Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Creating free knowledge through educational, GLAM & capacity building projects & collaborations while enhancing diversity & social representation in He-WP & AR-WP
- Deputy Director for Content and Programs: - Shai-WMIL
- Coordinator for Hebrew Educational Programs: - Ruti-WMIL
- Coordinator for Arabic Educational Programs:- Abeer-WMIL
- Marketing and Events Coordinator: - OphirT- WMIL
- Finance and Administration Coordinator: - Hanna-WMIL
- Coordinator for Higher Education Programs - currently in recruiting process
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Applicant details edit
Wikimedia username(s):
- Executive Director - RevitalP-WMIL
- Deputy Director for Content and Programs: - Shai-WMIL
- Coordinator for Hebrew Educational Programs: - Ruti-WMIL
- Coordinator for Arabic Educational Programs:- Abeer-WMIL
- Marketing and Events Coordinator: - OphirT- WMIL
- Finance and Administration Coordinator: - Hanna-WMIL
- Coordinator for Higher Education Programs - currently in recruiting process
Organization:
- Wikimedia Israel
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did receive a grant
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- Yad Hanadiv, Check Point, The Azrieli Foundation. We have received grants from local philanthropic foundations, that are focused on specific areas of interest, and limited in their amount and support components.
Approval of their grants depend on each Foundation's financial availability, timetable, policy, and priorities. Funding criteria are subject to changes at the discretion of the relevant Fund. These grants are applicable to 2022
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Additional information edit
R. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Israel
S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:
- Local
S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- https://wikimedia.org.il/ , https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaIL, https://www.linkedin.com/company/wikimedia-israel , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8iNP1OE_ppqlGGEo5sYTg
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Proposal edit
1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?
Wikimedia Israel is the local Israeli chapter of the worldwide Wikimedia movement. It works in close cooperation with the global Wikimedia Foundation and with other local Wikimedia chapters around the world. Our main goal is to promote and secure access to knowledge and cultural assets by encouraging people from all parts of the Israeli society to share their knowledge and create free content, namely content that is easy to access, share and reuse from technological and legal points of view.
Derived from the Wikimedia Foundation vision, this proposal faithfully represents the chapter's vision, and translates it into practical language and action plan through a variety of projects, each of which supports our goals and outlook. The chapter’s strategy, derived from our vision, is based upon four organizing principles (detailed in a separate document) that are the backbone around which our clusters of activities are organized, each of them is manifested in a number of activities and programs conducted in the various Wikimedia projects, as detailed in the work plan.
The proposal below was built on the basis of internal learning processes that we constantly carry out, and reach their peak when we develop the next year’s work plan and the derived grant application, during which all insights gained throughout the year are consolidated. Through a series of questions, we review and examine each project and activity, to ensure they follow our vision, goals, capabilities, desired impact, and additional aspects that ought to be taken into consideration (such as, what works, what does not and why, logistics, budget, human resources, visibility, reachout potential and more). We also look into possible innovations that may be included in the project to enhance its potential impact, and new opportunities that may be included in the new planning. We consider the work plan and the grant proposal an opportunity to make adjustments, changes, and innovations, if and where deemed necessary, including, of course, maintaining continuity when the activity under consideration meets expectations.
2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?
The changes we wish to achieve, in accordance with the movement’s strategy, are meant to address the following challenges:
- The potential number of content creators, both in HE & AR, in our geographical domain, is relatively low due to the relatively small population and the small amount of available free online sources in both languages. The he-wp community doesn't fully represent the diversity of the Israeli society. Women are particularly underrepresented in content creation and their retention level is also relatively low due to subjectively unpleasant experiences. Consequently, there is insufficient content about underrepresented groups.
- Change required: An increase in the total number of editors and level of diversity, to ensure that the community composition reflect the Israeli social mosaic in a more balanced way. An improvement of the newcomers' experience with an emphasis on women and other underrepresented groups, to increase their retention probability, while also enhancing and creating opportunities to expand content on inadequately represented topics.
- The local population is small; therefore, the number of active volunteers is also rather low. Our volunteers are very committed - some have been active since the establishment of the chapter - but the workload is high and the needs are ever growing. We work constantly to preserve the existing group and enroll new volunteers.
- Change required: Improving methods & developing innovative approaches for managing the circle of volunteers and expanding it, while strengthening their synergy with the chapter, including, but not limited to, a more precise matching between the volunteers and their tasks and preferences, based upon capability mapping; enrichment of training processes; expressing our appreciation and gratitude to this qualified team of experts who contribute time, effort and knowhow to the chapter's overall work.
- The local awareness of free content as a means to increase accessibility, equality, education and creativity is low. This includes GLAM & governmental institutes, which show low willingness to share their contents.
- Change required: A continuation of our efforts to promote public awareness of the meaning of free content, while encouraging GLAM institutions to release contents to the public domain.
