Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Finland Annual Plan 2024

Google docs version of the text

The bot-uploaded version of the text on metawiki seems rather hard to read so I will link to our last Google Docs draft. The text should be nearly identical except for some whitespace ym stylistic changes when I copied text to Fluxx. There are also some texts which were filled to Fluxx only and is not in Google Docs, such as metrics.

• WMFI Community grant 2024 application (latest Google docs draft)

--Zache (talk) 10:26, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

This is so cool, thank you Zache, for future translations of application this will be extremely useful. With gratitude, Agnes ABruszik-WMF (talk) 10:35, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

Feedback from the Northern and Western Europe (NWE) Regional Funds Committee on your proposal

Hei Wikimedia Suomi team, Thank you very much for your proposal, for your continuous work supporting the Wikimedia movement in Finland and for sharing your programme plans for 2024. The Northern and Western Europe Regional Committee has made an initial review and we are happy to share our feedback:

• We appreciate the clear presentation of the challenges the organisation is facing, the goals for the year to address them and the expected results from fulfilling them. The structure around three priorities is well-explained and also shows connections with relevant partners.
• The committee is grateful to see that while the proposal has a significant focus on correcting biases (notably with supporting minority languages and increasing the number of articles about women), it also includes support for editors working on mainstream topics.
• We found that Wikimedia Suomi adds significant value to Wikimedia editors in Finland, especially with a strong technical expertise to address the needs of Finnish editors.
• Finally, we recognise that 2023 was a difficult year for the chapter, so we hope that you will be stronger and avoid unexpected troubles in the years to come.

During the committee discussion of your grant proposal, members identified the following points:

• Wikimedia Suomi would greatly benefit from a strategic review in order to identify long-term goals and prioritise activities in your plan accordingly. We hope that affiliates who went through similar developments or external advisors would be able to help should there be an interest from your side.
• We appreciate the interesting and innovative approach to hiring (notably around students and unemployed). However, we feel like the staff capacity is reaching a limit due to hiring only part-time staff and having chiefly technical skills in the team. We understand that changing the status-quo is not easy, but we would appreciate more thoughts around this. (Once again, this might require external help particularly around leadership development - we hope this can be provided by Wikimedia Foundation if needed).
• The proposal would be stronger if you provide more information around your volunteer involvement, particularly how Wikimedia Suomi works with volunteer organisers, recruits and retains them.
• While it is obvious from the proposal that WMFI's programmes do address community needs, it would be useful to have more information about the involvement of on-wiki and volunteer community in programmatic planning.

In order to be in a better position to make a final decision on your proposal, the committee would like to get more details on the following points:

• Is the organisation considering a strategic review and does it need any support for it? How is the team considering impact and ensuring that this drives prioritisation?
• Can you please clarify your approach to external funding? Unlike previous years, we did not find any mention of external funding received in 2024 beyond government and municipal compensation for hiring an unemployed person, is this funding something you consider scaling? Are there any obstacles (in terms of legal constraints, capacity, members' priorities etc.) to getting non-WMF grants or collecting donations from the general public (fundraising)?
• What is your longer-term plan regarding staffing? Did you explore the options of moving to at least one full-time staff? Would you consider working with students and/or unemployed people with skill sets other than technical (e.g. fundraising)?
• While Wiki Loves Monuments was previously mentioned as a key project for Wikimedia Suomi, you provided a good explanation why you consider shifting away from it. What are your alternatives as major outreach opportunities should WLM not be organised in 2024?

In order to stick to the review process schedule, we would appreciate it if you would be able to provide your feedback by the end of the day of 13 November 2023.

If you feel like the wiki talk page is not the best medium to address our questions and concerns, please reach out. We can organise a (video) meeting with committee members if you consider it useful.

Finally, we unfortunately have to inform you that due to the General Support Fund budget limits for this round, we might not be able to fully find all proposals (and it might also concern yours). Do you have any thoughts on how an eventual partial funding decision would impact your budget, activity plan and operations?

Thank you very much and we look forward to hearing from you.

On behalf of the NWE Regional Committee — NickK (talk) 12:08, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback and questions. We will answer the questions before 13 November 2023. -- Zache (talk) 12:57, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

Answers

Is the organisation considering a strategic review and does it need any support for it?

