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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/2023 GLAM Macedonia General Support Grant /Final Report

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Final Learning Report

Report Status: Unknown

Due date: 2024-01-30T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Final

Application Midpoint Learning Report

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General information edit

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.

  • Name of Organization: GLAM Makedonija Skopje
  • Title of Proposal: 2023 GLAM Macedonia General Support Grant
  • Amount awarded: 33694.63 USD, 1777310.26 MKD
  • Amount spent: 31530 EUR

Part 1 Understanding your work edit

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.

2023 proved to be highly successful and productive for GLAM Macedonia in terms of programmes implementation and future organization and status of GLAM Macedonia and the general Macedonian Wiki-community. Collaboration with other institutions proved to be highly successful and useful for the growth of the community and the its productivity. Wiki Clubs and its members, led by the proposed idea and collaboration by the Institute on intangible cultural heritage on working on Living Heritage topics. This was gladly accepted by the students and volunteers and they were motivated to give their best while executing the tasks. This direct collaboration with the expert from the Institute proved to be a key factor for the success of the actives within the Wiki Clubs and the Wiki Camp, which for the first time was international. Moreover, the expend of team also played a crucial role in the growth and success of GLAM Macedonia. New wiki clubs were opened and new members were trained, students and adults. Led by the idea of mutual respect and collaboration, direct personal contribution to greater good of the general Macedonian community, the students were non-selfish in giving their best for the final success of the programmes. Personal encouragement and commitment of the volunteers played an important part of the successfl completion of the programmes. The second half of the year was also important for the organization due to the commitment and the efforts of its members and key people in creating the new Wikimedia MKD organization, a merge of GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge. This is seen as one of the core items of the community's vision for bright Wiki-community future,

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?

Collaboration with GLAM Institutions turned out to be a huge motivation and one of the key factors for engagement of the volunteers and organization's members. Having in mind the fact that the GLAM Institutions actively participated or put efforts in realization of the programmes by providing materials, consultations, training and assistance, the volunteers were motivated to give their best and felt that they directly contribute to topics that are not very commonly met in the Macedonian Internet space. That said, they were more than happy to contribute Wikipedia and its related projects and these activities brought new members, students and teachers. The focus on volunteerism and active involvement of the students and adult volunteers in the processes is also very useful practice that contributed to success of the programmes. Being consulted for new ideas and proposals in terms of project improvement and finding new methods of implementation showed that the capacity of the community increased and the results were significantly increased.

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?

Our projects have unique elements that set them apart from others in the movement. Here are some ways which shows the innovations in our projects:

1. Collaboration with Embassies: By collaborating with embassies, our project "Meet (name of the country", and this year it was Italy, have a unique international dimension, fostering cross-cultural exchange and the sharing of knowledge on a global scale. Involving embassies could provide diplomatic support, potentially lending credibility to our projects.
2. Wiki Senior Project: The Wiki Senior project focuses on engaging older individuals, it represents an innovative approach by addressing the information needs of a demographic that might be overlooked in traditional knowledge-sharing initiatives.
3. Wiki Camp: Wiki Camp involves a hands-on and immersive learning experience, emphasize how this approach differs from traditional learning methods. Experiential learning can be a powerful way to engage participants and foster a deeper understanding of the principles of free knowledge.
4. Educational Initiatives increased community engagement.
5. GLAM: Wiki Loves Living Heritage was a whole year project. There were several workshops about living heritage, held by the Wikipedian in Residence, and much more, we dedicated this year's Wiki Camp to living heritage, by inviting Ivona Opetcheska Tatarchevska, senior associate for folklore goods at the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and Susan Anas from Helsinki, initiator of the project Wiki Loves Living Heritage, who opened the event.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.

We used social media, newsletters, workshops, press releases of events, community forums, direct address, and any other means of communication we could possibly use. For example, thee was a workshop which lasted four hours, with 10 students from SUGS Nikola Karev from Skopje. The workshop was visited by professor and mentor Emilia Ristanovska, and guests of the workshop were: The author of the rock encyclopedia Tosho Filipovski and the founder of the music register Vasil Buraliev. Mr. Filipovski and mr. Buraliev found out about the workshop, and were delighted to be able to attend.

