace. This program took place for the first time in the 2016-2017 school year, in the form of a limited pilot program. The pilot was very successful, leading to a decision to continue the program in 2017-2018, while increasing the number of schools and students participating in it by at least 2 times.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: Growth in the scope of the education section in the Hebrew language, while:
  1. Streamlining the utilization of resources invested in the section in order to facilitate its future expansion;
  2. Diversifying teaching tasks and participating target audiences.

Planned activities:

  • Online training seminars for teachers
  • Continue to provide guidance and support for the training, striving to achieve the following goals:
  • 200 teachers will complete the basic course
  • 40 significant article expansions will be created by participants in the advanced course
  • Students Write Wikipedia
  • Students from 30-40 classes will produce or expand at least 430 articles in the Hebrew Wikipedia during the 2017-2018 school year.
  • Three educational umbrella organizations and seven additional educational organizations will continue to cooperate in the 2018-2019 school year.
  • The utilization of the program’s resources will be improved by the preservation and expansion of quality cooperation (such as those with a high cost-benefit ratio, and having social and educational added value).
  • Starting in the spring of 2018: Preparations for a moderate expansion of activity in the 2018-2019 school year
  • Students Photograph Wikipedia
  • Photography students from at least three classes will upload 330 photos of their work to Wikimedia Commons and integrate at least 240 of them into Wikipedia (or other WMF projects)
  • Students Write Wiktionary
  • Launch a first pilot for the program (including evaluation, conclusions and adjustments)
  • Students create 40 entries in the Hebrew Wiktionary (in the pilot itself and in the next round)

Programs in Arabic (High schools) edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages No. of school who join the program No. of schools continued to the next academic year
Education: High schools (Arabic) 140 60 110 4 4


The Current Situation edit

 
Lecture to students about writing in Arabic wikipedia at Umm al-Fahm school


The education project in Arabic-speaking schools began in October 2016. During the first period, a mapping of contents missing in Arabic was done, and a list of 500 article topics prepared. At the same time, the program was presented in 14 different schools, and in the 2016-2017 school year we launched the project in 8 schools: Nazareth, Umm Al Fahm, Taibeh (three schools), Tamra, Baqa and Bustan Almarj. By the end of the school year, in June 2017, 110 students participated in the activity, contributing to the creation of 55 new articles ​​and three article expansions. Some schools suggested and then wrote articles ​​related to their environment, and their city’s history and heritage. In Nazareth, for example, students wrote about buildings in the city: the Anglican Church, the German Cemetery and the Salizian Church. In a school Taibe the project was integrated into the English language education program, with students translating Wikipedia articles on geology and geography from English to Arabic. For example the climate of Egypt, and the geology of India.

At the end of the school year, we expanded our cooperation with the ORT school network, with whom WMIL has an extensive collaboration, and teachers from two schools underwent a six-meeting training. During the summer teachers encouraged their students to write articles. In addition, as part of the effort to build the infrastructure for activities in Arabic, we met with librarians and educators from the National Library, with the aim of integrating to the project a visit to the library and using online databases to write Wikipedia articles.

During the summer there was also activity in the city of Tamra. Gifted students learned to edit Wikipedia, as part of enrichment activities, and wrote 10 new articles. The group was led by a teacher who received training and guidance from WMIL. As the activity was deemed successful, we hope to continue our activities in Tamra in the 2017-2018 school year.

International Women’s Day Competition: As part of the International Women's Day activities, we launched a local contest for writing articles in Arabic about “The women you never met”, in which six new articles were written on women. The winner in competition was a student from Baqa al-Gharbiyye. The winning of a student reinforces our assessment that there is a great potential among students, and Arabic speakers in general, to contribute quality content to Arabic Wikipedia.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: Strengthening and expanding activity in Arabic-speaking schools to create local quality content in Arabic Wikipedia, and nurturing active editors with the aim of building an active local editors community.
  • The Arabic 'Students Write Wikipedia' will operate in at least 10 schools, and will result in the writing or expansion of 110 articles in the Arabic Wikipedia
  • Development and implementation of the Wikipedia Ambassadors Program in half the schools where the 'Students Write' Wikipedia operates

The 'Students Write Wikipedia' program will continue in the 2017-2018 school year. Preparatory activities have already begun with the opening of the school year in September 2017.

