Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round1/Wikimedia Israel/Proposal form

Wikimedia Israel received a funds allocation in the amount of 141,172 in 2012-2013 Round 1. This funds allocation was recommended by the Funds Dissemination Committee on 15 November 2012 and approved by the WMF Board of Trustees on 1 December 2012.

This proposal form for Wikimedia Israel's proposal to the FDC for 2012-2013 Round 1 may be viewed in tab view or standard view. To discuss this aspect of the proposal to the FDC, please visit the discussion page.

For some guidelines, please see this example proposal form.

All eligible entities will need to complete this form to request funds from the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC). The completed document must be published in English on Meta by the deadline for each round (23:59 UTC 1 October for Round 1, and 23:59 UTC 1 March for Round 2).

The purpose of this document is to provide the FDC with an overview of your annual plan, the alignment of the plan to the Wikimedia movement’s strategic goals, and the potential impact and effectiveness of the plan. This proposal should complement any annual planning documents you may have: please complete all fields as mandatory and add links to supporting documents where relevant.

Each section of the proposal provides guidance on the amount of detail expected in response to each question or field. If you have additional questions about the form, please contact the FDC support team.

A few terms used in the form:

• Entity
• Revenue
• Spending
• Costs
• Reserve balance
• Currency requested

Basic information

Table 1.

Legal name of affiliated entity	ויקימדיה ישראל (ע"ר)
Contact name	Tomer Ashur
Contact position in entity	Chairman
Contact username	Tomer A. -- Talk
Contact email	Tomer @ wikimedia.org.il
Entity fiscal year (mm/dd–mm/dd)	01/01-12/31
Timeframe of funds currently requested (mm/dd/yy–mm/dd/yy)	01/01/12-12/31/12
Date posted mm/dd/yy1	13:56, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
Round submitted (1 or 2)	1
Currency requested2	NIS
Exchange rate used (currency requested to $US) and date accessed (mm/dd/yy)3	1 USD = 3.892 NIS as of 09/16/12

Table 2.

	In currency requested	In $US
Total annual expenses of entity	564,440 NIS	145,026 USD
Amount proposed to the FDC for the coming year's annual plan	564,440 NIS	145,026 USD
Amount to be raised from non-FDC sources	Unknown	Unknown
If applicable, amount of FDC funds allocated to entity last year	Not applicable	Not applicable

¹The proposal is assumed to be final as of the deadline for each round (23:59 UTC, October 1 for Round 1, and 23:59 UTC March 1 for Round 2). After the deadline, the proposal must not be further modified; any further commentary should be included on the talk page.

²Currency requested is defined as the currency in which you wish to receive funds (e.g., EUR, GBP, INR).

³This exchange rate should be used throughout the form.

Background, history, and mission

This section provides the FDC an overview of your entity's background and history. Please respond to each question below with 1-2 sentences to a maximum of a paragraph.

• When was your entity established?

26/06/2007

• What is the mission of your entity, and how does it support the goals of the Wikimedia movement?

1. Promoting knowledge and education in Israel by gathering, creating and distributing free content.
2. Promoting equal opportunities in access to knowledge.
3. Promoting the gathering and distribution of free content and especially through the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.
4. Promoting discussion and research and furthering of social, cultural, and practical aspects of free content.
5. Promoting volunteer work for the above purposes.

• What is its current leadership structure (e.g., executive staff structure, board / governance structure)?

If you have an organogram or organizational chart for your organization, please provide a link.

5 board members, Secretary (can be from within the board), Tresurer (can be from within the board), spokesman (can be from within the board), 2 audit committee members (cannot be from within the board) - all volunteers

• How many staff are employed by your entity?

0.5

• Approximately how many volunteers participate actively in your entity?

15

• How many members does your entity have?

40

Reflection on past activities and innovations

This section provides the FDC with information about your entity's past activities and strategies. Please answer the questions below with your reflections on the past fiscal year. Responses to each question should be one or two paragraphs.

• How does your entity define and measure "success"?

At the beginning of each project, the project leader approve the success criteria with the baord. These success criteria are validated during the project and evaluated at the end to see how much of the goals the project has achieved.

• Please give at least three examples of successful activities that your entity has completed. If available, provide links to information about these activities.

• Wikimania 2011 was the annual conference of the Wikimedia movement held in Haifa. The conference hosted 720 attendees from 56 countries. In addition to the 3-days conference, the conference included several preconference meetings (including a hackathon, chapters meeting and several interest groups) and one post-conference tours day.

• GLAM IMJ is a collaboration with the Israel Museum, Jerusalem in which, during a period of two months, we ran a Wikipedian-in-Residence program. During the pilot period and after it, over 120 articles were written and large amount of content was released to Commons. We've also contacted artists and invited the pubic to participate. The contribution of the project can be viewed in the above link.
• GLAM - National Libraray of Israel is our second GLAM collaboration with the National Library of Israel. Over 70 articles were written during the project (the list can be found here: w:he:ויקיפדיה:מיזמי ויקיפדיה/גלאם/הספרייה הלאומית/תוצאות) and over 100 rare media files were released. This project included participation of both wikipedians and interested people from the public. Although the WIR pilot period is officially over, the collaboration with the NLI continues.
• The chapter is holding several collaborations with academic institutes (The University of Haifa, Ben-Guriun University etc.)
• 4 annual Wikiacademies in 2009, http://www.wikimedia.org.il/conf10 2010], http://www.wikimedia.org.il/conf11 2011], http://www.wikimedia.org.il/conf12 2012].
• What are the plans/strategies that did not work for your entity in the past? What did your entity learn from that experience / those experiences?