Our solutions for these challenges consists: (1) a careful choice of target audiences to create impact, diversification and inclusion, fostering underrepresented audiences that may become active creators of quality content (e.g. senior citizens); (2) creating inclusive and safe instructional environments for underrepresented audiences (e.g. women); (3) promoting the creation of impactful diverse content through instructional activities in HE- & AR-speaking educational frameworks and the academy, while emphasizing content gaps in he-wp & ar-wp; (4) developing a structured strategy for managing volunteer work in all aspects, with an emphasis on retaining existing volunteers, recruiting new ones, understanding the motivations of volunteers, matching tasks to abilities, building training processes and nurturing them as a quality team; (5) further development of instructional tools, while strengthening the team’s capabilities as facilitators and promoters of instructional activities; establishing a support environment for instructional materials; (6) completion of the development process of the Arabic online editing course to promote knowledge equity in Israel and worldwide; (7) raising awareness and promoting usage of the GLAM Dashboard as a means for accomplishing the advantages of releasing content - both locally and globally; (8) using our marketing tools and digital assets to improve visibility, engagements and outreach, focusing on storytelling mechanisms that showcase the chapter’s activities and the people involved (partners, participants, volunteers, etc.), and as part of the he-wp 20th anniversary in particular.
3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
Our strategy is based on integration of four major organizing principles:
- Increasing the engagement & representation of the various sectors and genders of the Israeli society;
- Enhancing and diversifying our activities with partners to create quality content, information & data;
- Developing capabilities, skills & tools to position ourselves as the leading organization in the field of free content;
- Increasing our visibility & organizational sustainability in our geographical domain & within the movement.
Our activity clusters will focus on:
- Our editing courses, as a central model for increasing diversity, inclusion & community expansion. Main target audiences: senior citizens, women & organizations that are focused on unique and underrepresented knowledge areas. Using online methods will allow better geographic diversity & outreach to remote and small communities.
- Knowledge-creation strategies aiming at enriching Wikimedia projects with quality contents & data are implemented through several cooperations: Article-writing projects in the HE- and AR-speaking educational systems & the academy, while prioritizing high-impact topics & insufficiently covered topics on he-wp & ar-wp, and further development of teacher trainings as force multipliers. Cooperations with organizations that can enrich Wikidata, combined with initiatives for fostering an open-source community. Continuation of the efforts to raise awareness of the local GLAM institutes of the importance of releasing the content to the network, and encouraging the use of the GLAM Wiki dashboard - both locally and globally, as a means of understanding the viability of this move. All these activities will be done with partners, thus creating force multipliers for our work.
- Development of training tools & skills will focus on expanding content-creation capabilities, both in training activities and for our staff and volunteers. We will continue with the development of a first online editing course in Arabic, to be available in Israel & throughout the movement, aiming at increasing cultural diversity and knowledge equity. A special effort will be devoted to the development, improvement & expansion of our volunteer forum, including enrichment of their training and integration into a wider range of activities.
- Enhancement of our sustainability and public visibility will include: Expanding resource development, with an emphasis on diversifying our income sources and prioritizing fields of activity with a combined potential of fundraising and significant impact. Initiating a thinking process to promote respectful discourse and improve the experience of new editors, to expand the he-wp community and improve its reputation. Increasing visibility in the community and reaching out to new audiences through social media and public activities (e.g. webinars) to deepen knowledge about Wikimedia projects and related topics.
4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
Our main objectives and activities for 2023 are:
- Promoting engagement and representation of sectors and genders in our society, in
terms of both content and content creators, in 50% of our activities.
- The online editing course will continue to serve as a central model for promoting this objective in both aspects: editors and content. Accordingly, we will hold up to 5 cycles of the course of which 1-2 will be designated for women only. Also, we will continue the current new approach of holding editing courses for organizations that represent unique and lacking content.
- Efforts will be dedicated to strengthen and foster relations with graduates of the senior-citizen editing courses, as a means of retaining and diversifying the editors’ community as well as strengthening engagement with the chapter and the community (including the enrollment of selected graduates as volunteers and advisors).
In the framework of the educational system, and the “Students Write Wikipedia” project, we will promote writing initiatives dedicated to underrepresented topics (in both he-wp and ar-wp) where possible and in coordination with the leading teachers. This will include, for example, entries about gender issues and women, entries related to the Hebrew Bible (a new field of knowledge that we are currently starting to introduce into our activity), entries on the Israeli Arab society, and more.
- Enriching our instructional capabilities with at least two new means;
Continuing the processes of developing and strengthening the team's proficiency and learning processes to ensure an ongoing skill improvement and an examination of new approaches. This will also include the internal training of a new team member who will soon become part of our academic projects, replacing the previous coordinator who left recently.
- Promoting awareness of free content, enrolling 4-5 additional GLAM institutes;
advancing the dialog with the WMF to define ways and means to ensure the future of the GLAM Wiki Dashboard as a global, useful and accessible tool for the usage of the movement at large.
- Fostering our community of volunteers, adding 3-4 new volunteers and new
volunteering fields, and expanding our overall working capabilities:
Continuing the thinking process, which we started this year, aimed at refining and improving the chapter's volunteering concept and implementation of the conclusions. The main desired action items include expansion of the number of volunteers, mapping volunteers’ abilities and preferences to enable them better expression of skills and increasing motivation and engagement, nurturing and strengthening training and enrichment activities, providing recognition and more.