This year, five schools were selected to continue the program (in Baka al-Gharbia, Taibeh and Nazareth), and two new schools from northern and central Israel have joined. During the course of the year we intend to deal with subjects that are familiar to the students' content world and relate to the life of Arab society in Israel. The students and teachers, together with the WMIL team, will formulate unique lists of topics for articles ​​that are compatible with the locality and its physical and human environment.

We are looking into the possibility of integrating the 'Students Write Wikipedia' program into the community-social activities that 10th graders are committed to in all schools in Israel. The students are required to perform 80 hours of volunteering in the community as a condition for receiving the high school diploma. Integration into this activity will lead to students mastering Wikipedia editing and will significantly increase their contribution to Wikipedia in Arabic. Integration into community-social activities requires approval from the schools and the local authority, and of course, the recruiting students to the program.

Wikipedia Ambassadors

One of the biggest challenges we face is the lack of active volunteers in Arabic. The best way to deal with the situation is to train students who have shown interest and abilities as ambassadors in their schools and thus begin building a local community of users and editors in Wikipedia. At the end of the school year (June 2018), a training seminar will be held at the boarding school to train the ambassadors of Wikipedia.

Project Objectives:

  • Deepening students' knowledge and tools and training them to be high-quality productive editors.
  • Creating a core of volunteers in schools.
  • Building a network of support among young editors and integration into the Arab Wikipedia community

The group of ambassadors will include 20 students and will be chosen in coordination with the accompanying teachers, based on the quality of the students' articles ​​and contributions. The program will try to have representation from all the partner schools. In the framework of the program we will hold a four-day training course that will include advanced editing skills, acquaintance with other WMF projects, marathon editing, group activity and team building.

Higher Education edit


Program Participants Newly registered Content pages No. of newly-joined professors No. of professors continued to the next academic year
Higher Education 1,100 650 650 12 15



The Current Situation edit

Since 2016, WMIL is set on expanding its activities in academic institutions. For this purpose, a new modus operandi was developed and tested during the 2016-2017 academic year at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. The WikiCampus project was WMIL’s first institutional collaboration, with 13 different courses taking part. After the first semester, we examined the mode of operation and made changes to the model of work, that we will implement starting from the first semester beginning in October 2017. Besides the WikiCampus project, Wikipedia writing assignments were introduced this year in 9 other WMIL-led courses, and a similar number is expected to begin this semester. In addition, about 13 courses are taking part in the project, led by the WMIL volunteers. Similar to the trend in our activity in schools, we are promoting a process to broaden WMIL’s higher education program – from activities based on the initiative of a small number of volunteers, to extensive activity in various institutions led by the WMIL team.

After evaluating the WikiCampus pilot project and receiving feedback from lecturers, it was decided to make a number of fundamental changes in the modus operandi of the WMIL-led courses. In order to create greater involvement of the lecturers in the project, it was decided to hold an orientation meeting with the lecturer or her/his teaching assistant to clarify the assignment and the basic principles of Wikipedia. The lecturer/assistant will dedicate at least one lesson to the assignment and the basic principles of Wikipedia, using WMIL training materials, in order to increase the students’ engagement. Stricter criteria will apply to the courses participating in the project, and the matching of the assignment to the course's characteristics. For example, writing new articles or significantly expanding articles will only be given as an assignment in advanced courses. In courses that do not meet this criterion, the possibility will be examined for the limited assignment of adding a chapter to an existing article. Another change is that the lecturer, in coordination with WMIL, will prepare a list of topics for articles to write or expand before the beginning of the semester, and not during the semester, in order to ensure feasible schedules for the assignment and course.