During our work we have learnt that not all active members can lead projects and finding the right person for the right project can be a challange. A project leader must be able to set goals and achieve them in a changing enviornment. The board of directors must sometimes draw a line for over-enthusiastic volunteers that either try to lead to many projects or such volunteers that past experience has proven they lack the required self-discipline to follow a project to its successful end. Also, the experience gathered throughout our GLAM collaborations has helped us to perfect the way we engage with the public. Following our efforts to bring more editors to our community, we are now focusing on keeping in touch and maintaining newcomers' participation after the initial contact has been made.

• What else has your entity learned or innovated upon that could benefit the broader Wikimedia movement?

One of the main lessons we have learnt is that the organization has to be agile and hunt down new opportunities. One of the most important management skills is the ability to balance between pursuing new opportunities and following the work plan. In terms of our GLAM projects, we have found them to be a great platform to incorporate new wikipedians/wikimedians. Most events we have during a project are opened to the public and we encourage newcomers to participate . For example, we begin every edit-a-thon with a workshop on "How to edit Wikipedia" for newcomers and follow with the edit-a-thon, in which experienced wikipedians work closely with newcomers during the event. Finally, some collaborations and projects do not require funding and are still based on volunteer work [including lectures / workshops on how wikipedia operates].

Where available, please link to the following to provide supplemental information to the FDC:

• Link to previous completed fiscal year annual plan

[1]

• Link to previous completed fiscal year annual report

[2]

• Link to previous completed fiscal year grant report (if your entity has received funds from the FDC)

NA

Year-to-date progress

This section provides the FDC information about how your entity is progressing against the current fiscal year's planned budget (revenues and costs).

Please provide the relevant information below. "Year to date" refers to the period between the start of your entity's current fiscal year and the date of submission of the proposal(+). If it is helpful to link to your entity's current fiscal year plan and budget, please do so.

Table 3.

	Current fiscal year planned budget		Year-to-date actuals+		Variance
	In currency requested	In $US	In currency requested	In $US	%
Revenues (from all sources)	0	0	84,000 NIS	21,582 USD	∞
Spending	210,000 NIS	53,957 USD	103,492 NIS	26,591 USD	49%

+ Actual year-to-date financials should be provided as close to the proposal submission date as possible; best approximations are sufficient.

Table 3. details:

Based on the variance percentages above, please describe how your entity is progressing against revenue and spending targets. If you expect your entity to be significantly under or over target on either revenue or spending, please provide a detailed explanation.

The chpater has been able to find sponsors for many of its projects so that the actual net. cost of the activity was much less than what was planned.

Key initiatives and objectives of the upcoming year annual plan

The table is intended to provide an overview of your entity's upcoming year annual plan and its alignment with the movement's strategic goals; please provide short phrases or 1-3 bullet points for each initiative in the table below. Feel free to add more details below the table (1-2 paragraphs per initiative). You can also link to any other documents that you think might be helpful as context.

If you feel you have an initiative that fulfills a strategic goal that is not immediately identified with a Wikimedia strategic goal ('readership' rather than 'editorship', for instance), please add that in the table and offer us your rationale.

Please link to your entity's strategic plan if you have one.

Strategic plan link: A seminar focusing on a strategic plan is to be held in November

Table 4.

Key initiatives	What are the objectives of this initiative (include metrics)?	Which Wikimedia strategic goal(s) does this initiative address?	What key activities / milestones are associated with this initiative?	How will your entity accomplish this initiative?	How will your entity measure and track success of this initiative?
Releasing content under free licenses.	Increase the amount of free content provided in Hebrew	* Improve Quality Increase Participation Increase Reach	* 4 GLAM projects Wikiacademy 2013 Elef-Milim Wiki Loves Monuments	By hard work :)	Each project will have a success tag, describing the amount of content it contributed and new editors participating.
Reinforcing the ties the editing communities.	Improving the ties between the chapter and the editors' community, as well as imporving the ties between the editors themselves.	* Increase Participation Encourage Innovation Stabilize Infrastructure	* Editors meetings Hackathon Wikiacademy 2013 Writing contest GLAM-Wiki events	We will hold several events aimed to tie the relations between all players in the Hebrew Wikisphere.	By measuring the number of participants in each event.
Establishing goverance and internal procedures for the chapter, professionalization, including setting success criteria measurments.	Imporving the chapters' governance, increasing the number or participants and members and extending the number of activities.	* Stabilize Infrastructure	* Hiring a general manager Participation in the establishment of the WCA	See above

Table 4. details:

Additional context for the upcoming year annual plan / SWOT

Please provide 1-2 paragraphs for each response below. SWOT stands for your organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

• What organizational strengths enable your entity's plan (e.g., leadership, governance structure, community participation, fundraising)?