- Continuing the cultivation and establishment of partnerships that generate force
multipliers and public awareness, to ensure further creation of content and data, and positioning the chapter as knowledge facilitator, while optimizing and streamlining our overall work and efforts invested. Steps that will be taken include, for example: expanding the number of teacher training programs in both Hebrew and Arabic, restructuring our work methods with the academy, to better streamlining our work and enhance results, coordinate expectation and define responsibilities with partners to prevent bottlenecks, and improve the cost-benefit equation in making the decision on potential activities,
- Enhancing awareness and strengthening the chapter sustainability and resilience.
He-wp’s 20th anniversary next year (July 2023) will serve as a central axis around which we will promote our marketing operation to enhance visibility and increase public engagement in and awareness of the movement's vision, of he-wp, of the chapter, of our community, of our partnerships and of the people behind the scenes that make it happen. We are currently working on a detailed marketing, events communication and social media action plan that will be implemented along 2023. Simultaneously we plan to use this unique axis as an opportunity for expanding our local fundraising potential and the engagement of audiences.
5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
No
5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?
- N/A
6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.
- Timeline /operational calendar is uploaded - Please refer to the attached document - "Timetable-WMIL 2023" - (Both Google Doc link and PDF version)
The attached operational timetable showcase the distribution of our activities and main milestones along the year https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U7JvLgA_nHe8D_1ya9E7xkCaI3zwjbX31gBbeuwOgWA/edit?usp=sharing
7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
The WMIL team is made up of the following members:
- Executive Director - RevitalP-WMIL- Full time
In charge of the chapter’s strategic planning and its implementation; responsible for the development and delivery of annual plans, resource development and financial decision making, development and fostering of partnerships and free-knowledge awareness in Israel and within the movement. At the end of 2022, the current ED will retire and a new ED will take over. The recruitment process is currently underway. As soon as the appointment takes effect, an update will be sent to WMF.
- Deputy Director for Content and Programs: - Shai-WMIL - Full time. In charge of the chapter’s content and educational programs, tools, skill development, education-project volunteers, and programs for enhancing diversity, including gender gap and senior-citizen editing courses.
- Coordinator for Higher Education Programs and Wikidata:- Currently in recruitment process in light of the recent departure of the previous coordinator.
- Coordinator for Hebrew Educational Programs: - Ruti-WMIL - Full time
In charge of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program in HE-speaking middle- and high-schools, as well as extracurricular activities, teacher training, development of instructional materials and guiding editing courses for designated groups.
- Coordinator for Arabic Educational Programs:- Abeer-WMIL - Full time
In charge of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program in AR-speaking middle- and high-schools, as well as extracurricular activities, teacher training and development of instructional materials.
- Marketing and Events Coordinator: - OphirT - WMIL - Full time
In charge of organizing the chapter’s events and communication, management of the chapter's digital assets and social media, marketing activities and public relations.
- Finance and Administration Coordinator: - Hanna-WMIL - Full time;
In charge of accounting support, administration and logistical support for the team’s tasks.
- All staff members listed above are salaried.
The team is reinforced by the following two external professionals:
- Training facilitator for the senior-citizen editing courses, who is responsible, with the team’s support, for the training and guiding process of each course unit that he leads.
- Professional developer who runs the technological development and maintenance of the GLAMWikiDashboard, and collaborates closely with the ED, who is incharge of the project.
8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Content Gender gap, Language, Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.
Our activity within the Arab society in Israel, which is an ethnic minority group, with a focus on the Arabic-speaking education system, represents a direct contribution to the promotion of knowledge equity. Our online editing course in Arabic, currently under development, will further contribute to this strategic pillar. For the first time, we add He-Bible topics that are highly lacking on he-wp to our “Students Write Wikipedia” project in Hebrew, hence, supporting reduction of the content gap on Jewish culture. Dedicating the he-wp editing program for gifted youth to women & women-related content, is a significant contribution to reducing the gender gap by adding dozens of such articles each year. Dedicating most of the ar-wp editing program in the Arabic-speaking education system to topics related to the Arab society in Israel (culture, tradition, sites, leading figures & women in particular) offers a unique source of knowledge (often the only source) in ar-wp on these topics.
9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
Education, Human Rights, Diversity
10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Gender Identity, Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Age
11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?
