Grants:APG/Proposals/2016-2017 round 1/Wikimedia UK/Proposal form

Proposal by Wikimedia UK to support its annual plan with Template:Usamountrequested/2016-2017 round 1/Wikimedia UK.

Template:Summary/2016-2017 round 1/Wikimedia UK


Comment on Wikimedia UK's proposal here


Return to the community review page.

We ask that you please don't make any changes directly to this page after the proposal submission date, but comment on the discussion page.


If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them in the edit intro.

  • Use this form if you are eligible to submit a proposal in the current round, to request funding in the current round.
  • This form must be published on Meta by the proposal submission date for each round to be considered, and no changes may be made after the submission date without staff approval.
  • This form complements your organization's annual plan, detailed budget, and strategic plan. It won't be considered complete without a detailed budget and strategic plan.
  • Organizations may apply for a funding period that does not exactly match their fiscal years. Follow the instructions carefully to understand what time period each question refers to.
  • Refer to the framework, guidance from the Board, and the FDC's recommendations before using this form, so you have an understanding of the Annual Plan Grants process.
  • Please Email FDCSupport@Wikimedia.org with questions about using the form.

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.

Organisational development

The past few years have seen significant organisational change for Wikimedia UK, as we extensively reported within our most recent Impact Report as well as through informal conversations and updates with the Wikimedia Foundation. The Chapter’s first Chief Executive left towards the end of 2014 and the interim CEO led an extensive organisational restructure during which the team was reduced from 14 posts to nine, with every member of staff affected in some way. However, with a permanent Chief Executive now having been in post for nearly a year and the newly-formed Programmes Team in place since summer 2015, we have a strong, stable staff who are focused on programme delivery and impact.

Wikimedia UK has adopted a new three year strategic framework for the period 2016–19 following a strategic development process led by the new CEO in early 2016, highlighted in our recent Progress Report. The strategy has brought greater focus and clarity of purpose to our work this year, with this proposal for funding in 2017–18 closely aligned with our three new strategic goals and associated programmes.

Our former Head of External Relations, Stevie Benton, left the charity in September 2015 and we have replaced this post with a new Communications Co-ordinator, John Lubbock, appointed in March 2016. John has a background as a freelance researcher, journalist and filmmaker, with experience in human rights organisations and the cultural sector. He has also been a supporter of WMUK and volunteered as speaker liaison during Wikimania 2014.

With the departure of Richard Symonds in August 2016, we are making a small change to our support staffing arrangements and will be recruiting a part-time finance assistant and a full-time administrative and membership support role in the autumn.

Strategic context for Wikimedia UK and alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation

Wikimedia UK believes that open access to knowledge is a fundamental right, and a driver for social and economic development. We work with the Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia to enable people and organisations to contribute to a shared understanding of the world through the democratic creation, distribution and consumption of knowledge. We are committed to the ideal of a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge, and believe that here in the UK, we can play a unique and important role in realising that vision.

Our vision is of a more tolerant, informed and democratic society through the shared creation of, and access to, open knowledge.

Our mission is to support and advocate for the development of open knowledge, working in partnership with volunteers, the cultural and education sectors and other organisations to make knowledge available, usable and reusable online.

Wikimedia UK is working towards the following longer-term benefits, or outcomes:

  1. Our work has significantly increased access to knowledge about, or held in, the UK
  2. The Wikimedia projects reflect our diverse society and are free from systemic bias
  3. Learners in the UK are able to understand and engage with open knowledge
  4. Wikimedia UK is recognised as a leading organisation for open knowledge

In order to support the achievement of these outcomes, during 2016–19 our strategic goals are as follows:

  1. Increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects
  2. Contribute to the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level
  3. Support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in the UK

For consistency with our previous approach in terms of how we have presented our activities within our Annual Plan Grant applications, and within our recent Progress Report (aligning programmes with our strategic goals), we have reframed these strategic goals into the following three Programme areas:

  1. Diverse content and contributors
  2. Promoting open knowledge
  3. Education and learning

These programme strands are interconnected, with some of our activities - such as Wikimedians in Residence - helping to deliver against all of our strategic goals; however for the purpose of planning and reporting we have identified which key programme strand and strategic goal each of our activities relates to. The community consultation on our strategic framework earlier this year, and the process of developing this application for funding and creating our SMART objectives 2017-18, has enabled us to further refine our three year aims, detailed under each programme strand’s strategic goal. These are therefore consistent within this proposal, our Annual Plan for 2017 - 18 and our overarching strategic framework for 2016 - 19, but are slightly different - mainly in the language used - from those detailed in the three year strategic plan and the delivery plan for the current year, both of which were created at the beginning of the 2016 - 17 financial year.

Our work is aligned with the current movement priorities of Reach, Communities and Knowledge, with a particular focus on enabling more people around the world to share in knowledge about the UK, reaching more learners in the UK, increasing and diversifying UK based Wikimedia contributors and increasing the coverage of underrepresented subjects on the Wikimedia Projects. Over the next year we will play an active role in contributing to the development of the new long term strategic vision for the Wikimedia movement.

Programme highlights in 2017–18

Wikimedia UK is at an exciting moment of development, with a very full programme of activity planned for 2017–18. At the halfway point of the current financial year, which started on 1st February, the charity had already exceeded or is on track to exceed all of our global metric targets, with projected year-end figures for all our quantitative indicators included later in this proposal. These strong results in terms of metrics have been achieved by an effective staff team, an engaged community and a clear strategic direction, as well as an increasingly strong track record of partnership working with the cultural heritage sector. Looking forward, we have the opportunity to build on our work with the GLAM sector and beyond, with a number of emerging partnerships and initiatives that could have a significant impact on open knowledge and engagement with Wikimedia in the UK.

Underpinning and supporting all of our programme activity is the volunteer and editor community in the UK. Building on the direction we took last year, we are matching volunteer interests and skills with our needs and potential projects, so that the energies of the chapter and the community are directed towards our strategic goals. In 2017–18 we will continue to engage volunteers in every aspect of our work, including our Board and committees, the Evaluation Panel, the Partnership Advisory Board and Wikimedia UK working groups. To further build programme capacity and skills, we will offer a range of training and development opportunities for volunteers in the UK, including our highly regarded Train the Trainer course for existing and aspiring trainers. We are also currently exploring the potential to deliver this intensive two-day course for international participants from across the Wikimedia movement. We will encourage volunteers to apply for small project grants and borrow equipment to support the delivery of our strategic goals through volunteer-led activities. Finally, and most importantly, we will ensure appropriate and meaningful opportunities to volunteer with Wikimedia UK as trainers, speakers, advisors and community leaders.