We are currently in the process of a strategic review for updating our 2019-2021 strategy. For this we have discussed with wikimedists what they are doing and would like that WMFI to do. To consolidate results, we will present and discuss the strategy scheduled for the WMFi autumn meeting in December 2023. At that time, we will also ask for Wikipedia comments, etc. It would be an excellent time to receive further comments about our strategy from you/WMF, etc. After the comments, we will refine the strategy based on feedback.

For the meantime, our last strategy is still largely applicable: wmfi:Strategia_2019–2021 (in Finnish)

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

How is the team considering impact and ensuring that this drives prioritisation?

We can retrospect our last strategy by splitting it into individual targets to see which ones we could accomplish and what not. This we can use for identifying which targets were important to us. For example, targets that were not achieved because nobody cared enough to invest their time in them were ultimately unimportant. Another interesting set is the targets, which were successfully accomplished. From there, we want to separate those contributing most to our top level goals, community engagement, and resources and analyze what made them so good.

We can use learnings from retrospect to identify future high-impact targets that can be successfully achieved. To ensure that it drives prioritization, we must define when the targets are reached and the steps required to achieve them and write steps as goals to the project plans. When achieving targets is measurable, we need to track how we get them and review and adjust projects or goals if required.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Can you please clarify your approach to external funding? Unlike previous years, we did not find any mention of external funding received in 2024 beyond government and municipal compensation for hiring an unemployed person,

Our general target is that Wikimedia Finland has at least one other significant funding source besides the Wikimedia Foundation's grant. The target is that 30% of the budget would be non-WMF, which is currently 15%. Diversification is for financial stability, and if WMFI wants to extend to full-time positions, it would require a budget increase, which is impossible from the WMF community grant alone.

The most promising way for this is multi-year grants, which are large enough to cover salary costs and with a preparation round before the actual application. Getting these would offer consistent funding and support long-term planning.

As these grants are large, they also may require a large amount of self-funding. Our approach would be to use a WMF grant for this. However, if it would need for example 20000€ self-funding per year, then in practice, the only place where we could get it for the initial year is by reallocating it from the "Staff and contractor costs". Reallocation would mean that the employee/student would do the project defined in the external grant instead of the initial plan, and the initial task would be postponed. So, this requires flexible projects, which can be paused when needed. Reallocation would also require asking permission from WMF before submitting the grant application.

For example, in early 2023, we prepared an application for the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region small projects call. These grants require applicants from three Baltic Sea countries or Nordic countries. Small projects were for new interreg applicants for the learning Interreg program. The work that we did for the application was substantial. Ie. We found international partners, thought through self-funding, and wrote all required texts, but when SWOT:ting it, we noticed there was a risk that the commitments would be too big. Refactoring the plans would have solved the issue, but we were out of time because of the deadline, so we decided not to submit it.

We learned from this (and other grants before this) that we must start writing applications substantially earlier so there is enough time to iterate and review. Grant applications will also substantially benefit from comments from persons familiar with the field of the topic of the application when writing. To make this possible, one of our targets in 2024 is to begin reviewing potential grants periodically.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

... compensation for hiring an unemployed person, is this funding something you consider scaling?

Yes, we are considering continuing or scaling it.

Government compensation for hiring an person who has been unemployed over 24 months is significant (20000€ in 10 months) and it is very flexible regarding what a person would do as work. We think that hiring unemployed persons is something volunteers feel is fair and improves the world. Fairness is essential so the volunteer community feels that WMFI is doing things they think are important.

However, hiring persons requires care in project planning, documentation, etc. We also must acknowledge that we may need to refine the tasks to suit employees. WMFI's advantage is that, as part of the Wikimedia Community, we can find suitable jobs based on employee skills from an almost never-ending pool of important tasks, making recruiting more likely to succeed than hiring that requires exact skill matches for fixed roles. So, the main limitation of utilizing government funding is not money but orientation, which is needed to get the new person in. There are also requirements which are new to us and it takes time from us to learn these.