The strategies we employ are adapted to the specific target audience and the framework in which the project takes place. Our online senior-citizen editing courses (both mixed and women only) address age as well as gender underrepresented groups. Our strategy addresses the wish of these knowledgeable people to remain active and relevant, and to keep contributing to society, by providing the necessary know-how and creating a friendly attentive learning environment that mediates between the WP space and the course participants and graduates. In women-only courses - we focus on creating a safe environment with room for expression & feelings, which allows women to be more open and comfortable, and create essential contacts among themselves. Some of the courses are held with organizations that represent a poorly covered domain of content that the participants themselves are interested to enrich on he-wp. For example, we plan an editing course with the “929: Tanakh B'yachad” project, whose purpose is to add content on subjects related to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish heritage, which are not fully covered by he-wp. Retention efforts are tailored to the participants’ initial motivations and their continuity potential. This includes development & expansion of our complementary activities and support for editing-course graduates, to encourage their growth as editors and further engagement in the community & in the chapter's activities, including joining up as volunteers. Our activities within the AR education system are, by definition, the engagement of an underrepresented ethnic group. In this case, we, along with our MoE partners, share the same interest of giving room to their local culture & heritage through writing articles about these topics that are almost nonexistent on ar-wp. We choose together the topic list from which the students choose their preferred ones. The retention efforts in this case are oriented toward the organizers rather than the students. The continuity of this project in a given educational institute is an expression of satisfaction and understanding of the added value it provides for the educational process. The dialog we develop with the teachers is based from the outset on the common interest of exposing more students to WP-related skills, and imparting knowledge in both content creation and critical content consumption.
12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?
WMIL considers the safety & inclusion of our community members a crucial component of the ecosystem in which we operate. We apply a Safe Space Policy in all of our activities, whether face-to-face, in virtual spaces, in social networks or otherwise. In line with the UCoC, and in order to guarantee that members of our community feel welcomed, valued, and that their participation matters, while ensuring positive and collaborative dynamics, we are initiating a brainstorming process (to include volunteers, community and staff members) with the following goals: Delivering a clear message to the community about the importance of this issue, which directly affects the long-term sustainability of the community and its public reputation; and identifying practical methods, tools and means to increase tolerance and encourage the reduction of disrespectful discourse among community members, with a special focus on support for the most vulnerable sub-communities, such as women and new editors. Strategies and methods already applied include inter alia:
- Providing volunteers' support for the editing courses’ graduates from their initial editing stages until after their completion, as much as required, to facilitate positive integration into WP; providing linguistic gender adaptation for the women-only course contents as well as support by female volunteers only; promoting volunteers and community members initiatives to create a supportive environment (such as tools or dedicated support).
- The inclusion of at least 2 guiding adults (a man and a woman) in any youth activity (16-18 years old), to ensure the presence of a responsible adult.
- In any gathering, clarifying the need of using respectful language on the part of all present, participants and organizers alike; ensuring a photo consent from each participant in any event; ensuring the right to not expose face, name or voice in online events, and more.
13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
Yes
13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
Further expansion of our global collaboration within the movement already takes place & is expected to grow. It will be reflected mainly in the following areas: Expending sharing of knowledge, experience & lessons gained through the Wikimedia Education platform, showcasing activities that may provide learning opportunities to our peers
Providing accessibility to the online editing course in Arabic upon the completion of its development, for usage within the movement Further enhancing the already existing global collaborations concerning the GLAM-Wiki Dashboard. More collaboration options were introduced during the Berlin Summit. Continuing the collaboration with our Brazilian and Swedish colleagues. A dialog with the WMF takes place to ensure future support of further development and storage of the tool. Locally: Continuing diverse collaborations with the he-wp community, the volunteers’ community, senior-citizen graduates, in general & in light of the 20th anniversary in particular
14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
Yes
14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.
At the core of WMIL's activity stands the goal of encouraging the creation of quality and free content and data, using diverse tools and ways, and to make them freely accessible to the public. Most of this activity is carried out through partnerships that represent a variety of audiences, fields of knowledge, capabilities, levels of public and social visibility and more. Our main allies: Israel’s Ministry of Education (for both HE & AR education), the National Library, higher education institutes, Yad Vashem, senior-citizen organizations, IDF Archive, Association of Israeli Archivists, PikiWiki project, the Israeli Film Archive, and more.
We consider these partnerships valuable strategic power multipliers that create multifacet advantages to all parties. On our side, they offer us an access to multiple and diversified target audiences, the expansion of our professional toolbox and methods, streamlining our work as a result of the joint effort, increasing the public exposure and visibility of our work while further raising the public awareness of the movement's vision, expanding the potential of turning more audiences into content creators who contribute to Wikimedia projects, and, in the end, to increase the overall impact of our work.
The motivation for partnerships on the partners’ side usually stems from the essence and focus of their professional goals, combined with the desire and need to leverage it in different ways, assuming that cooperation with us would enable the creation of the added value they wish to achieve. See below 2 examples: MOE: A senior official of the MOE Arabic-language education division emphasized that he considered the editing of Wikipedia a valuable tool for developing skills and promoting the “Future of Education and Skills 2030" vision, based on the principles formulated by the OECD. Moreover, due to AR-speaking students' lower achievements, he was highly interested in the implementation of the "Students Write AR-WP" project as a means for building the students' abilities and improving their achievements. This clear cut motivation became the trigger that launched our upgraded collaboration with the Arabic-speaking education system, and brought about the restructuring of this partnership, positioning it as one of the quality collaborations we currently run.
NLI: Derived from its mission, as defined by law, the NLI is dedicated to making its treasures accessible to the public at no cost, a task that is supported and promoted through a major digitization project. This is the source of their motivation to partner with us, aimed at disseminating more content to the public through Wikimedia projects (he-wp, ar-wp, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons), and to hold, in collaboration with us, a rich line of activities to increase public awareness and enhance both consumption and creation of knowledge.