We recently launched a designated website containing information that will be regularly updated on project activities in Israel and around the world, research conducted on the subject of Wikipedia in academia, and articles written in the framework of the project. The site is also designed to support the students participating in the project with the training tools and by providing answers to frequently asked questions.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: Developing collaborations in higher education institutions aimed at long-term partnership for creating quality content
  • Developing and retaining collaborations at the departmental level and above in higher education institutions to advance the integration of Wikipedia writing assignment in various courses
  • Developing and retaining contact with lecturers who integrate writing Wikipedia articles as an academic assignment in their courses
  • Optimization of the mode of operation in WMIL-led courses
  • 650 articles will be written or expanded as part of WMIL’s academic activity

In 2018 we will continue to improve and streamline the modus operandi, which will help expand the academic activities, so that more WMIL-led courses will be able to participate in the project. In addition, we strive to become more efficient by creating organizational collaborations, i.e, presenting the project to a department, faculty or institution, and developing cooperation at this level, and not only at the level of the individual lecturer. Organizational collaboration implies consent from the project by the head of department, faculty or institution, which facilitates the recruitment of lecturers who may be interested to join, but are concerned about the bureaucratic process of obtaining approval to integrate a Wikipedia writing assignment as an academic assignment. Organizational collaboration also attests to the reliability, seriousness and professionalism of the project, which also contributes to the efficiency of marketing it. In addition, organizational collaboration will include students who will perform the task in various courses, resulting in continuous learning and better outcomes.

Another trend is to optimize the match of between the Wikipedia assignment and specific course characteristics, by developing different free-content creation tasks for courses in which writing a new article or a significant expansion can not be combined. Among other things, we will examine possibilities for tasks such as adding a chapter to an existing article, adding sources to the article, and adding scientific figures from open access journals.

Of course, also in 2018 we will continue to support the activities of volunteers who lead Wikipedia assignment courses in universities.

Planned activities

  • Presenting the project in 3 institutions/faculties/departments
  • Integrating Wikipedia writing assignments in five courses in the framework of new organizational collaborations
  • Integrating assignments into 15 courses (collaboration at the lecturer level)
  • Retention of 50% of lecturers (at least 8 lecturers continue from year to year)
  • Writing 450 articles or significant expansions in WMIL-led courses
  • Writing 200 articles or significant expansions in courses led by volunteers

Support cultural institutions for free content release edit


 
The Bible Lands Museum is one of the GLAM institutions with which WMIL will start to collaborate in 2018

Since 2012, volunteers have been active in promoting collaborations with major GLAM institutions in Israel. The collaborations led to the release of several hundred to a few thousand items from various institutions. Over the years, the main weight of WMIL’s activity has shifted to programs in high-schools and academic institutions. However, collaboration efforts continued over the years at a low level. The main organization with which the connection has continued over the years is the National Library of Israel. The library held regular lectures and workshops, and materials were released on the basis of specific requests . At the end of 2015, several hundred ancient maps were uploaded to Commons, and in 2016 at the international hackathon ,one of the teams was involved in converting authority records provided by the Israel National Library into Wikidata.

In the past year it seems that winds of change have begun to blow in GLAM institutions.

In the middle of the year the National Library announced a new ‘Wikipedian in Residence’ position. The position was eventually filled by a librarian from the library, since there were no candidates from the Wikimedia communities. The community coordinator is in constant contact with the Wikipedian in Residence in order to facilitate the release of various free content for the use of Wikimedia projects. In addition, the Israel Electric Corporation has initiated a comprehensive collaboration with Wikimedia Israel, which includes the release of materials from the company's archive, an editing course for company employees and a competition for writing entries. We anticipate that by the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018, over 10,000 items from both organizations will be released. Another museum expressed interest in training the museum staff in editing and releasing material, but the plan is not yet been finalized.

We predict that this trend will continue in 2018. We intend to advertise the achievements of the collaborations through the local channels, to encourage Wikipedians to use the materials and to conduct tours of archives and museums. Further, we will strive to create collaborations with one or two other cultural institutions. In light of the renewed development of the area, this year we chose not to propose quantitative measures (number of items to be released, number of articles to be written in the framework of projects, etc.) in order to get reacquainted with the GLAM institutions in Israel and the possibilities for cooperation.