The Wikimedian in Residence model continues to be a key strategic lever for our work in the UK, with the success of this programme underpinned by very thorough preparation, management, monitoring and evaluation of all our residencies, working in close partnership with the host institutions to ensure maximum online impact as well as substantial organisational change. A number of residencies will be in their second or third year in 2017 and these are increasingly being funded in their entirety by the host institutions – including Bodleian Libraries, University of Edinburgh and Wellcome Library – or co-funded, as with the National Library of Wales. January 2017 will see the start of a Gaelic Wikimedian in Residence project in partnership with the National Library of Scotland - made possible by external funding - and we are currently exploring the potential for Wikimedians in Residence at the House of Commons (the elected Chamber of the UK Parliament) and Llywodraeth Cymru, the Welsh Government. This autumn, we will be launching a three year partnership project with the National Heritage Science Forum – made up of the leading cultural heritage and higher education institutions in the country – with the aspiration of appointing a Wikimedian in Residence in 2018, sponsored by the Forum, to facilitate engagement with Wikimedia across a number of partners.

A significant element of our work with partners is to advocate for internal change; persuading content holders of the benefits of Wikimedia in terms of public engagement and reach, and influencing decision-makers within the GLAM sector to create policies that support open knowledge. We also advocate for changes to public policy, and over the next year will continue to support the work of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU, whilst positioning ourselves within the UK to make the most of any opportunities created by Brexit to influence national copyright legislation.

Education and learning is a new strategic programme strand for Wikimedia UK from 2016, which we have been developing with the input and expertise of our volunteer community and colleagues from the education sector. Some of the highlights of our plans for 2017–18 include an Educators’ Summit in partnership with Middlesex University, and the development of new resources and materials to support the use of Wikimedia in teaching and learning. We will continue to support Wikipedia in the Classroom as a flagship education project, working with universities such as Exeter, Portsmouth, Swansea and Warwick. The Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, meanwhile, is taking the engagement with an education institution further, both as a content holder and as a place for cutting edge teaching and learning. He is playing a lead role in advocating for the inclusion of Wikimedia in courses across the university; training Wikimedia ambassadors, sharing success stories, facilitating peer learning across departments and developing an ongoing dialogue with course leaders.


2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
  • Legal name of organization: Wikimedia UK
  • Organization's fiscal year: 1 February–31 January
  • 12-month funding period requested: 02/01/17–01/31/18
  • Currency requested: GBP
  • Name of primary contact: Lucy Crompton-Reid (CEO)


3. Amount requested.

Table 1

Currency requested US$
Total expenses for the upcoming year 646,697 847,794
APG funding requested for the upcoming year 310,000 406,398
Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year 277,300 363,529


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?

“I strongly appreciate what the charity is doing. Volunteering with you is quite straightforward, the team is fantastic, I get to meet amazing people through volunteering”

— Raya Sharbain, UCL student and WMUK volunteer

How volunteers are involved

Wikimedia UK communicates with our community on a regular basis and involves them with the work of the charity at a strategic level as well as in the delivery of projects and programmes. Indeed, volunteers are critical to the development and decision-making processes of the charity at every level, including our board of trustees, board committees (which involve trustees and non-trustees), the Evaluation Panel and working groups.

Wikimedia community members play many vital roles in Wikimedia UK’s work, including:

  • Hosting, organising and leading edit-a-thons or other training events with partners
  • Contributing mass uploads to Wikimedia Commons
  • Participating in the Board as elected or co-opted Trustees
  • Participating in Board Sub-Committees as non-board members
  • Participating in the Evaluation Panel, which approves grants and other projects
  • Developing project proposals for consideration by the Evaluation Panel
  • Organising and/or participating in a working group
  • Being an ambassador for open knowledge and WMUK within their own community
  • Speaking at events or conferences on behalf of the charity
  • Responding to community consultations and strategic development and planning
  • Involvement in public policy and advocacy work
  • Taking a lead role on an external partnership
  • Taking photographs for content creation and documentation of our activities
  • Editing Wikimedia projects

Over the past year, following a period of significant change for the charity, we have endeavoured to strengthen and consolidate our relationships with volunteers and review our approach to retaining and recruiting editors. One of our key initiatives has been the creation of volunteer roles and the development of a new on-wiki volunteer portal, to enable both existing and new volunteers to engage with us more effectively. There is also an ongoing piece of work to find out more about the skills, experience and interests of volunteers and to use this to improve their experiences of volunteering with us as well as to inform and improve our programme delivery. In this sense, the general interests of volunteers are matched with our needs as an organisation.

An example of the way in which volunteers shape our delivery is the Wikimedia UK education event held in Leicester earlier this year, attended by around 40 volunteers and educators. Our trustee Josie Fraser worked with longstanding Wikimedia community member Fabian Tompsett to plan and organise the event, which featured presentations, small group discussions and plenary sessions designed to feed into the charity’s long-term plans for education and learning. Notes and pictures from the event, which was supported and hosted by the Learning and Work Institute, can be found here. It was a case of a specific volunteer interest that matched perfectly to what we needed delivered within our programme.

In general terms, every potential project or partnership is considered against a set of selection criteria, such as whether there is an identified need for the project, and whether there is the potential for volunteer engagement. As such, needs assessments are an ongoing element of our project planning, with major projects such as potential Wikimedian in Residence partnerships often sent to UK community activists for their advice and input as appropriate.

Listening to our community

In January we conducted our annual online survey of volunteers to find out about people’s experiences of volunteering with us over the previous year (2015 in this case). We received responses from 70 volunteers – a similar response rate to previous surveys – and the results painted a mixed picture in terms of how volunteers had engaged with the charity over that year when we had an interim CEO in place, and the extent to which they felt supported and informed during the organisational restructure. Despite some critical comments, the survey also pointed to a willingness to engage with the charity in future, with 80% saying that they were likely to continue volunteering with Wikimedia UK. 80% of those who responded also said that they were likely to recommend volunteering with the charity to a friend.

We held our Annual General Meeting in Birmingham in July, with roughly a quarter of our total membership voting in trustee elections in-person or by proxy vote. We combined the AGM with volunteer training, workshops, networking and presentations and received very positive feedback from attendees, with 75% rating their overall experience as very satisfying (5 out of a potential score of 5) and the remainder rating it 4 out of 5. Feedback received through anonymous evaluation forms included:

Everything feels euphoric this year!
Well done everyone - pleased that it kept interesting and to time
Very impressed by venue. The ambience is good and makes everything more interesting.
Very useful to know more about Wikidata
What a lovely atmosphere

The AGM is an important opportunity to bring volunteers together in order to support networking and exchange and to listen to community views on how the work of the charity could be developed. We held a very positive session as part of this year’s AGM, facilitated by the Chief Executive, where volunteers could ask questions and suggest new ideas and ways of working for the benefit of the wider movement.

Earlier this year, we conducted an online community consultation on the new strategic framework for the charity, which provided vital feedback on our proposed direction of travel and encouraged a level of ownership of the strategy at a community level. This has been followed by a similar consultation during September on our draft communications strategy.

Prior to submitting this proposal we held a day of meetings to discuss and develop our plans for next year with the Wikimedia UK community. This included a meeting of our Evaluation Panel to review and input into the proposal for funding; a follow up to the education meeting held in May, enabling participants to feed into our emerging work in this area and help shape plans for next year’s Educators’ Summit; and a briefing on our key activity plans for next year.