15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
Our strategic concept is based on creating an ongoing impact to allow growth and scaling of our work as a sustainable chapter and establish our position as a leading organization in promoting and facilitating free-content creation and accessibility, in Israel and as a contributor to the global movement and its vision. The volume of our work clearly expresses this, and the results, both quantitative and qualitative, are satisfactory, the latter considered by us an important growth factor. Nevertheless, we constantly examine where, what and how we can do better, what improvements are required in implementing more effective procedures, funding, or methods for scaling our overall work and impact. This includes reexamination of the changing needs, circumstances, and the level of relevancy and influence of each project, as well as maintaining learning processes to assess strategic alliances and means to improve and scale them. Identifying new or developing socially impactful issues that may provide opportunities for enriching the he-wp content through their integration in our activities. Expanding our activity potential & outreach to new audiences by fostering the volunteers’ human capital & building an ongoing process of an ever-growing network of activists. We actively and constantly explore additional and innovative resource-development opportunities to ensure resilience, growth and development of the chapter and the impact it creates.
16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.
- Our risk analysis is done on an ongoing basis, as an integral part of the follow-up and control tracking that we maintain for each activity (while taking into consideration its unique specifications), and on our entire activity as a whole.
In analyzing possible risks, we consider two main levels:
- Macro level – represents mostly major strategic challenges and risks
- Intermediate and micro level – represents mostly various functional issues related to the execution of our activities
- Macro level risks are discussed, when an a-priori, expected or sudden crisis occurs, at the board level, including the ED and the relevant team members. Such cases are related to the ability of the chapter itself to function, and may include risks such as changes in the WMF grant, a global or national economic crisis, a significant increase in the cost of living and inflation, a national security threat, a pandemic, a change in fundraising and book management rules, major fundraising challenges (either due to inflationary pressures or other reasons which may lead to projects or human resources cuts), media and communication crisis, senior management exchanges, termination of strategic partnerships etc.
- Intermediate or micro level risks are dealt internally mainly within the team. These cases are reported to the board, as a rule, but do not necessarily require its direct involvement. This list of potential risks refers mainly to feasibility of programs, ventures or events, including staff and human-resource considerations, limited financial considerations, lack or incompatibility of capabilities, pointed fundraising challenges, and more.
Depending on the issue at hand, we also consult our accountant, legal advisor, or another relevant professional. Below are a two examples of key risk factors and the tools used to mitigate them:
- Change of Management:
Potential consequences: Loss of knowledge, experience and relations; hindrance to workflow continuation; change in management style and focus; effects on staff well-being. Mitigating Solutions: Giving a proper heads-up to allow a long preparation of the team; detailed transition documentation; ensuring on-the-job training period for the newcomer; support from the management committee during the transition period.
- Similar mitigating solutions on a lower scale are taken in cases of a staff-member departure.
- In situations of uncertainty (as was the case during the Covid-19 pandemic), we use the matrix of “four future scenarios”, a tool that enables us to examine the feasibility of implementing a given activity or strategy in multi-level parameters of budget and circumstances.
17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.
Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Provide for Safety and Inclusion
18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit
19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
The following learning questions will help us understand if the change we hope to create is achieved, and to what extent, and whether the strategies originally set support it.
- General Impact
o To what extent our programs increase participation and representation in knowledge sharing within our geographic domain and the Wikimedia movement? o Which of our projects carry the potential of making an impact at the movement level and what should we do to scale and better adapt them? o Which of our strategies bear fruit in terms of promoting public awareness of releasing free content, and how can we enhance them?
- Partnerships
- What in the conduct and added value of each of our key partners makes the partnerships better, or less effective and successful, in terms of the planned results and level of engagement of the relevant target audiences?
- What are the key elements to consider in defining, structuring, and sustaining our partnerships, to enable their continuation in the future? What does it take to optimize and leverage the partnership and make it more impactful?
- What strategies are proved to be effective, and which are suggested for bringing more similar partners to contribute to the Wikimedia projects at large?
- Diversity:
- How does our activity contribute to the increase of diversity in WP, based on the examination of all the indicators we set: gender, content, age, and geographical distribution?
- Which of the indicators that we examine prove to be more impactful in promoting diversity, and how can we further boost them?
- Knowledge equity:
- What are the elements that most contribute to the advancement of knowledge equity, focusing on our ar-wp activities, and how can we further promote their implementation to ensure more learning opportunities to this minority group?
- Enhancing Visibility:
- How does our marketing strategy contribute to reaching new audiences and creating better engagement, and how these results can help us optimize our marketing processes?
- Sustainability:
- Which activities should be prioritized for their contribution to both the chapter’s overall impact and the expansion and diversification of our resource-development efforts?
Which activities should be reexamined or reformulated to make them more efficient in terms of time, human- and financial resources?
- Community:
- How can we support our communities more efficiently and more equitably, to increase the members' engagement?
Which tools and methods can be applied for promoting respectful discourse, safe environment, and supportive approach toward new editors, improving their experience and facilitating their integration in the community, while strengthening he-wp’s community and its reputation?