Training Curriculum Development and Training Team edit



Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Number of training tools developed or improved Number of volunteers and partners who have been initiated exposure to training tools
Training Curriculum Development and Training Team 55 volunteers 500 Wikipedia courseware users 400 new articles + significant expansions 10 45



The Current Situation edit

Instructional tools edit

Wikimedia Israel has a wide range of training tools that support our activities and are available to the public, especially in Hebrew. At the center of the tool kit are two major tools, each of which provides a lot of information in a particular field, in a user-friendly way. The first tool is the editing courseware’s new version. The aim of the courseware is to allow users to acquire by themselves, from any computer and any time, the basic technical skills required to find their way around Wikipedia and Commons, and to edit. The first version of the courseware was launched in 2015 and was very successful. The new version of the tutorial was launched in the first half of 2017, and it encompasses new content and includes a variety of updates and changes (following changes in the visual editor interface and feedback collected from the field). The second major tool is the Encyclopedic Writing Guide. This tool is designed to prepare people for editing in Wikipedia, when it comes to creating the encyclopedic content itself (as opposed to the technical skills required for editing). The tool allows users to move freely between four steps: finding a writing topic, locating information sources, organizing the article structure, and writing the content itself. Like the new version of the tutorial, this tool was also launched in the first half of 2017.

The two major tools cover information relevant to all the Hebrew Wikipedia editing projects run by WMIL, as well as the general public. In addition, we have a variety of tools designed to support WMIL specific programs and projects: a designated site for the academic program, an array of more than 15 workshop plans and dedicated aids for teachers in the 'Students Write Wikipedia' program, learning environments developed for teachers’ a tool to support the participants in the competition "Wikipedia loves heritage sites" and more.

We are constantly updating and improving the tools, and adapting them to the needs in the field.

Four of the tools were translated into Arabic. However, most of the tools, including the two major ones, currently exist only in a Hebrew version. Toward 2018, a request was submitted to an Israeli philanthropic foundation for comprehensive support of the Arabic program, including the development of a courseware for getting acquainted with Arabic Wikipedia and Commons and learning to edit. We hope that by the end of 2018, we will also introduce an Arabic editing courseware.

Volunteer team of instructors edit

WMIL’s volunteer team of instructors now has 54 Wikipedians. There are 24 volunteers who take part in face-to-face activities (e.g. conversations, talks, courses and workshops). They often also offer remote support. Additional 30 volunteers offer only remote support through Wikipedia or the other Wikimedia projects, through email, video conferences or by phone.

 
Some of our volunteers of face-to-face activities in a meeting that took place at the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, September 2017

The Wikipedians who volunteer in face-to-face activities are especially important to us, in part because to the audiences we work these Wikipedians serve as the public image of Wikimedia and its enterprises. Fortunately, these Wikipedians work with great devotion. In order to foster the members of this group of Wikipedians, we invite them to participate in regular meetings aimed at enabling enrichment, consultation and networking, and, no less important, to allow us to cherish their activities. The meetings are held face-to-face or through video calls. The participation rate of the group members in these meetings is quite high (for example, in the first half of 2017, close to 80% of the relevant volunteers attended at least one meeting). In addition to these meetings, we provide volunteers who participate in face-to-face activities with personal and professional guidance as needed.

In addition to the abovementioned 54 Wikipedians, we regularly recruit expert volunteers for specific support in our education and training projects. For example, in the first half of 2017 we recruited an expert who advised on the development of the new courseware version, two experts in education who took part in leading an editing workshop for students, and a photography expert who participated in the 'Students Photograph Wikipedia" project. All these experts have stated that they are willing to continue to provide support to their projects in the future if necessary.