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) 610,070 799,777 283,201[1] 371,265[1] 610,070[2] 799,777[2]
Expenses 608,079 797,167 264,808[1] 347,153[1] 608,079[2] 797,167[2]


Table 2 notes:

  1. a b c d Figures as of 31 July (our Q2 end), as we only produce financial reports quarterly.
  2. a b c d Estimated, as full projection will be carried out at Q3.


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


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. Volunteer hours: time spent by volunteers and lead volunteers supporting the work of the charity
  2. Total audience: combined total of the audiences we reach through our activities including Digital media reach, Number of participants and Number of leading volunteers
Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Volunteer hours Total audience
Diverse content and contributors 1,500 700 89,500 8,000 1,620
Promoting open knowledge 2,000 0 0 4,800 52,010
Education and learning 500 300 500 3,200 515
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 4000 1000 90,000 16,000 54,145


Table 3 notes:

  • Wikimedia UK is mindful of the concerns that have been raised in previous years by both Wikimedia Foundation staff and the Funds Dissemination Committee regarding low targets for our programme work, and indeed it was partly with a view to ensuring that we could increase these significantly that we undertook our substantial restructuring last year. As we hope is evident from our Progress Report for the current financial year, we have already met many of our targets for this year, and have exceeded all but one of our targets for Global Metrics. We have therefore set targets for 2017–18 that we believe are ambitious but achievable, and which we hope reflect the size and scale of the Chapter and our funding request to the Foundation.

    In January 2017 Wikimedia UK revised our indicators (but kept the targets from our APG proposal) for the financial year 2016–17, in line with our new strategic framework and in response to our learning over the past few years in terms of monitoring, evaluation and reporting. These indicators are collated and presented to the board of trustees on a quarterly basis, in the form of a performance report which includes a table of our progress against numeric indicators and a narrative on our progress towards our strategic goals. The reports include information that is of specific interest and benefit to the charity and our UK stakeholders, and we will therefore continue to collate this wider range of indicators in addition to the grant metrics required for reporting to the Wikimedia Foundation.

    For 2017–18 we will be making minor revisions to our performance report template, mainly to take into account the new shared grant metrics which replace the previous global metrics. Within each programme description below, we have included a table with the full set of quantitative indicators that we will be measuring in 2017–18, along with our baseline metrics. We have a detailed internal document explaining the rationale and criteria for each of our quantitative indicators, with explanations of some key WMUK-specific metrics highlighted under the relevant programme strand below.


2. Goals and Objectives for each Programme

Programme 1 – Diverse content and contributors

Strategic Goal: Increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects

In order to achieve this goal, between 2016 - 19 we will:

  • Develop a range of partnerships with content-holders such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums, working with these organisations to unlock cultural heritage assets and other content, and increase public engagement with these collections
  • Develop partnership projects that specifically address inequality on the Wikimedia projects, with a particular focus on the gender gap and on geographical bias, both within the UK and globally
  • Engage with volunteers regularly and effectively, supporting the development of a thriving volunteer and editor community in order to maximise the reach and impact of our work, and our ability to address content gaps
  • Ensure that we are working to diversify content producers by widening our volunteer and editor community, including actively encouraging women and other underrepresented groups to participate

Our SMART objectives for this programme in 2017/18 are:

  • At least five organisations we work with during the year contribute content to Wikimedia projects, adding 20,000 media files to Commons (plus any mass uploads). Our projected year end figure for the current year is 39,000 but this includes a 24,000 mass donation.
  • 89,500 Wikimedia articles are improved (including 7900 created) as a direct result of our programmes, as compared to our original target of 10,000 across all programmes for the current year, and projected year end figures of 80,000.
  • Our work with organisations to reuse content results in at least a 10% reuse rate of the total content contributed during the year; maintaining our current ambitious proportion.
  • 85% of volunteers that respond to our annual survey would recommend volunteering with Wikimedia UK, 80% feel valued by the charity and 75% feel they have developed new skills (representing a 5%, 10% and 5% increase on our 2015/16 survey results respectively)
  • Wikimedia UK engages with 1500 participants (including 700 new editors) through training, editor retention, outreach and other initiatives. This compares to a total of 1856 across all our programmes in 2015/16 and an expected 1100 for this programme in the current financial year.
  • 120 lead volunteers and 1500 participants contribute 8000 volunteer hours to the charity, supporting the generation of diverse content, compared to a target of 4600 hours across all our programmes in the current year.
  • We engage with a diverse volunteer group, with women making up at least a third of our lead volunteers. This compares to our current year end projection of 30% women.

Our quantitative targets including baseline metrics are included in the table below:

Indicator 2015/16 Actuals
(all programmes)
2016/17 Targets
(all programmes)
2016/17 Projections
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets - Programme 1
Participants 1856 500 3200 4000 1500
Newly registered editors 438 300 850 1000 700
Articles added/improved 13,072 10,000 80,000 90,000 89,500
Volunteer hours Not measured 4600 15,000 16,000 8000
Total audience and reach Not measured No target set due to lack of baseline data 45,000 54,145 1620
Leading volunteers 70 260 110 145 120
Female % of above Not measured 33% 30% 33% 33%
Volunteers would recommend WMUK 80% 85% 85% 85% 85%
Volunteers feel valued by WMUK 70% 80% 80% 80% 85%
Volunteers have developed new skills 70% 75% 75% 75% 75%
Images/media added to Commons 20,797 20,000 15,000 (plus one 24,000 mass upload) 20,000

(plus mass uploads)

20,000

(plus mass uploads)

Images/media added to Wikimedia pages 2217 2000 2000 2000 2000
% uploaded media used in content pages 11% 10% 10% 10% 10%
New articles added 6712 1000 7500 8000 7900

Notes on targets for Programme One:

This table shows our results for the last financial year (2015/16), our targets for the current year (2016/17) and our projected actual results for this year based on our half year indicators (as detailed in our Progress Report). Grant metrics are highlighted in bold.

The Wikimedia UK financial year runs from 1st February to 31st January.

We are very pleased with the progress that we have made during the current year and believe this demonstrates that Wikimedia UK is now strongly focused on programme delivery with the potential for excellent future results. Almost all of our targets are significantly higher than those that we set for the current year, and most (including all of our formal Grant Metrics) are also higher than our projected year end figures. Exceptions to this include the target for lead volunteers, which we have defined more strictly and which we feel now more accurately reflects what is achievable and realistic for this metric, and images added/reused, where our increasing focus on diversity and acute, defined content needs means that there is a strong emphasis on quality over quantity.

Please note that the ‘Number of leading volunteers’ represents people participating in Wikimedia UK projects as organisers, trainers, facilitators, coordinators and speakers at events, where these activities wouldn’t happen without volunteer input. ‘Total audience and reach’ is the combined total of the audiences we reach through our activities including Digital media reach, Number of participants and Number of leading volunteers.

We have produced two logic models relating to this programme, which illustrate our theory of change and our qualitative indicators in the form of short term and intermediate outcomes:

Programme One: Background and overview

Wikimedia UK works in partnership with the cultural and education sectors and other organisations to make knowledge freely available, usable and reusable online. Last year, the staff team and volunteers worked with over 50 organisations, and we currently have ongoing partnerships with some of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the UK including Bodleian Library (the main research library of the University of Oxford and one of the oldest libraries in Europe), British Library, National Library of Wales, The Natural History Museum, Tate (comprising four galleries which house the UK’s national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art), University of Edinburgh and Wellcome Library (one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history). We also support smaller museums with important and diverse collections, such as our work with Groam House Museum this year, whose Celtic and Pictish collections are nationally recognised.