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Strongly agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Strongly agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. Strongly agree

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

We have at least 20 members altogether who belong to underrepresented groups in Macedonia: Serbians, Turks and Aromanians. Partner with local community organizations that work with underrepresented groups is usually helpful. These organizations often have established connections and trust within the community, making it easier to reach potential participants.

Much more, we took a part in several international editing events about Roma people, LGBT people etc.

Part 2: Your main learning edit

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?

We have learned a lot, of course, although the main things related to organizing events have already been perfected. However, by organizing each of these events, novelties appear that we learn, and on which we base our further activity. The main news this year was about organizing an international Wiki Camp, which is a great success for us.

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?

We were pleasantly surprised with the interest in Intangible Cultural Heritage by the volunteers/ participants in the programmes, especially students. In almost every activity organized by GLAM Macedonia, the number of participants was higher than initially expected. Consequently, the results of the programmes were higher as well, especially content creation and content improvement. Additionally, we were positively surprised with the interests of the teachers to take part in the training/ conferences for teachers. Twice more than expected was the number of teachers at the conferences, especially in showing interest in opening wiki clubs and working with students on Wikipedia articles.

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

Looking back at the past year and the completed projects, we are even more motivated to continue engage students and volunteers in free knowledge movement, particularly content creation, content improvement and in-live activities (Wiki Camps and Wiki Clubs) which proved to be very useful for the participants for fast and efficient activism and best way of collaboration. The feedback we receive from the volunteers teaches us that the opportunities for collaboration and mutual help in content creation/ improvement we offer are even greater motivation for the participants to give more to the movement itself.

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

This year was full of inspiring moments, but seeing high school students from diverse backgrounds come together on Wiki Camp for ex., form connections, and build a sense of community can be a powerful and inspiring outcome.

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files

Part 3: Metrics edit

13a. Open and additional metrics data

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Organized events Organized events, including in person events from all projects altogether. 60 55 We count workshops, Wiki Camp as one event, conferences for teachers and other organized events by the GLAM Macedonia members. Counting
Number of participants Number of involved participants in all projects altogether 590 480 Involved participants are Wiki Club's members, other GLAM Macedonia members, seniors and adults. Counting
Number of organizers Number of involved organizers in all projects altogether 50 60 We count organizers involved in some event. For example, for Wiki Camp, which is 3 days event, we had at least 6 persons who were organizers. Other smaller events usually have one or two organizers. Counting
Number of pages Number of pages created or improved in all projects altogether 4100 4025 N/A Counting and using dashboard outreach.
Institutions involved Number of institutions we worked with 45 35 This additional metrics we will use to say something about Number of institutions involved in our programs. For 2023, we worked with 35 institutions altogether, which are GLAM, Edu, NGOs and other kind of institutions. Counting
Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities Number of editors that continue to participate 120 95 Number of editors that continue to participate Counting
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees Diversity of participants brought in by grantees 20 20 We worked with Serbs, Turks and Roma members. N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

13b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants Number of participants involved in our programs 590
Number of editors number of editors involved, newly registered and registered prior the project 370 215 The number of new trained editors, or newly registered users for 2023 is 95, 18 of them are wiki seniors. As we work manly with the students, the larger number of new editors are high school students.

The number of students and adults that continue to participate, or registered prior the project, is 120. Altogether 215 editors.

counting
Number of organizers Number of organizers in our events 50 60 We count organizers involved in events. For example, for Wiki Camp, which is 3 days event, we had at least 6 persons who were organizers. Other smaller events usually have one or two organizers. counting
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikipedia Number of pages created or improved 4100 4025 Wikipedia pages created or improved in 2023. counting
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

No

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.

/

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/GLAM_Macedonia/Wiki_Senior_2023

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/GLAM_Macedonia/WIKI_CLUBS_2023

Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships edit

17. Organizational Capacity

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
B. Conflict management or transformation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
D. Partnership building This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
E. Strategic planning This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
F. Program design, implementation, and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
J. Governance This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
K. Communications, marketing, and social media This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
M. On-wiki technical skills This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
N. Accessing and using data This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
O. Evaluating and learning from our work This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces), Using capacity building/training resources onlinee from sources OUTSIDE the Wikimedia Movement, Using capacity building/training resources online from sources WITHIN the Wikimedia Movement

17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?