Goals and Objectives edit

Desired change: Continued development of the WMIL’s training infrastructure through:
  1. Development of tools in Arabic and Hebrew
  2. Retaining and nurturing volunteers for education and training

Planned activities:

  • Translation of training tools from Hebrew to Arabic, with adaptations, to support the 'Students Write Wikipedia' program in Arabic and the general public
  • Developing designated tools for the Wikipedia Ambassadors program
  • Development of an editing coursework for Wikipedia in Arabic
  • Continued development and improvement of the WMIL’s training tools in Hebrew:
    • Create a tool about free content and copyright
    • Editing courseware: implement minor changes due to changes in the visual editor interface in Hebrew Wikipedia
    • The Encyclopedic Writing Guide: adaptation to academic program target audience
    • 'Students write Wikipedia' tools: update some of the tools, and create uniformity among all the tools
  • Continuing to nurture educational and training volunteers participating in face-to-face activities:
    • Providing professional and personal assistance as needed
    • Six physical and online sessions for enrichment, consultation, networking and recognition

Free Knowledge Awareness edit


The Current Situation edit

In the middle of the year we joined a coalition of organizations led by the Israeli Internet Association in the struggle for internet freedom. There are currently five parliament bills that threaten, in various ways, civil rights as expressed on the internet. To combat the anticipated harm to freedom of the internet, ten organizations that deal with digital life issues joined forces to take active and coordinated steps to minimize the damage of these legislative initiatives. WMIL takes an active part in the coalition and WMIL’s executive director is a representative of the Coalition's planning team. In 2018 we will continue to be active in the coalition and in any activity to preserve freedom of the Internet.

Goals and Objectives edit

  • Active participation in coalitions working for freedom of information, freedom of the Internet and open information in Israel
  • Support the Public Figure Photography Project
  • Plan and implement an annual conference to raise awareness of the goals of Wikimedia

WMIL will continue its efforts to increase awareness of free content and open information, through an annual conference and advocacy activities with various bodies and organizations, as well as to support the Public Figure Photography Project. In a meeting between volunteer photographers and public figures, there is an unmediated encounter where volunteers explain the importance of free content.

Communication edit


The Current Situation edit

At the end of 2016 and in January 2017, we hired the services of a PR firm. During the brief period in which we worked together, a number of articles were published in various media outlets in Israel, including articles on the Wiktionary competition, Wikiwomen activities, and more. Although there is no intention to work in 2018 with a public relations firm, we will strive towards for positive and varied exposure in the local media. The Arabic education coordinator, Makbula Nasser, is a journalist by training, and already the activity in the Arabic language is getting a lot of exposure in the local Arabic-speaking media.

Goals and Objectives edit

  • Positioning WMIL as a significant body in the education system in Israel through participation in major conferences, media publications and more.
  • Increasing the visibility of the organization’s activities through publicity in various channels during the year.
  • Maintaining contact with Wikimedia communities and volunteers by publishing a monthly newsletter, local and international blog posts, and other relevant publications in village pump.
  • Handling press relationship and press inquiries.

In 2018, we will aspire to participate in major conferences in the areas of education, higher education and media conferences dealing with reliable information and fake news. We will also encourage volunteers, teachers and lecturers to present their joint activities with WMIL. In 2017, we significantly increased the number of posts we posted on WMIL’s Facebook page and began publishing Arabic posts as well. This trend will continue in 2018.

Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan edit

1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, and provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram if you have one.

For most of 2017 WMIL has employed 5.2 FTEs: an Executive Director (ED), Academic Coordinator, Education (Hebrew) & Instruction Coordinator, Education (Arabic) Coordinator, Communities Coordinator and Administrative Coordinator. Since August 2015, we have been working with a fundraising consultancy firm that helps to diversify WMIL's financial resources.

In early 2017 there were significant changes in WMIL’s staff. The academic and administration coordinator completed her role at WMIL after four years. It was decided to split her position into two positions: an academic coordinator and an administrative coordinator. This division enabled the expansion of activities in higher education institutions and target additional audiences. WMIL's administrative activity is relatively limited, and therefore the administrative coordinator works only 16 hours a week.