With the UK’s imperial and colonial history, and the country’s considerable wealth, its cultural holdings are world-class; indeed, many items in the collections of our galleries, libraries, museums and archives have come from around the world and reflect a long history of western violence, looting and appropriation. This colonial past as well as our longstanding membership of the EU have created one of the most culturally diverse countries in Europe, with over 300 languages spoken including many immigrant languages - mainly from South Asia and Eastern Europe - and indigenous living languages including Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.

In early 2016 Wikimedia UK reviewed and updated our strategy for the next three years, and issues of diversity and equality are now central to our vision and our planned activities. We believe that as the Wikimedia chapter for the UK we have a responsibility to work with partner institutions to open up their content to as wide an audience as possible, identifying those collections which could address content gaps arising from systemic bias and enabling people from all ethnic and linguistic backgrounds living in the UK and beyond to enjoy increased access to their own heritage. Whilst Britain may be leaving the EU, the internet recognises no borders. It therefore feels more important than ever to increase access and reach to the astounding collections of our leading cultural heritage organisations, which in many cases have been drawn from all over the world over a period of centuries and reflect both our global past and our diverse present.

In line with our new strategy, our current work with partners therefore has a strong focus on diversity, with projects addressing inequality and bias on Wikipedia and the other projects including gender, minority languages, the cultural heritage of minority groups in the UK and other specific content gaps that we identify alongside our partners. We have taken on board the FDC’s concerns regarding our proposed work with minority languages, and are prioritising our work with Scottish Gaelic and Welsh as important indigenous languages spoken by communities who are often marginalised from mainstream culture in the UK. This work is also addressing a clear content gap on Wikipedia.

In 2017 we will continue to deliver our highly successful programme in Wales, developing relationships with partner organisations and advocating for more to get involved. Talks with key Welsh heritage and language organisations will continue (such as the Welsh Government, Eisteddfod Festivals, Church of Wales, People’s Collection Wales and the National Library of Wales), supported by Wikidata and volunteer training efforts. Welsh Wikipedia already has a higher rate of female to male articles than the English Wikipedia, and we are considering running a ‘gender neutral’ project which would bring this ratio to 50/50. Building on our expertise with this type of work, other indigenous heritage projects we are looking at include a possible collaboration with the Isle of Man.

Organisational partnerships continue to be central to programme delivery at Wikimedia UK, and in 2017 we will further build on and leverage our existing institutional relationships, deliver events and projects with new partners, and pilot new ways of working with the GLAM, STEAM and education sectors to increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. Over the next few years we are also keen to scale up our partnership activity, facilitating multi-partner collaborations that will exponentially increase our reach and impact.

The development of this programme is informed at a strategic level by Wikimedia UK’s Partnerships Advisory Board. The work is strongly aligned with the movement priority of KNOWLEDGE as we are addressing both the quality and quantity of content, ensuring that underrepresented subjects are covered as well as increasing file diversity, and diversifying the editor base. This focus on volunteers also addresses the movement priority of COMMUNITIES, increasing the retention and engagement of existing and new volunteer contributors through training, networking and other events, supporting volunteer-led initiatives through grant making and project development, and providing clear, local and relevant volunteering opportunities.

Programme One: Key activities planned for 2017-18

Exciting new developments for this programme area include the following projects, partnerships and prospective residencies, which could have a significant impact over the next few years:

  • Bòrd na Gaidhlig has awarded the National Library of Scotland, working in partnership with Wikimedia UK, a grant of £19,000 towards a Gaelic Wikimedian in Residence project that will be launching around January 2017
  • We are continuing to develop our relationship with the House of Commons (the elected chamber of the UK Parliament) and are in discussions with senior level staff about a potential Wikimedian in Residence next year (2017). We will be delivering initial training and engagement events for staff in the final quarter of 2016-17 and supporting the development of the internal business case for this work.
  • In October 2016 we will be launching a major three year partnership project with the National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF), members of which include leading universities and GLAM institutions as well as heritage organisations such as English Heritage, The National Trust, Historic England and Historic Scotland. The first year of the project will include a series of training and engagement events, with plans for a Wikimedian in Residence working across a number of partner organisations in the second year.
  • We are exploring a possible collaboration with SLIC (an umbrella organisation of libraries in Scotland, with a focus on advocacy), and discussing how a high level partnership could support both our organisations’ strategic priorities.
  • We are developing our relationship with the Welsh Government and exploring ways in which to support their high level ambitions for openness. Connected to this work is our relationship with the National Eisteddfod, a celebration of the culture and language in Wales and one of the oldest festivals in the World.

Wikimedian in Residence programmes will continue in the following partner institutions into 2017:

  • Bodleian Libraries, where a second broader phase of the residency has been funded by Oxford University’s Innovation Fund from September 2016. The residency will continue to increase access to minority cultural heritage assets - a defining and highly successful feature of the first year - with an additional focus on staff training, researcher outreach and Wikidata
  • Edinburgh University, (also in the second year) where the resident is working within Information Services to advocate for Wikimedia and open knowledge, identify opportunities for content improvement and image releases, deliver workshops and events for staff, students and the public, and develop links with the open educational resources sector
  • National Library of Wales, a major partnership for Wikimedia UK involving a highly successful residency which is now in its second year, and which has led to substantive changes in the policy and practice of the library as well as significant online impact. Some of the individual projects related to this residency are also highlighted later in this proposal, under other programme strands.
  • Wellcome Library, where the Wikimedian in Residence started in May 2016 and will be drawing to a close in early 2017. This residency has been focused on reusing diverse content, with a particular emphasis on women in medicine.

We will continue to work closely with the following partner organisations who have previously hosted Wikimedians in Residence, building on the legacy and sustainability of this programme and developing new projects and initiatives to open up access to knowledge:

  • British Library, with whom we are working in partnership on a number of projects including Europeana Sounds and the Women & Food project (in collaboration with the Oxford Food Symposium)
  • Cancer Research UK, where we are delivering a series of training sessions for researcher staff and volunteers, in order to extend and sustain the very high impact of our previous Wikimedian in Residence project
  • Museum Galleries Scotland, where a year long residency came to an end in May 2016. MGS is an umbrella body working with many of Scotland’s museums and galleries, with partnership work delivered in individual settings such as the Groam House Museum as well as a substantial amount of sector-level advocacy
  • Natural History Museum, where we will be working with staff and Wikimedia UK volunteers to upload content from the museum’s data portal onto Wikimedia Commons (where it will be linked to Wikidata and Wikipedia), enabling significantly higher levels of public access and reuse. The Natural History Museum’s data portal - created as a result of the earlier Wikimedian in Residence project - represents a continually growing resource of open data, and illustrates the long term impact and benefit of Wikimedia UK’s partnership work.
  • National Library of Scotland, whose very successful residency came to an end in 2015 and with whom we are now working in partnership on a publication about open, and to deliver the Gaelic project described below.