- Efficiency & effectiveness:
- To what extent is our planning, including the learning and evaluation activities, tailored to meet the needs of our target audiences, and how can we reach better and more effective results therefrom?
20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.
| Main Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| The percentage of articles written about women or gender-related topics, out of the total number of new articles | Increasing diversity is one of the organizing principles of our strategy, which we examine from different angles. Enriching Wikipedia with content about women and gender-related topics is one of the focal elements in implementing this goal. Accordingly, where possible and relevant, we encourage writing articles on this topic, and give it a priority.
This matrix provides us with a clear indication of the relative share that this content area constitutes out of the total articles created throughout the editing activities we carry out, and the extent of its development over time in the entirety of our work (= 10% of senior-citizen editing courses; 20% of AR education projects, and 30% of the HE ones).
|
25 |
| The geographical distribution of participants (center vs. periphery), based on the data about participants in editing courses and geographical location of educational institutes | The geographic dispersion matrix allows us to examine the goal of increasing diversity in terms of accessibility to the chapter's activities, the participation of audiences and partner institutes from different parts of the country, and the division between center and periphery.
Up until two and a half years ago, most of the chapter's activities took place in person only, and mostly in the center of the country and nearby areas. While educational activities (both in HE and AR) reached the periphery, the geographical accessibility for senior citizens from the periphery was marginal. This reality changed due to the Covid-19 epidemic and the integration of online methods into our toolbox. It also facilitated the expansion of the educational activities, by combining in-person and online methods, considering the possibilities and needs (the editing courses for senior citizens remain online). This matrix allows us to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the change we have made in this aspect, and how the geographical dispersion contributes to the increase in equal opportunities and knowledge equity with regard to the accessibility of Wikimedia projects in general (Hebrew Wikipedia, editing courses), and among minority ethnic groups in particular (the Arab society).
|
40 |
| The number of articles dealing with the local Arab society in various fields (out of the total number of new articles in Arabic) | The fact that there is no vibrant ar-wp community within the Arab ethnic minority in Israel brings about a shortage of content and sources of information about this minority within ar-wp.
Thus, the activities we hold in our local Arabic-speaking education system, constitutes, in fact, the only source of information about this subject within ar-wp. As such, the impact, on the one hand, and the effectiveness and importance that this activity generates, on the other, is particularly high. Accordingly, we, along with our partners, e.g. the MOE Arabic-language division, pay particular attention to the inclusion of such content in the “Students Write Wikipedia in Arabic” project. This matrix provides us with a clear indication of the relative share this content area constitutes out of the total number of articles created through us on ar-wp, and of the progress we make in narrowing the knowledge gaps in ar-wp. Desired target: An average of 50% of the total articles written in ar-wp, ~ 150 articles |
150 |
| The number of innovative processes implemented during the year within the total programs carried out by the chapter | Innovativeness has always been one of the characteristics of our chapter. For us, innovation provides an opportunity for growth, development and improvement of capabilities and skills. It is created on the basis of in-depth learning lessons that we continuously hold in the team, including feedback analysis, identification of needs, examination of options and formulation of solutions.
This innovative approach touches each of our organizing principles and strategic goals, as well as the projects derived from them. Over the years, the chapter stood out in its innovative work and created groundbreaking projects that contributed to our local work in particular, and to the Wikimedia movement in general. It is important for us to ensure continuity of this approach and attitude, and to measure ourselves against it. A project will be defined as innovative if it is characterized by one of the following features: Developing a new means to increase the sense of safety and security among new Wikipedia editors; improving and renovating training methods; promoting the inclusion of new or underrepresented content area on he-wp; reaching out to a new target audience; increasing visibility through the usage of a new medium. Desired target: Implementation of at least 3 new innovative processes during 2023 (that meet one of the criteria mentioned above) |
3 |
| Year-round engagement growth across our social media platforms | In accordance with our strategic goal of increasing our visibility and reaching out to new and diverse audiences, while using our social media platforms as one of our leading marketing mechanisms, new narrative storytelling techniques were implemented this year, aimed at reinforcing engagement, focusing on telling our story from diverse angles, including, but not limited to, what we do, what motivates us, the people involved, volunteers and partners’ testimonials, call for action and more.
Through this matrix, we seek to learn about the effectiveness of this strategy, the engagement it creates throughout the year, and to further analyze the data gathered in a more practical way, such as, identifying the types of content that generate more engagement, the appropriate posting timing, what works better and what less, continued projects vs. newly created ones, and more. Desired target: Year-round engagement growth of 30% |
30 |
Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | New graduates of the 2023 editing courses that will continue to edit for at least 3 months after completing their course.
