Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Art+Feminism 2022/Midpoint Report

Midterm Learning Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 22 July 2022

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Midterm

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General information

This form is for organizations receiving Wikimedia Community Funds (General Support) or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their mid-term learning and results. See the Wikimedia Community Fund application if you want to review the initial proposal.

Name of Organization: Art+Feminism
Title of Proposal: Art+Feminism 2022
Amount awarded: 335275 USD, 335275 USD
Amount spent: 151819 USD

Part 1 Understanding your work

1. Briefly describe how your strategies and activities proposed were implemented and if any changes to what was proposed are worth highlighting?

According to the strategic plan we developed in early 2020, one of the biggest challenges we face is to make Art+Feminism a fully cross-regional organization in an equitable and accessible way. We continue to make progress on this plan.

This ranges small and concrete like establishing retirement plans for staff, to bigger picture, ongoing and evolving actions like standardizing practices and protocols around our internal team evaluations and exit interviews with the goal of ongoing learning and striving to do better.

We’ve also added more scaffolding around the Regional Ambassador program by having a goals worksheet that was designed by our Program Manager and then collaboratively completed with each Regional Ambassador. This was then used as a tool for check-ins and accountability for all parties. Helping us move towards our objectives of establishing pathways and support for new leadership within the organization; optimizing our regional ambassador program to support the personal and professional development of our regional ambassadors, and overall, improving our communications strategies in this area of our work.

In terms of Wikiverse collaborations, we’ve also been more active with the ED group and have championed setting up a clear structure for eligibility to the group. Additionally, we’ve set up monthly calls with stakeholders in Black Lunch Table, Whose Knowledge?, and afroCROWD to come together more regularly for informal knowledge sharing, coalition building, and for future collaborations.

Due to the shift in WMF funding coinciding with our own programmatic break, our annual campaign had a later start than we typically do. That being said, we’re excited to share that to date, we’ve celebrated 113 programs with over 1000 editors in our current campaign. Here is a map of our progress so far in 2022: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Art%2BFeminism_editathons_-_2022.png

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you feel are being effective in achieving your goals?

The pause we took in 2021 has greatly influenced our ongoing strategy. We continue to encourage time for reflection among staff on a monthly basis and this has enabled us, organizationally, to reevaluate and realign when a certain approach isn’t working. We’re reflecting on what is possible and what needs to be adjusted in our project calendar to help us work against burn out and recognizing that all this work is happening among cascading trauma felt universally to various degrees. We are actively considering the impact of switching to a four day work week, with the lens that we do not want to try to cram 5 days of work into 4, but to truly do less in order to help keep our team energized to do this important work.

3. What challenges or obstacles have you encountered so far?

We wrote the grant proposal requesting multi-year funding but did not receive it, so not everything proposed initially will not be fully realized in this one-year cycle. One of those items in particular that we proposed was about focusing on Board development and recruiting an international board member. This is not feasible in our one year grant, but we are hopeful to be shifting focus to that effort in 2023.

4. Please describe how different communities are participating and being informed about your work.

An example we recently shared with our wider community, is the work of Network Organizer, Anthony Diaz in the Philippines. More details of his experience can be found on our website here: https://artandfeminism.org/artfeminism-in-the-philippines/ Anthony has taken a very creative approach to our traditional edit-a-thon format and incorporated art-based workshops, interviews with artist and cultural workers and visits to cultural spaces. Through his one on one meetings with A+F staff, Anthony has also been supported in developing a team of volunteers to support Art+Feminism work throughout the Philippines.

In our response to the next question, we detail some accomplishments from a regional leader in Ghana.

5. Please share reflections on how your efforts are helping to engage participants and/or build content, particularly for underrepresented groups.

In 2022, the role of West African Indigenous Language Coordinator evolved out of our pilot position of Indigenous Ambassador. This role has really expanded the depth and breadth of Art+Feminism related work in West Africa and has also rippled out into the larger Wikiverse.

Among many activities, Sadik Shahadu, our West African Indigenous Language Coordinator, organized a Gurene Wikimedia Community and Moore Wikimedia Community events. Both events took place in May 2022 with over two dozen students participating and learning more about editing Wikipedia. At the Gurene Wikimedia meet-up 14 students made their first edits on the Gurene Wikipedia (Incubator).

A participant in the Moore event in Tamale, Ghana shared, “It is a great challenge and a pleasure working to bring ones language on the limelight through wikipedia and its sister projects. Translating technical terms from English to Moore is quite challenging but with determination and dedication to duty, one can make the impossible possible.“

6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What have you learned so far about these areas during this period?

“How can we support a global community, across cultural and language barriers in an equitable manner?”

An area we continued to invest in is translation and interpretation. Initially we relied heavily on our multilingual community members to do this heavy lifting. In 2022, we’ve been engaging with language co-ops and individual contractors who are professional linguists. Additionally, we continue to work with a translator in Palestine on an Arabic translation of our website. We’re also in conversation with Wikimedia Argentina about translating their guide “Wikipedia y las biografías de personas LGBTT+”.

“What strategies help our communities feel safe on Wikipedia and at Art+Feminism?” We’ve engaged our leadership and Regional Ambassadors in ongoing education and training around equity to help better understand how the cultural shifts within our own organization can be better infused in all our roles and the work of the organization as a whole.

“What can we do to continuously create safer and braver spaces [...]. What does this mean in a community context and what does this mean in an employment context?” We released our Equity Statement and Anti-Racism policy in early 2022. Further, we engaged with Anti-Racism hiring training as we prepared to hire for a new staff position and new co-leads. The hiring committee, with representation from staff, board, and regional ambassadors underwent a multi-session training specifically around anti-racism practices in a hiring setting.