During the past year, Wikimedia Israel has built a large net of connections with government, public and private organizations that will offer unique possibilties for cooperations for the next yaer.

Our accumulated experience in organizing conferences and events allows us to extend our reach into new opportunities of that sort and use our relative advantage to create high-impact\low costs events.

• What external opportunities enable your entity's plan (e.g., socio-political context, community participation, fundraising)?

Wikimania 2011 in Haifa had a large domestic impact which increased the visability of our chapter. This visability was translated in 2012 to many projects and cooperation oppurtunities with large organizations. The high impact and visability of the 2012 projects allow us to leverage that success towards larger, more ambitious projects.

Changes in the political climate in Israel (especially the increased involvment of the public in policy making) allows groups like Wikimedia Israel (as well as other free-content\open-souce\knowledge sharing groups) to be an important player in the public discussion. Projects like Open Knesset (which Wikimedia Israel is not yet part of) are gaining more visibility in the public. In addition to its usual goals of supporting directly the creation and release of public information, Wikimedia Israel seeks to assist seeding grass-roots projects that require initial assistance before they can blossom.

• What are key risks or threats that would prevent you from achieving your plan (e.g., leadership turnover, governance challenges, lawsuits, fundraising, community participation, socio-political context)?

The constant changing funding procedures for seeking a piece of the movement funds and the fact that it has become difficult to plan long term budgets could damage those projects that require financial obligations.

Another risk would be the inability to recurit enough volunteers to operate all programs.

• How will you minimize these risks and threats?

In addition to requesting the required budget from the FDC, the chapter always tries (and usually succeed) to find other resources of income for its projects. For example, two of our main projects for 2012 (Wiki loves monuments and Wikiacademy) were almost completely financed by outside sources.

To prevent a shortage of working hands, the chapter is now considering hiring a general manager. This general manager will be responsible for operating the work plan and securing all rquired resources (including volunteers).

Financials for the upcoming year's annual plan

• Provide your financial overview for the upcoming year in the format below.

Please link to your detailed budget (translation into English highly recommended) in addition to completing the tables below.

Detailed budget link: Wikimedia Israel\2013 program plan

Revenues

Please list anticipated revenues, by source (e.g., FDC, Wikimedia grants programs, public funding, membership fees, local donations, event fees)
Table 5.

Revenue source	Anticipated (in currency requested)	Anticipated (In $US)
FDC	564,440 NIS	145,026 USD

Table 5. details:

Current entity staff (e.g., Included in year-in-progress budget)

Role / functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff.
Table 6.

Role / Function	Number of staff	Percentage of staff time+
Projects Administrator	0.5	50%

+Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members. For example, for full time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half time staff, you would put 50% in this column.

Table 6. details:

Proposed new staff for upcoming year annual plan

Role / functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff.
Table 7.

Role / Function	Number of staff	Percentage of staff time+	Duration	Rationale for hiring new staff
General Manager	1	100%	Full Time	The chapter has reached a point where its volunteer board of directors can no longer supervise all projects. It is suggested that the chapter will hire a general manger to supervise the execution of the program plan.

+Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members. For example, for full time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half time staff, you would put 50% in this column.

Table 7. details:

Summary of staff expenses

Table 8.

	In currency requested	In $US
Current staff expenses	18,000 NIS	4,625
Proposed staff expenses	170,400 NIS	43,782 USD
Total staff expenses	213,600 NIS	54,882

Table 8. details:

Expenses by program/initiative

Expenses are costs associated with any programs, initiatives, or projects your entity manages (e.g., event costs, materials, transportation). Please exclude any staff costs that are included above. “Programs / initiatives” might include education programs, outreach programs, etc. Please include any administration costs (e.g., office space rental, utilities) affiliated with each program along with any overall administration costs that are not affiliated with any particular program (e.g., Administration should be considered a "Program" under the first column.)

Table 9.

Program / initiative	In currency requested	In $US
Content programs	133,000 NIS	34,173 USD
Grants (including travel grants)	86,280 NIS	22,169 USD
Administration	65,560 NIS	16,845 USD
Marketing and PR	18,000 NIS	4,625 USD
Wikimedia Chapters Association and MISC.	48,000 NIS	12,333 USD
Total expenses	350,840 NIS	90,144 USD

Table 9. details:

Summary of total revenues and expenses

Table 10.

	In currency requested	In $US
Total Revenues	564,440 NIS	145,026 USD
Total Spending	564,440 NIS	145,026 USD
Net (revenues less expenses)	0	0
Reserve balance, if applicable+

+ Cash reserve balance should include cumulative reserves and any net revenue

Table 10. details:

Verification that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities

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. Grants for such activities (when permitted under U.S. law and IRS regulations) should be sought from the Wikimedia Grants Program.

I verify that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities

Yes

This form was created by: Tomer A. -- Talk 17:50, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

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