We work with a range of other organisations on partnership events and initiatives that address our strategic priorities. In 2017 this will include (but is not limited to):

  • Amnesty International, where we will soon be delivering an initial partnership event to engage their staff and volunteers with open knowledge and to give our volunteers an opportunity to improve the coverage of human rights issues on Wikimedia
  • Llen Natur, a society formed to study, publicise and conserve the fauna, geology and climate of Wales, with whom we have worked very successfully in 2016 to secure major dataset release - in particular, working through Wikidata to significantly increase access to their content across multiple languages
  • Privacy International, the human rights "watchdog" organisation focused on privacy intrusions by government and businesses. This partnership is in its infancy however we are envisaging it as a way to engage people working in the tech sector more closely with our work at Wikimedia UK and diversify our volunteer body
  • Royal Academy of Arts, with whom we worked in partnership in 2016 as part of Art+Feminism and who are now keen to hold Wikipedia workshops for the Friends of the Royal Academy. We are also working with their dataset of academicians to establish coverage of notable artists on Wikipedia, and holding discussions about potential content donations.
  • Senate House Library, where we will continue to run events linked to the library’s exhibitions, increasing our public outreach and drawing on the expertise of staff at the library and linked institutions to improve the quality and quantity of content on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.
  • Tate Gallery, with whom we are collaborating on a series of events focused on diverse artists and participants, with an editathon on queer artists held in 2016 and further activities planned to increase coverage of artists who are underrepresented on Wikimedia.

We will continue to participate in international projects that resonate with our priorities whilst enabling us to connect with and contribute to the global Wikimedia movement. In 2017-18 these are likely to include:

  • Art + Feminism, following a highly successful first year of the project in the UK that saw us run events in nine prestigious arts institutions. In 2017 we plan to build on the success of this work, delivering more events and using this international programme as a way of connecting more widely with galleries and forming new partnerships.
  • Wiki Loves Monuments, which we have previously run on a number of occasions - including 2016 - and which can be a tool for engaging with new editors, as well as its primary focus of increasing awareness and adding high quality photographic content on Wikimedia
  • Europeana 1914–18, a project for Wikimedia Affiliate organisations to undertake activities relating to the centenary of the First World War, working in collaboration with a Europeana partner organisation or using a Europeana service
  • Linking with the UNESCO residency, for example around a sound reuse project
  • We are also currently exploring the potential to deliver a project with one of our existing partners as part of Wiki Loves Women, and have offered support in promoting WikiChallenge, Wiki Loves Africa and Wikipedia Primary School to the UK volunteer community and to editors from the African diaspora.

Across all of our partners we are introducing a Wikidata element where appropriate. This is particularly useful in the context of minority language Wikipedias such as Welsh, where it allows for significant growth in content. We will be looking for large database releases where possible in order to support this growth and increase access to open knowledge.

In another broad theme, we are working to supply not just diversity of information, but also a variety of file types. For example, we will be developing projects where Wikipedia pages can be enriched with sound files. This diversity of content (i.e. enriching text of Wikipedia with sound) will hopefully appeal to a wider audience, as different people ingest knowledge in different ways. This we hope will increase the reach of knowledge we are producing.

Developing our Community

Working with our community underpins all of our programme delivery, however given the scope and scale of our work to increase coverage of underrepresented subjects, a significant proportion of our work with volunteers falls under this programme strand. This is reflected in our targets for this programme and demonstrates how our extensive offline work with the Wikimedia UK community translates into online impact (as this is also the programme with the highest outputs and targets relating to content creation). It is also within this programme strand that we put the most focus on diversifying our volunteers and editors.

We believe that key to engaging our community is to ensure regular two way dialogue and to provide volunteers with the skills needed to support our programme and increase our reach and impact. Some of the ways in which we communicate with volunteers and engage them in the work of the charity have been described earlier in this proposal. In terms of skills development, in 2017 we will run a focused training programme based on what volunteers tell us in our annual survey, and what we identify as priority areas for our programme. This is likely to include our highly successful Train the Trainers course (plus possible refresher and trainer networking) and the development of new training materials. We will also look to provide more technical skills training depending on volunteer demand and programme needs, such as Wikidata editing or photography.

In terms of resources, we will continue to provide photography equipment and volunteer grants, building on the expansion of volunteer activities supported through small grants that we have seen throughout 2016. So for example, a volunteer may participate in photography training, then be encouraged to borrow our equipment in order to take and upload photographs for Wiki Loves Monuments. Or we might link a volunteer grant idea to a project already being run by one of our partner organisations. Such synergies offer wider impact and can be more interesting to volunteers as well.

We appreciate that many contributors are committed to increasing diversity and equality on Wikimedia regardless of their own background, and are working closely with existing volunteers and editors to develop and deliver this work. However, in recognition of the relationship between increasing coverage of underrepresented subjects on the Wikimedia projects and diversifying contributor demographics, we are developing several pilot projects focused on recruiting and retaining editors from minority ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the UK. These include:

  • Kurdish Cultural Centre, with whom we are collaborating to reach out to the Kurdish diaspora community to engage them to improve educational resources in Kurdish and broaden the diversity of people who edit Wikipedia in the UK. This work has come about because of the strong links of our new Communications Co-ordinator with the Kurdish community in London.
  • Middle Eastern Women is a project led by a volunteer studying at Queen Mary University, encouraging other female students from the Middle East to contribute to Wikimedia and increase the representation of Middle Eastern women on the Arabic, English, Kurdish and Farsi Wikipedias.

We will also be continuing our writing competitions, which have proven to be a highly effective way of engaging editors and which will be steered towards areas of underdeveloped content on Wikipedia.

The gender gap continues to be a priority for Wikimedia UK and we are choosing partner institutions and event topics with the gender gap and diversity criteria at the forefront of our minds. Our Chief Executive has spoken on various platforms during 2016 about the editor and content gap and initiatives to address this - including the WOW Festival at the Southbank Centre, the Open Data Institute (where the lecture launched their Women in Data series) and OSCON London 2016 (the Open Source Conference). Lucy will also be speaking at MozFest 2016 on Wikimedia UK’s work to ensure that the Wikimedia projects reflect our diverse society and are free from systemic bias.