7. What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your work?

We’ll continue to use this learning priority to guide us: “What can we do to embrace our own learning and unlearning of knowledge so that we may dream of new ways of being and doing, individually and collectively?” As we continue on this trajectory, we’ll continue to work towards creating spaces for engagement to dream and hopefully move into real space these ideals. In particular, we recognize disability justice and accessibility are growth areas in our organizational structures.

Part 2: Metrics

8a. Open and additional metrics data.

Open Metrics
Open Metrics	Description	Target	Results	Comments	Methodology
N/A	(continuation of response for 27a.) In tandem, we’re conscious that we’re still in a global pandemic and do not wish to add additional pressure to our organizers to have a certain number of events, attendees, or articles to help us demonstrate metrics. We’re celebrating the fact that they’re organizing and find any contribution worth celebration and praise.	N/A	12	Regional Ambassador Program Development A+F Program Manager has successfully engaged with all 12 regional ambassadors through creating work plans and meeting one on one. These successful engagements include: supporting regional leaders to build upon interest and skill sets. We now have regional leaders who are contributing to the organization's communications strategy, developing outreach strategies specific to the region they support, and taking leadership roles in the organization’s event planning. These engagements have also helped us to start preparing for regional leaders for other opportunities within the organization and helped us better accommodate team members with disabilities by allowing us to craft work plans that account for additional support needs.1:1 Creating more individual plans seems to be a good direction for this program to engage regional leaders beyond the standard expectations of the role. These plans so far have proven to be of mutual benefit by fulfilling organizational needs and keeping these team members engaged within the organization. Over the long-term, we expect to see improved retention and better transition processes with the implementation of these plans.	worksheets (goals were set at the start of the campaign and notes were taken throughout the campaign year) and meetings.
N/A	N/A	N/A	12	Evaluation of Funded Events So far, 12 of the event organizers that have received microfunding have completed the post-event survey. A first time organizer in Colombia shared, “Estamos muy contentas de haber realizado la primera Editatona de Mujeres Artistas de Colombia en Bogotá. Queremos seguir colaborando y agradecemos mucho haber podido contar con el apoyo económico para el evento por parte de Art+Feminism, gracias y hasta pronto!”	airtable form, with mostly optional questions
N/A	N/A	N/A	1	Community Support Sessions We’ve held one community support session so far this year. To encourage participation, we do not record these sessions and delete the automated transcripts produced via Otter.ai (the tool we use for captioning) at the conclusion of these sessions. This session in particular had a range of experienced Art+Feminism organizers from some who’s first time it was organizing, to others who have been organizers for years. All participants were curious and generous, creating a robust conference. We’ve heard that many of them continued their conversations after the session. We hope to have at least one more session this year.	anecdotal
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics	Description	Target	Results	Comments	Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
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	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	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

8b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics	Results	Comments	Methodology
Number of participants	1470	As of July 7, 2022, we recognize this does not capture everyone who attended a lecture or workshop or an event that is not a traditional edit-a-thon.	Programs & Events Dashboard
Number of editors	1470	As of July 7, 2022	Programs & Events Dashboard
Number of organizers	164	As of July 7, 2022 - did a download of the dashboard and sorted by organizers	Programs & Events Dashboard

**Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project**
Wikimedia Project	Description	Target	Results	Comments	Methodology
N/A	N/A	N/A	20400	20,400 references added to Wikipedia as of July 7, 2022	Programs & Events Dashboard
N/A	N/A	N/A	129000	total revisions on Wikidata As of July 7, 2022	Programs & Events Dashboard
N/A	N/A	N/A	5420	added to WikiMedia Commons As of July 7, 2022	Programs & Events Dashboard
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

9. Are you having any difficulties collecting data to measure your results?

We remain interested in moving away from core metrics and learning and creating new ways of collecting and reporting metrics in a more qualitative manner.

10. Are you collaborating and sharing learning with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

10a. Please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how?

Two specific examples:

In March 2022, Art+Feminism was invited to present to the WMF Board of Directors about our work. We have also applied for a lightning talk at Wikimania specifically to share about our equity work (based largely on this presentation). Also in March 2022, we wrote a Diff post about our Call to Action Art Commission: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/03/02/artfeminism-call-to-action-art-commission/

In general, we continue to use our website news section, mailing list via Mailchimp, and social media for places of ongoing sharing outside of the Wikiverse.

11. Documentation of your work process, story, and impact.

Below there is a section to upload files, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g. communications materials, blog posts, compelling quotes, social media posts, etc.). This can be anything that would be useful to understand and show your learning and results to date (e.g., training material, dashboards, presentations, communications material, training material, etc).

Below is an additional field to type in link URLs.

Part 3: Financial reporting and compliance

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

151819

13. Local currency type

USD

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

Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
Provide links to your financial reporting documents.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UCyyDKqv2TvQgBTx9QwCCue7VVlk4Acery3cHwXNEQI/edit#gid=291558489

tab: 2022 YTD Actuals - June 2022

15. Based on your implementation and learning to date, do you have any plans to make changes to the budget spending?

No

15a. Please provide an explanation on how you hope to adjust this.

N/A

16. We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being a grantee has been so far.

Art+Feminism’s work has benefited enormously from the support of the WMF, and the WMF has benefitted from our work reciprocally. Working multilingually and cross-culturally requires patiences and time, a reality the foundation knows well. We feel strongly that we are excellent candidates for multi-year funding which will allow us to develop more robust outreach and research projects on a global scale. We are hopeful that more substantial feedback and conversation with the committee this round will result in a successful multi-year proposal.