Grants:APG/Proposals/2019-2020 round 1/Wikimedia Czech Republic/Staff proposal assessment

Staff assessment summary

Wikimedia Czech Republic is one of the newest members of the APG General support program, and the organization has been undergoing great changes in the past two years, streamlining their organizational and staff structure as well as reevaluating their programs to implement more strategic approaches. While it still does not have a full fledged strategy, we have observed a shift in approaches to evaluate, develop and change programs to make them more relevant and impactful. We would like to see more work on strategic alignment with Movement Strategy in 2020. Wikimedia Czech Republic has been working to integrate community feedback on its work through various channels, such as community advisory groups, empowered to make recommendations to project managers, but also online discussions and surveys.

Strategy and programs

Wikimedia Czech Republic Annual Plan presents three programs that will be supported by three cross-cutting schopes of Diversity, Capacity Building and Partnerships.

The Program "Multimedia and Community" is built upon the historical multimedia program which has long been one of the most successful programs of WMCZ in the past. The Multimedia & Community program has added a strong component of bridging the content gap, which it will do by developing partnerships with GLAMs which can contribute content to Wikimedia projects. These partnerships will be developed around finding mutual gain, with training workshop, thematic events, Wikipedian in Residence and information on the use of free licenses. The community activities will aim at attracting newcomers and new members to the active community with regular editathon and workshops, as well as campaigns such as "We photograph Czechia" a program aimed at supporting and attracting photographers. This program will also have a strong advocacy component, needed to promote Wikimedia projects effectively.

WMCZ's Education programs have historically been very successful, and span across all ages, with flagship programs such as "Teach (with) wik"i, which mixes approaches tending to teach how to edit Wikipedia as well as using Wikipedia in the classroom, or the Seniors Write Wikipedia program, which has been focused on supporting seniors interested in working with Wikipedia and editing, through dedicated trainers but also librarians trained to support the program in their libraries, which allows for this program to grow without straining the volunteer and staff resources of the chapter. Wikimedia CZ has developed a large pool of trainers that support them in their education activities, and is now able to answer needs expressed by potential partners or participants easily.

WMCZ has always been close to technology developments of the Wikimedia world, starting with their long time support of the Commons app, and they have added a Wikidata and Tech program to their program structure, which takes advantage of their context, where tech-savvy participants are interested in developing skills that will in turn help to support work with institutions wanting to work with Wikidata. While this program is in development, it looks promising and builds upon real existing expertise within the chapter and the Czech community.

We find the approach of Wikimedia Czech Republic in developing its programs by identifying target groups to be working well, and can see the strategic thinking behind how programs have evolved in the past years. We are looking forward to working with WMCZ further on identifying next steps for the organizations, especially around governance practices which need to evolve to accommodate the needs of an organization of this size and this scope.

Budget & grant request

Wikimedia Czech Republic is asking for 2,911,461 CZK (~ 127,755 USD). Wikimedia Czech Republic is looking at identifying low hanging fruit possibilities for fundraising opportunities (local grant making schemes) and has developed a network of capable consultants in various areas of work, a good way to identify opportunities and create continuity in certain areas such as communications or finance management. The grant ask is slightly higher than previous years due to a recurring exchange rate problem between EUR and CZK that has lowered their available budget and the need for them as part of the APG general support program to provide a financial audit.

• Recommendation: We recommend granting Wikimedia Czech Republic its full request of 2,911,461 CZK (~ 127,755 USD). Request granted Delphine (WMF) (talk) 13:32, 5 December 2019 (UTC)