Programme 2 – Promoting open knowledge

Strategic Goal: Support the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level

In order to achieve this goal, between 2016 - 19 we will:

  • Develop the identity and increase the profile of Wikimedia UK in order to engage with as wide a range of volunteers, editors and participants as possible, connect with potential partners and supporters, and increase public awareness of open knowledge
  • Support and encourage long-term, sustainable change in policy and practice within individual organisations in the GLAM sector and beyond, through a combination of staff training and development, engagement events for volunteers, visitors and online audiences, the release and distribution of content (including text, media and data), policy development, internal and external advocacy and education initiatives.
  • Advocate for change across the cultural sector by showcasing the benefits of working with Wikimedia UK and open knowledge at events and conferences; facilitating dialogue amongst key institutions; and leading or participating in joint open knowledge initiatives
  • Engage with other Wikimedia and open knowledge communities by working in an open way to facilitate, and contribute to, shared learning across the global movement
  • Contribute to initiatives that seek to influence public policy and legislation affecting open knowledge - both within the UK and at an EU level - for example by supporting the work of the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group (a partnership of Wikimedia chapters), and playing a lead role in the WMUK Advocacy Working Group

Our SMART objectives for 2017/18 are:

  • Awareness of Wikimedia UK and open knowledge increases, with the charity reaching over 50,000 people during the year including 2,000 attending our talks and presentations (compared to an anticipated total reach of 45,000 people across all our programmes in the current year).
  • We participate in at least three public policy or legislation consultations at a UK or EU level by giving evidence in support of open knowledge
  • Policy changes are affected by our advocacy activities, for example with evidence taken into consideration in the development of public policy, or a demonstrable change in a partner organisation’s policy and practice. These targets are similar for those in the current year as this is an area that can be hard to predict.
  • Three partner institutions move towards a greater degree of openness by changing their internal procedures, guidelines, or policies as a result of our work with them
  • Our advocacy work involves at least 10 lead volunteers, generating 4,000 volunteer hours (from lead volunteers and participants) by the end of the year. This represents a considerable increase on the current year and reflects our increasing focus on advocacy work, particularly in the light of the current political changes in the UK.

In addition, Wikimedia UK has a set of shared objectives for EU Policy work, in partnership with a number of other European Chapters, as described here.

Our quantitative targets including baseline metrics are included in the table below:

Indicator 2015/16 Actuals
(all programmes)
2016/17 Targets
(all programmes)
2016/17 Projections
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets - Programme 2
Participants 1856 500 3200 4000 2000
Volunteer hours Not measured 4600 15,000 16,000 4800
Total audience and reach Not measured No target set due to lack of baseline data 45,000 54,145 52,010
Leading volunteers 70 260 110 145 10
Digital media reach Not measured No target set due to lack of baseline data 40,000 50,000 50,000
Responses to consultations 4 3 2 3 3
Policy change affected 3 3 3 3 3

Notes on targets for Programme Two:

Advocacy can be the hardest area in which to identify meaningful metrics, given that public perceptions are difficult to measure and that institutional and legislative changes can take a long time to achieve. We have identified a number of proxy measures and intermediate targets that should help us to understand what progress we are making within this programme strand, and are recording our progress against these in 2016/17 in order to develop baseline metrics for future planning and reporting. Often however, this area of work really comes alive in the narrative reports that we produce for our board of trustees on a quarterly basis, where we can describe the institutional changes that we are affecting through our programmes.

Please note that ‘Digital media reach’ is the sum of people we reach in a given period through our online engagement and includes Twitter followers (English and Welsh), Facebook subscribers, YouTube views, WMUK mailing list subscribers, WMUK newsletter subscribers and WMUK website visitors.

Our qualitative indicators are included in the logic model below, in the form of short term and intermediate outcomes:

Programme Two: Background and overview

Advocating for open knowledge is a critical aspect of Wikimedia UK’s strategy, and is a vital element of our work with partners as well as our broader public engagement activities. The most successful Wikimedians in Residence become change makers within their host institutions, advocating for and supporting the development of more open policies, as well as working at a more practical level to open up knowledge and embed Wikimedia into the workflow of the organisation. Beyond that, once established at their organisations, the residents often scale up their influence beyond their host institutions, advocating for change within the sector they are working in.

Whilst much of our partnership activity is covered under programme one, in the key activities section for programme two (below) we have included our current and ongoing partnerships that have a particularly strong focus on advocacy. We have also highlighted those projects which are taking place at a sector-wide level and involve Wikimedia UK advocating for open knowledge and facilitating dialogue and exchange amongst content holders, umbrella organisations and funders.

One of our three year aims under this area of our work is to develop the identity and profile of Wikimedia UK in order to engage with as wide a range of volunteers, editors and participants as possible, raise our visibility with potential partners and supporters, and increase public awareness of open knowledge. This relates directly to our communications and grassroots advocacy work and in order to keep the focus of this proposal on programme delivery, we are not covering these activities in any detail. However, for information, our three year communications strategy is available to read here.

Our programme for promoting open knowledge also includes more direct advocacy in the arena of public policy and legislation. This comprises two aspects; our support for and involvement with the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group, and our work in the UK to contribute to and amplify these activities, lobbying on specific UK legislative and policy issues. Both aspects of this work are informed by Wikimedia UK’s Advocacy Group, made up of staff, trustees and volunteers.

A key area for development over the next few months and years will be to understand the potential impact of Brexit and to position Wikimedia UK to be able to positively influence relevant legislation that may come under review by the UK Parliament. We will also seek to forge relevant links with the Scottish and Welsh Governments, building on our current relationship within the Welsh government and our extensive Scottish network.

Direct advocacy with the UK Government on copyright issues will be a new area of work, as we take advantage of opportunities to exercise greater influence on UK national legislation. At the same time, we feel that it is important for us to continue to contribute to the wider EU Policy work led by Dimitar Dimitrov, as the UK is likely to remain a member of the EU for at least the next two years. Through deliberations in 2016, the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group of Wikimedia Chapters have developed and agreed on a new distribution of resources for this joint endeavor, with Dimi becoming an employee of WMDE in order to provide him job security and continuity for his quality work. In 2017, priorities will include involving additional Wikimedians in advocacy and networking activities, participating in dialogues and consultations, collaborating with other stakeholders such as the tech industry and assuring that copyright reform benefits Wikimedia projects.

This programme supports the movement priority of reach, as in order to open up knowledge and increase access to it, we need to change the underlying conditions that are currently keeping content closed. We also need to develop the public’s understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and the dangers of enclosing our cultural commons behind paywalls.

Programme Two: Key activities planned for 2017–18

We will advocate for change at an organisational level by:

  • Facilitating a peer learning network for UK-based Wikimedians in Residence following the launch of this initiative in 2016, increasing their effectiveness in advocating for change within their host organisations. We are also considering opening this up to international Wikimedians in Residence if it would be of benefit.
  • Supporting the development of open research culture and practice at Oxford University through the Bodleian Libraries Wikimedian in Residence project, to incorporate Wikipedia and other projects such as Wikidata and Wikisource
  • Collaborating with the National Library of Wales to develop their internal business case for openness, and encourage the wider dissemination of this work to support our advocacy activities across the GLAM sector.
  • Promoting open knowledge and engagement with Wikimedia within other partner organisations, advising on digital policies and procedures, supporting the relicensing of content under an open Creative Commons licence, and working towards the inclusion of Wikimedia in the workflow of staff to ensure sustainability

We will work at a sector-wide level to influence the policies and practice of cultural heritage organisations, in order to maximise our reach and impact and create forward momentum around open knowledge. Whilst the focus of this work will be the UK, we will also share learning and best practice with international colleagues in order to develop our own work and to support others in the Wikimedia movement. This will include the following activities:

  • Following on from our research and analysis of the long term effects of hosting a Wikimedian in Residence, taking place in Autumn 2016, we hope to create a strong and compelling case for this programme which can be shared nationally and internationally
  • We will further develop our advocacy work with the Heritage Lottery Fund and other lottery funders to encourage and advocate for a change in funding conditions around licensing (which currently stipulate a Non-Commercial clause). If successful, this could be a significant step towards supporting open access to cultural heritage in the UK.
  • Our work with the National Heritage Science Forum, highlighted under programme one, is expected to have a strong advocacy element, increasing engagement with Wikimedia and promoting an understanding of and commitment to open knowledge amongst all 22 member organisations
  • We are drawing on our considerable experience to contribute to and help promote an open access book created by the National Library of Scotland, which is intended to be a practical and explanatory handbook on the use of open licences for content, data and metadata in libraries and other cultural heritage organisations.
  • We will play a lead role in the planning, development and delivery of a conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh, promoting a particular aspect of working with the Wikimedia projects (to be agreed, but possibly GLAM and Wikidata/Wikisource, or expanding minority and indigenous languages)
  • We will ensure a high level of representation from Wikimedia UK staff and volunteers at relevant conferences and events, aiming for Wikimedia and open knowledge to become a regular feature in cultural heritage sector conference programmes
  • Key staff and trustees will attend the Wikimedia Conference and Wikimania (budget permitting), delivering training and contributing to the programme as required. We will also support volunteers attendance at Wikimania 2017.
  • We will further contribute to movement learning by participating in regular ED teleconference calls and the Education Collaborative, submitting stories and case studies to This Month in Glam, creating global learning patterns on a quarterly basis and attending (and possibly hosting) the planned GLAM coordinators meeting in Spring 2017.

Our work in public policy and legislation continues to develop, as follows:

  • We will make an active contribution to the work of the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group, supporting the delivery of our shared objectives by contributing both funding and staff time, and encouraging the involvement of UK volunteers
  • We will engage with EU public policy campaigns as appropriate, galvanising our advocacy volunteers and wider community to respond to consultations, promote public understanding of the issues and engage other stakeholders in this work
  • At a UK public policy level we will start developing relationships with key politicians and policy makers likely to be involved in Brexit negotiations, with a focus on those who have been working on digital issues. We will be preparing for the opportunities and challenges presented by Brexit in terms of copyright law and other legislation related to open knowledge. In particular we are likely to be focused on text and data mining and developing plans for a focused campaign to ensure this is not restricted to research institutions.


Programme 3 – Education and learning

Strategic Goal: To support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in the UK

In order to achieve this goal, between 2016–19 we will:

  • Engage Wikimedia volunteers and advocates and partners from the education sector in the development and delivery of this programme, to ensure that we are directing our resources appropriately and responding to needs, issues and opportunities
  • Connect with the education sector and OER through speaking at conferences and events about the work of Wikimedia UK, the wikimedia projects more broadly and how open knowledge can support and enrich their work with learners
  • Further develop our work within the higher education sector using the Wikipedia in the Classroom tool, and exploring other models that could lead to online impact
  • Facilitate pilot activities within a range of educational settings that support the use of Wikimedia projects as a tool for teaching and learning, with a focus on digital literacy, and advocate for the inclusion of Wikimedia in curriculum, syllabus and course development
  • Develop appropriate content for learners and educators. This could include video, downloadable materials for teachers such as lesson plans, or online learning tools and platforms; investing in the development of software support or other technological innovation as appropriate.

SMART objectives for 2017–18:

  • Through Wikipedia in Classroom assignments which we run with Universities, 400 articles on Wikimedia projects are improved and a further 100 are created, which is a steady increase on this year’s projection of 350 improved and 25 new articles
  • Through Wikipedia in Classroom, we engage with 300 new editors and work with 15 lead volunteers. Together, they contribute 3,200 volunteer hours; this is in line with our projections for the current year
  • By the end of the year we engage with a further 200 people through other education and learning activities including pilot projects. This is a new group of people since we have not delivered those pilot projects in the current year
  • 75% of course participants report an increase in their skills and confidence in terms of digital literacy (this is a new measurement)

Our quantitative targets including baseline metrics are included in the table below:

Indicator 2015/16 Actuals
(all programmes)
2016/17 Targets
(all programmes)
2016/17 Projections
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets
(all programmes)
2017/18 Targets - Programme 3
Participants 1856 500 3200 4000 500
Newly registered editors 438 300 950 1000 300
Articles added/improved 13,072 10,000 80,000 90,000 500
Volunteer hours Not measured 4600 15,000 16,000 3200
Total audience and reach Not measured No target set due to lack of baseline data 45,000 54,145 515
Leading volunteers 70 260 110 145 15
Articles added 6712 1000 7500 8000 100

Our qualitative indicators are included in the logic model below, in the form of short term and intermediate outcomes:

Programme Three: Background and overview

The UK is home to some of the world’s most important galleries and museums. Wikimedia UK is working with the gatekeepers of these incredible collections, supporting the cultural heritage sector and other organisations who hold large repositories of information to understand their crucial role in developing open knowledge, and providing support in navigating issues around digitisation, copyright and licensing, and overcoming cultural, technical, legal and financial barriers to change. We believe that the real value and public benefit of open knowledge, however, lies in people being able to understand and engage with it. Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects can enable learners to evaluate and critically engage with knowledge and information, as well as to access the world’s most comprehensive and reliable source aggregator. We also want to work with young people as the producers of open knowledge, not just passive consumers. This third programme strand is therefore about how to develop Wikimedia as a teaching and learning tool in the UK, with content production being both a potential means and a by-product, but not the end goal.

In 2016 we have worked with a range of prestigious higher education institutions in the successful delivery of Wikipedia in the Classroom. We will continue to develop and deliver Wikipedia in the Classroom as one of our more established education projects, encouraging translation between different languages to support our diversity objectives. In the coming year we will further build the ‘case to be involved’ with Wikimedia so that our programme can develop at scale, creating compelling case studies, promoting our work at key sector conferences, producing useful resources for educators and delivering events such as the Educators Summit in partnership with Middlesex University.

Many teachers and lecturers in the UK currently advise or instruct their students not to use Wikipedia, and so we need to address the perception of the Wikimedia projects within the education sector. We want to raise awareness amongst educators that Wikimedia can be a useful tool in improving their students’ digital practice in an academic context, through critical thinking and the study of bias; datasets and metadata; primary sources and library science; translation and corpus linguistics; plagiarism and paraphrase.

Within the Wikimedia UK community there are a number of education experts who are actively contributing their knowledge and expertise to the development and delivery of this relatively new programme strand for Wikimedia UK. We will also be looking to other chapters, for example through the Education Collaborative, to discover good practice and project models which we could replicate in the UK. As lead volunteers delivering this programme with us are such a valuable resource, we will build networks so they can support and learn from each other. This will include creating our education portal, and running networking, training and other events to bring together active and prospective volunteers.

Somewhat ironically, despite the Wikimedia UK office being in London, our education work is currently most developed in Scotland and Wales. This is for a variety of reasons including the presence of our dedicated Wales Programme Manager, our highly successful Wikimedians in Residence in both countries and the nature of devolved government in these smaller countries within the UK. In Wales, we are optimistic that our advocacy work with examining body WJEC will be successful and that Wikimedia will be incorporated into the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification. We are also developing projects with local learners through our Wikimedian in Residence at the National Library of Wales.