The online editing course trains he-wp editors, hoping that its graduates will persist in their editing activity, thereby will contribute to the expansion of the editors' community and increase its diversity, while creating encyclopedic content on a continuous basis. Accordingly, the success of the course should be measured, in our view, and to a large extent, through the question: How many of its graduates continue editing following graduation? In order to answer this question, we examine whether at least one edit was made on he-wp or another Wikimedia project by each of the graduates, within the time period between the end of the course and three months later. Our understanding (based on our accumulated experience) is that graduates that did not edit even once during the aforementioned period of time, were not likely to persist in editing, whereas there is high probability that those who edited on their own and without our support during this time period, will probably continue to edit. The desired target set for 25 graduates was determined based on our planning for 2023, during which approximately 70 men and women are expected to participate in the editing course. This means that we aim for a persistence ratio of at least 35% of the participants during the time period in question. Our experience shows that though the target is quite ambitious, it is nonetheless realistic in the context of the high-quality target audiences that the online editing course addresses. |
25 |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | X | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Institutes/organizations that demonstrate continued collaboration and contribute to the implementation of our strategies and goals, constitute force multipliers of our activity and provide added value to the implementation of the shared projects
These partnerships include 66 entities, including governmental departments, with focus on the Ministry of Education (in both he-wp and ar-wp educational projects), public institutes, such as Yad Vashem (HE-education), the National Library (their partnership relates to a series of Wikimedia projects: he-wp and ar-wp educational projects, GLAM, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata), GLAM institutes (mostly Wikimedia Commons), educational institutes (HE- and AR-speaking schools), universities and colleges (4 Institutes / 7 departments), the Israel Film Archive (Wikidata and Wikipedia), thematic non-profit organizations that support and promote our activity within a specified focal area (such as gifted youth program at Tel Aviv University, 929 - global jewish conversation about the Hebrew Bible, PikiIWiki), significant marketing partners = 4 (i.e. that distribute our marketing materials to their mailing lists) and recruitment partners = 1-2 (i.e. that recruit by themselves from their own target audience participants to join our editing courses). |
66 |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | Editing-course feedback survey (conducted among participants at the end of each cycle): An average overall final score of 4 out of 5 among participants
At the end of each editing course cycle, we send anonymous and comprehensive feedback questionnaires to all participants, which refer to the various aspects of the course. Among other things, the questionnaires include several questions about the participants' general level of satisfaction and their level of motivation to continue editing on Wikipedia. The answers are of particular significance for us. High satisfaction and great motivation to continue editing are, in our view, an indication that the methodology with which the course was organized, and its application in practice, meet the needs of the target audience on the one hand, and encourage them to continue contributing content to he-wp on the other. |
4 |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | X | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | No. of new followers of social media posts and newsletter related to the work developed within the framework of this proposal = new social-media followers, and new mailing-list subscribers
We believe there is a direct and important linkage between the degree and quality of the chapter's exposure, and the potential of strengthening its resilience and growth over time, including the diversification of its fundraising sources. The more we increase awareness of the Wikimedia vision, of our work, and of he-wp, the more opportunities we can find for collaborations, resource development, and the expansion of our work. Our digital assets constitute a significant growth engine that allows exposure expansion. In accordance with our marketing approach that was invigorated this year, we continuously monitor the number of followers, namely the growth data. Unlike the engagement data (an important aspect in its own right, which we also follow), the number of new followers is an indication of an action taken by the interested person themselves, namely, the follower chose us as a target of their interest. The quantitative target has an important qualitative aspect too. Not only do we follow the trends and their level, but also analyze the reason behind them, e.g., whether it is a specific type of content that generates a movement of followers, whether it has to do with posting timing or circumstances, whether there are certain activities behind it, and whether it is possible to identify to which target audiences these new followers belong. Such information enables us to draw conclusions regarding the focus of our marketing activity and to optimize it continuously. Desired target: 1200 new social media followers and 300 new mailing-list subscribers = 1500 in total |
1500 |
| Number of activities developed | X | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | No. of person-hours of volunteers in our various projects: educational, senior-citizens editing course, and events.
The chapter's volunteers are, in our view, valuable partners who significantly contribute their wealth of skills, knowledge, experience, expertise and time to our work, thereby allowing us to expand and deepen the implementation of the Wikimedia vision we share. The volunteers are active in a number of our projects and activities, and in each, contribute their unique capabilities that are relevant to the project. In editing courses, for example, where they partner with us in leading the training and serve as consultants and mentors of the participants, they represent dual expertise: editing Wikipedia and training newcomers. They are highly motivated to train new editors and continue to provide support also after the course, to facilitate their integration into the editors’ community. Accordingly, their time investment, which we consider a valuable resource, is massive. We monitor it constantly and encourage the increase of its scope, if and where possible. The target we set (400 hours out of the total target defined below) is based on an informed assessment that we carried out in light of the data collected in previous years. In the education system, their contribution is mainly focused on attending the school editing workshops and supporting the activity of the coordinator who leads them. They also check the article drafts in both school and academy projects. In the field of events and marketing, the volunteers help organize events, either behind the scenes or during the gathering itself (whether online or offline), in delivering lectures to selected audiences, and otherwise. Our volunteers also support GLAM activities, mainly through helping and guiding institutes that contact us to upload media files to Wikimedia Commons, and otherwise. |
800 |
21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | The total number of participants in all activities: 1608 (returning + new participants) Of these: 550 new middle- & high-school students of the HE education system, 300 new students of the AR education system, and about additional 50 returning ones, 100 senior citizens who took part in the editing course, of which 70% new and 30% returning. In addition, about 300 participants in the Wiki Talk series of lectures, of which at least 50% (=150) returning, 150 participants in both WP anniversary events - of which 75% returning (~110), and additional 150 participants (estimated) in various events related to the he-wp’s 20th anniversary, of which at least 50% (=75) returning 8 youths from the "Youth Editing Club" - all returning.