Our organizational capacity has grown, especially after we hired people for tasks that volunteers are tired to do by themselves all the time. It is crucial not to burn out the volunteers, as they are the main pillars of the organization. Volunteers began to be much more creative in coming up with new projects, as well as in devising interesting ways to implement the projects.

19. Partnerships over the funding period.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Permanent staff outreach, Board members’ outreach, Volunteers from our communities

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Local policies or other legal factors

20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?

Every time there has to be something the partners would like to accomplish. Some institutions need fresh projects to join in, so our projects are bringing us together. Some of them want to promote their work, and Wikipedia or our joint events and activities are the right place for them. For example, the Association of rare diseases in Macedonia found Wikipedia right place to publish facts and information about the rare diseases. Wiki Club Ohrid works with this Association five years in a row. We still have a good collaboration and communication with the partners we started to work together 5 or 6 years ago. Additionally, the Institute for Intangible Cultural Heritage encouraged us to take part in their call/ invitation to work on such topics and it proved highly successful collaboration

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration edit

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?

It means actively involved in all programs of the Movement. It means our organization gives the best to share, promote and improve the Movement goals by successful implementation of projects, local and among affiliations, giving and sharing ideas with all affiliations and groups involved in the Movement and promoting the volunteerism on a local and international level. It means being equal partners with all affiliations and groups, no matter the size, language or ethno-cultural background.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Increased significantly

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

We as organization involved in the movement experienced changes in our strategies, goals, and collaborations, every year we are part of the Wikimedia. Over time, factors such as shifts in public perception, and changes in policies influenced how we as individuals and organization, and our participation in the free knowledge movement, changed our work. Adaptability, collaboration with others, this year specifically with members of Shared Knowledge, and a commitment to the principles of open access and sharing information, remain key elements for us involved in the movement. Increased engagement means a positive development in terms of achieving the goals associated with open access to information, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Increased significantly

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

Looking back at the feedback we receive constantly by the active participants, they do feel that they have invested something in the movement itself. When an activity is done, or a programme completed, the participants strongly believe that they did something concrete to improve the community's mission, actively participated in the enrichment and improvement of the Macedonian language articles and content and put their efforts in expending, as much as they can, the scope of work of the organization by proposing ideas or improving the existing ones.

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

Besides the Wikimedia Movement and the free knowledge movement, the Organization is motivated to work on decreasing the gender gap on and off Wikimedia projects, promote volunteerism and involve the young students/ population into extra-curricular activities for the benefits of the wider population. Additionally, the community was motivated to appreciate and contribute to the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration edit

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?

Regarding sharing results, we mostly use mailing lists, our websites and social media channels, newsletters, along with having presentation and lightening talks on in-person at international meetings. Mailing list made of our wider membership is used on regular basis for informing on the programmes' results and the future tasks. In a similar way, we use the mails and mailing lists for contacting other organizations where we share the results and learning experience. Another good options, also fast and comfortable to use, are the Telegram channels and FB pages. We use them on regular basis for informing the other organizations, our wider membership and the general Macedonian public on the successes and successfully completed projects.

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

We do this occasionally (less than once a month)

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?

One good occasion for sharing ideas and learning goals is the meeting in-person. For instance, we used various conferences to share our learning experience, the goals we achieved and how we managed to involve new participants and implement the programme. We received similar response by other organizations and we enriched the list of ideas and protentional new programmes. Another good channels for communication and sharing ideas are the various online and mailing groups, for instance Telegram or mailing lists, which are fast and available means of communication and mutual collaboration. CEE newsletter and GLAM and Edu newsletters are also good places for sharing results.

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance edit

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

31530

31. Local currency type

EUR

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

None

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?


34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?


As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

The annual budget from WMF for 2023 was 29,480.oo EUR, plus we received 2,050.oo EUR as support for merging process costs. Altogether the sum is 31,530.oo EUR.

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