In Scotland, our education work is being developed by the Wikimedian in Residence at Edinburgh University, who is working across a number of departments to support the inclusion of Wikipedia and to make this sustainable by training ‘local’ Wikimedia Ambassadors who can support others in teaching and learning (with 12 already having been trained). Engagement with Wikimedia throughout the university is a long term goal which involves ongoing dialogue with course leaders, and the creation of case studies, course models and journal articles in order to legitimise Wikipedia’s usage in higher education; showcasing these at conferences and workshops in order to raise awareness and develop relationships with other academic institutions. Where the university has already had success in courses such as Reproductive Biology, Translation Studies and World Christianity, the resident is documenting and sharing these results in order to encourage lecturers to run their own Wiki Education assignments. In Scotland we are also exploring the potential to contribute to teacher training through the PgCAP (Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice), which would have a sector-wide impact.

This programme supports the movement priority of reach, and the Wikimedia Foundation’s commitment to engaging new readers.

Programme Three: Key activities planned for 2017–18

We will support higher education engagement with Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia projects by:

  • Continuing to support the delivery of Wikipedia in the Classroom, with current partners including Queen Mary, University College London, Portsmouth University, Swansea University and Warwick University
  • Develop Wikimedia engagement across the University of Edinburgh, as highlighted in the programme overview above
  • Supporting lecturers who are interested in setting a programme up at their university, including Exeter, plus others if capacity allows
  • Holding a peer learning meeting for lecturers who currently run Wikimedia education projects in the UK to further develop skills and capacity, following on from our successful sharing and networking event in 2016.
  • Supporting student peer-to-peer learning, both as an aspect of the Wikipedia in the Classroom projects we’re supporting in universities but also through new, more direct approaches and pilot engagement activities such as student societies.

We will engage with potential new partners and inform and inspire educators by:

  • Holding a Wikimedia Educators’ Summit in February 2017, in partnership with (and hosted by) Middlesex University. The event will be for up to 60 participants including experienced Wikimedia UK volunteers, educators from higher education, further education and schools, students and other people who are interested in developing their understanding of how to use open knowledge in an education setting and incorporate Wikimedia into teaching and learning.
  • Supporting and directing our volunteer community to develop new resources for educators, with a particular focus on preparing high quality materials for the Educators’ Summit, where resources including videos, lesson plans and suggested course materials could be tested out and improved.
  • Attending Open Education Resources Conference 2017 (OER17), sharing the work that we are doing which can impact on the education sector and highlighting the opportunities for institutions and educators to get involved

We will work both nationally and internationally to advocate for Wikimedia and to influence curricula and policy by:

  • Contributing at a strategic level to UNESCO’s second World OER Congress, taking place in September 2017 and preceded by a series of regional consultations. This will primarily be through our trustees Josie Fraser, who is co-charing OER17, and Lorna Campbell, OER Liaison Manager at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Working closely with WJEC, the leading examination body in Wales, to develop Wikimedia modules as part of the Welsh Baccalaureate
  • Developing new contacts with professional associations in England and Wales to ascertain ways to support them and introduce Wikipedia into schools and the school curriculum, and engaging our partners within the WJEC to expand our scope to include Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5.

We are also exploring new education activities beyond higher education, including an inter-generational, family learning initiative in partnership with the Learning and Work Institute and a data literacy project for secondary school age students (11–18) in partnership with Stirling University in Scotland.


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.

Following an extensive restructure during 2015, the staff team at the start of the 2016/17 financial year consisted of nine roles (8.6 FTE). The team this year has been made up of an experienced Senior Management Team comprising the Chief Executive, Director of Finance and Operations and Head of Programmes and Evaluation; three Project Co-ordinators (with one of these posts based in Wales); a Programmes and Administration Assistant to support the work of the programmes team (with a particular emphasis on monitoring and reporting); a Communications Co-ordinator (appointed in April this year and replacing the previous Head of External Relations post); and an Office and Development Manager. As reported earlier, following Richard Symonds departure at the end of August 2016 we have reviewed our operational and support needs and created two new roles, one full time and one part time, bringing our planned staff team to 9.2 FTE in 2017/18.

The staff team is now more focused and aligned with organisational strategy than ever before, with project co-ordinators working across all three of our programmes rather than operating in silos. Given the changes over the past few years, we envisage a period of stability and consolidation rather than any further major changes, however in the longer term (2018–19 and beyond) we hope to be able to grow the programmes team with the appointment of a dedicated project co-ordinator in Scotland.

The organisation is committed to staff development and will continue to encourage those who work for and with us to seek out opportunities to develop their skills, experience and networks. In the current year, development opportunities for staff have included one-to-one coaching, in house training and support, participation in training for volunteers and Wikimedians in Residence, external training courses, and attendance at seminars, conferences and other events.

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.

Table 4

FTEs
Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes
Programmes 5.8 6.0 -
Executive (including fundraising) 1.0 1.0 -
Finance and operations 1.8 2.2 -
Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 8.6 9.2 -

Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes:

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?
  • £342,237 (US$448,659) – using same exchange rate as 2017–18 budget for ease of consistency
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?
  • £368,547 (US$483,150)


Financials: upcoming year edit

Detailed budget: upcoming year edit

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)


Donations 215,000 281,856 probable
Gift Aid 12,000 15,732 probable
Gifts in Kind and other fundraising 110,000 144,206 likely
Annual Plan Grant 310,000 406,398 application
Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 647,000 848,191 -


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

  • In our proposed budget for 2017/18 we are requesting £310,000 (406,398USD) from the Wikimedia Foundation to support our activities, which represents 48% of our planned income. The remaining 52% of our anticipated income is made up of individual donations, Gift Aid that we can recover on those donations from the UK government, and Gifts in Kind and other fundraising (including major donors, trusts and foundations and corporate giving). This budget line was new for Wikimedia UK in the current financial year and represents our commitment to diversifying our income streams, however it is also the hardest to forecast accurately, hence the status of this is 'likely' rather than 'probable'. Given our experience this year, a target of £110,000 in Gifts in Kind and other fundraising feels ambitious but achievable, particularly given our planned growth in terms of fundraising activities and capacity, supported by the change to our operational support roles. We have described our planned programmatic activities in full in this proposal, however please note that we will be supporting our advocacy activities through individual donations, rather than our Annual Plan Grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.


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) 168,601 221,029 186,994 245,142 170,592 223,639
Upcoming year (e.g. 2018) - - - - 170,895 224,037
2. How much FDC funding is your organization requesting to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period?
  • 0


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
Diverse content and contributors 63,350 83,049.32
Promoting open knowledge 72,450 94,979
Education and learning 16,500 21,631
Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 152,300 199,659

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) 152,300 199,659
Operations (excludes staff and programs) 125,850 164,984
Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 368,547 483,150
Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 646,697 847,794

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. LucyCrompton-Reid (WMUK) (talk) 16:33, 30 September 2016 (UTC)