New participants: 1185 Returning participants: 423
|
1608 |
| Number of editors | The total number of new editors in all activities: 900. The data consists of middle-and high-school students (500 in HE, 300 in AR, all new), Wikidata editors (10), New senior citizens, both men and women, that take part in the editing courses (70), new editors that take part in editing events or contests (20). | 900 |
| Number of organizers | The total number of organizers in all activities: 146, consisting of 38 organizers of the Hebrew education-system project, of which 11 will be new (teachers, school coordinators, librarians, Yad Vashem coordinators, gifted-youth program leaders at Tel Aviv University) / 20 education and training volunteers that are involved in a variety of the chapter’s programs - including HE education (8), the academy (2), senior-citizen editing courses (10), of which 3 new or returning after an idle period as volunteers. Some of the volunteers are active in more than one program. /1 senior-citizen training facilitator / 6 volunteers of marketing activities and events (2 new) / 1 technical developer (Dashboard) / 50 organizers of the AR education-system project, of which 25 new (senior officials of the Ministry of Education, pedagogical instructors, teachers, Arabic-language coordinators at the National Library) / 18 academic staff members at various levels / 5 representatives of GLAM institutes and cultural organizations (2 new), 7 team members (2 new).
Expected outcome:New participant: 55
Returning participant: 91
|
146 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Hebrew Wikipedia:
The total number of all added and improved articles on he-wp: 920. Of these - 250 new and 120 improved in HE educational projects / 400 new articles and 75 improved ones by participants of the editing courses / 75 improved articles in writing competitions. ,**Number of articles resulting from our activity within the academy will be updated once the new Academic coordinator, currently under recruiting process, will take office. Expected outcome: New articles: 650 Improved articles: 270 |
920 |
| Wikipedia | Arabic Wikipedia:
Articles written on the AR Wikipedia as part of our formal education activities in partnership with the Ministry of Education, and as part of activities taking place in partnership with the National Library Expected outcome: 250 articles of which 125 new and 125 improved. |
250 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 20,000 new media files uploaded by GLAM partner institutes, additional 250 files uploaded in the context of editing events or contests by both new and returning editors | 20250 |
| Wikidata | Items created or improved as a result of our cooperation with the National Library and the Israel Film Archive | 10000 |
| N/A | X | N/A |
21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
N/A
22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
We will use both quantitative and qualitative tools to measure the selected metrics, depending on their relevant characteristics. The tools are:
At the editing courses we make use of the dashboard (both for automatic calculations and through "manual" tracking = non-automatic counting of entries); summary of records and reports that are carried out regularly during the year; analysis of responses and feedback given at the end of each cycle by each and every graduate through Google-form questionnaires. Edits made by course graduates following the end of training are monitored through a dashboard.
In HE educational activities, we use WikiProject pages for each class with a link to articles created or expanded by the class.
In AR educational activities, we use a dashboard for each project unit and monitor pages for each class. These are shared internal monitoring templates (Google sheets), developed by the coordinator, that allow ongoing real-time monitoring of each of the project's components along the timeline, as well as the performance status of each of the participants.
Data of views, engagement and followers of our social media channels and Mailchimp service are monitored through analytics and statistics. For in-person events and online activities, we hold pre-registration via google form to estimate the number of participants in advance. Once the events or activities take place, a "head count" is conducted. In addition, in the registration forms for activities or events, we ask the registered whether they participated in our activities in the past, to collect the data about new and returning participants. We also ask in these forms whether the registered person is interested in joining our mailing list. This allows us to add and follow new mailing lists subscribers.
The number of media files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by GLAM institutes using the GLAM Wiki Dashboard is extracted directly from the tool.
Financial Proposal edit
23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.
- 1527600 ILS
23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 432402 USD
23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- Link to the Budget Google sheet (Excel and PDF version are also attached)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v8Yxv9trxv5XBwBxUI_VmhsWyolbd0sTFogCL300C2k/edit?usp=sharing The Budget document includes 4 tabs: Tab 1. Planned Budget 2023 Tab 2. Use of revenue sources - Should remain confidential document Tab 3. Notes on 2023 Budget - Should remain confidential document Tab 4. Annual Follow-up 2023
- TAB 2 -Budget - WMIL 2023 Use of Revenue Sources.pdf
- TAB 3-Budget - WMIL - NOTES on 2023 Budget.pdf
- TAB 4-Budget - WMIL- Annual follow-up 2023.pdf
- Budget - WMIL 2023.xlsx
23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.
- N/A
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s): Wikimedia Israel Work plan 2023 (in Hebrew)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NTXxJMmMVooZFaaxZ9RY0MLEEjoEKgghQsmon3Kc5PE/edit?usp=sharing
Final Message edit
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We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback edit
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.