In November 2017, the education and training coordinator will go on maternity leave until March 2018. A replacement is currently being recruited for this period.

Following the success of the "Students Edit in Arabic Wikipedia" program, the fund supporting the program in 2016-2017 invited us to submit a grant for another two years.

2. List of staff by department or function.
You can use this table (or substitute your own list) to show us the number of FTEs (fulltime equivalents) for each department or function, where one person working at 100% time would be counted as 1.0. We need this information about the total number of staff (FTEs) you plan to have by the end of the current funding period, and staff you plan to have by the end of the upcoming funding period.
  • Responsibilities of Education & Instruction Coordinator: The Education & Instruction Coordinator leads WMIL's Hebrew education program in schools and educational organizations. Builds up collaborations, trains the leading teachers and works closely with online and offline volunteers who support the education program. As an Instruction Coordinator, develops and helps implement training tools to all WMIL's programs and supports the volunteer instruction team.
  • Responsibilities of Education Coordinator for Arabic language: Expanding and running the education program in Arabic. Recruit schools for the program, train the teachers and run editing workshops. In order to create continuity in schools the coordinator will develop and run the Wikipedia Ambassadors programs.
  • Responsibilities of Community Coordinator: The Community Coordinator works with new contributors to support their editing efforts online and offline, recruits new volunteers , develops new collaborations (together with the ED), and is the main contact person to all the Wikimedias communities in Israel.
  • Responsibilities of Academic Coordinator: Running the Wikipedia assignment program in universities and colleges. She builds up collaborations and works closely with the professors, works closely with the volunteers who run Wikipedia assignment courses, and and maintains the program site.
  • Responsibilities Administrative Coordinator: The Administrative Coordinator is responsible for the finance and administration of Wikimedia Israel.
  • The Executive Director is responsible for the management of the organization according to the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors. The ED’s duties are: plan and manage HR (volunteers and staff), finances and programs; and in collaboration with the Board of Directors, develop a vision and strategic plan to guide Wikimedia Israel forward. She also leads new partnerships and heads the fundraising efforts. Alongside the Chairperson, she acts as a spokesperson for the organization and for the Wikimedia Movement in Israel.



Table 4

FTEs
Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes
Executive Director (ED) 1 1
Administrative Coordinator 0.2 0.2 16 hours a week
Communities Coordinator 0.7 1 The communities coordinator joined WMIL in April. Until July he worked 0.5FTE and since August he works FTE.
Academic Coordinator 1 1
Education (Hebrew) & Instruction Coordinator 1 1
Education (Arabic) Coordinator 1 1
Long-term contractors (Fundraising) 0.2 0.2
Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 5.1 5.4

Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes:

  • During the last 3 years, we did not increase the salary of the ED, due to shortage of resources and an understanding with the ED that available resources should be allocated to programs and volunteers support. In 2018 the board decided that it was time to raise the salaries of the entire staff, including the ED. Also, since the ED has to work around the clock, it seems justified to raise her salary (in a modest rate compared with her efforts). These salary updates naturally have significant impact on our budget.
  • The Education Coordinator for Arabic-Language Projects worked full-time from January to April, and from May until August on an hourly basis. He was replaced by a new coordinator who started to work full-time in September.


3. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the current funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
  • ILS 801,000; $212,000
4. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the upcoming funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
  • ILS 995,200; $277,173


Financials: upcoming year edit

Detailed budget: upcoming year edit

Please link to your organization's detailed budget showing planned revenues and expenses for the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017). This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or a publicly available spreadsheet.

Revenues: upcoming year edit

Please use this table to list your organization's anticipated revenues (income, or the amount your organization is bringing in) by revenue source (where the revenue is coming from) in the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017).

  • Use the status column to show if this funding is already guaranteed, if you are in the process of requesting funding, or if you are planning to request funding at a later time.
  • Please include in-kind donations and resources in this table, as applicable, and use the status column to show that they are in-kind resources.
  • Do not include money you plan to draw from your reserves during the upcoming funding period.

Table 5

Anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period
Revenue source Currency requested US dollars Status (e.g. guaranteed, application)


Revenues from private donations 30,000 8,355 Planning to request
Revenues from sponsorships 20,000 5,570 Planning to request
Foundations 458,000 127,558 Partially guaranteed
Revenues from membership fees 1,500 418 Planning to request, guaranteed
Wikimedia Foundation 1,075,000 299,398 In process
Revenues from collaborations 50,000 13,926 Partially guaranteed
Revenues from courses 10,000 2,785 Partially guaranteed
Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 1,644,500 458,010 -


Table 5 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds, please note how those funds will be used.

  • We received verbal approval for a grant from an private Israeli foundation that would support 'Students Write Wikipedia' Arabic program in the amount of ILS 388,000.
  • In 2017 WMIL requested to join the "round up" program. This program invite people to round up their Credit card transactions for the benefit of Israeli charities.


Operating reserves: current and upcoming years edit

Please note that there is a policy that places restrictions on how much FDC funding your organization can use to build its operating reserves. If you would like to use FDC funding to for your organization's reserves, you must note that here. You will not be able to decide to allocate FDC funding from this grant to your reserves at a later date.

1. What is your plan for maintaining, building, or spending your reserves in the current year and the upcoming funding period? Please use the table below to show the amounts in your reserves at the beginning, year-to-date, and end of your current year, and the amount you plan to have in your reserves by the end of the upcoming funding period.

Table 6

Year Year start Year start (US) Year-to-date Year-to-date (US) Year end Year end (US)
Current year (e.g. 2017) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Upcoming year (e.g. 2018) - - - - 0 0
2. How much FDC funding is your organization requesting to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period? If you are not requesting any FDC funding to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period, you can write zero.
zero


Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan edit

1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).
Program expenses are the costs associated specifically with your organization's programs, and do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. Program expenses may be the costs of an event, the costs of outreach materials specific to a program, budgets for microgrants and reimbursements, or technical costs associated with specific programs, for example. The programs listed in this table should correspond to the programs you have listed in the programs section of this proposal form.


Table 7

Program Currency requested US dollars
Community Support (Hebrew Wikipedia) 106,420 29,639
Communities support (Wikimedia Initiatives) 38,500 10,723
Education - Hebrew 57,700 16,070
Higher Education 25,500 7,102
Education - Arabic 112,000 31,193
Training 135,300 37,682
Free knowledge awareness 26,000 7,241
Global engagement 42,800 11,920
Communication and publicity 20,000 5,570
Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 564,220 157,141

Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding designated for specific programs (e.g. a restricted grant), please make a note of that here.


2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.
These are divided into three categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including expenses for staff working on both programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses). Be sure to check the totals in this table to make sure they are consistent with the totals in the other tables you have submitted with this form. For example, your total program expenses excluding staff will be equal to the total in Table 7, while your total staff expenses will be equal to the total in Table 4 and your total expenses will be equal to the total in Table 1.


Table 8

Expense type Currency requested US dollars
Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 564,220 157,141
Operations (excludes staff and programs) 84,800 23,618
Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 995,200 277,173
Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 1,644,220 457,932

Table 8 notes:


Verification and signature edit

Please enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.

The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. General operating support through the FDC may not be used to cover political and legislative activities, although you may make a separate grant agreement with the WMF for these purposes.
I verify that no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation will be used
for political or legislative activities except as permitted by a grant agreement
Yes


Please sign below to complete this proposal form.

IMPORTANT. Please do not make any changes to this proposal form after the proposal submission deadline for this round. If a change that is essential to an understanding of your organization's proposal is needed, please request the change on the discussion page of this form so it may be reviewed by FDC staff. Once submitted, complete and valid proposal forms submitted on time by eligible organizations will be considered unless an organization withdraws its application in writing or fails to remain eligible for the duration of the FDC process.
Please sign here once this proposal form is complete, using four tildes. Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 11:15, 1 October 2017 (UTC)