The current main target with these is that we can successfully repeat hiring using government compensation. We could extend this to multiple persons simultaneously after completing the first ones successfully.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Are there any obstacles (in terms of legal constraints, capacity, members' priorities etc.) to getting non-WMF grants or collecting donations from the general public (fundraising)?

The biggest obstacles to obtaining non-WMF grants are timing and resource allocation.

Grant applications suffer due to late preparation. Applications would benefit significantly from extended preparation and multiple editing rounds. For this we would need people who would monitor upcoming grants. Also, one essential bottleneck in this is our reliance on me (Zache) on too many simultaneous tasks different fields (ie. management, communication, grants, events), which isn't anymore feasible to manage.

In grants our solution related to grants involves systematic tracking of new grants, allowing us to start preparations earlier and distribute tasks to a larger group. Statistically, it is also unlikely that the first one would be accepted, so we would need to send multiple applications before something is accepted, which is more motivating when application writing is a pre-planned task. Also, as successful grant application writing is an important skill for multiple persons, mentoring, reviewing, and getting feedback from grant applications could interest volunteers if somebody were to organize it. We could do this for example together with Open Knowledge Finland.

Regarding fundraising, using WMF grants for self-funding external grants is more viable than direct public fundraising. The most promising method for fundraising from the general public is collecting money for rewards, which can be collected when the task is done. Another interesting idea would be a Patreon-style subscription service where supporters can subscribe to support something.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

What is your longer-term plan regarding staffing?

With the current WMF funding, we aim to secure 50% FTE per month for two key roles: one focused on administration and the other on providing Wikimedia editor community-oriented technical support and development. These roles maintain our project's infrastructure and ensure community support.

We also recognize the importance of an event and communication coordinator, particularly for collaboration with external organizations. However, in our experience, the event coordinator role requires related supportive roles to be effective. For this reason, we prioritize roles that directly contribute to support and development first.

We also continue doing student projects and hiring people using government compensation. Exact tasks would be depending on the persons and projects available. For people using government compensation, our target is that jobs would be at least 12 months so that they would fulfill the 12 month work-requirement rule and provide job stability.

(Note: Finland’s social security laws are undergoing a major update in 2024. Details are unknown as proposed legislation changes have not yet been published for comments.)

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

... Did you explore the options of moving to at least one full-time staff?

Yes, we have discussed moving to at least one full-time staff member. From a funding-strategy point of view it is easier to use WMF funding to self-fund external projects if the funds are not reserved for single person salaries.

On a practical level though, depending on the funding, we have been flexible on FTE. For example, Kimmo was full-time in 2021 when Nanna worked in a Photography museum. The Helsinki Rephotography grant funded this. After Nanna got a new job in 2023, Kimmo has been in 75% FTE. Ilkka was 75% FTE in the first part of 2023.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

... Would you consider working with students and/or unemployed people with skill sets other than technical (e.g. fundraising)?

Yes, we are considering working with students and unemployed people with skills other than technical — for example, there is need for persons in communication and organizing events. Outreach work would also benefit from people who speak and write languages used in Finland other than Finnish, Swedish, and English so we could translate our communication. They also usually understand and have better contact with these language communities than we currently have.

For students, the tasks would be related to their field of study so we can better utilize their skills and learn from them. For unemployed persons, we prefer to focus on tasks that improve skills and could be used as a reference when they seek a job after Wikimedia Suomi's employment. In general, we want to emphasize the professional development of the people we employ.

In this grant application we focused on technical projects because we wanted a narrow scope. It is a more manageable project-leading point of view, allowing us to focus on remote work aspects and learn project management and skills needed in future projects related to Wikidata and image uploads. Software engineering is also where we have previous experience outside of Wikimedia and people who can work as mentors if required (in WMFI board, for example).

So, in this case, the focus on technical things is also for internal talent development using the field we know. Improved project working skills and learnings are applicable in non-technical areas, too.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

While Wiki Loves Monuments was previously mentioned as a key project for Wikimedia Suomi, you provided a good explanation why you consider shifting away from it. What are your alternatives as major outreach opportunities should WLM not be organised in 2024?

An alternative for Wiki Loves Monuments in outreach would be that we have more resources to focus on other projects such as the Benin project, Ukraine-themed editing, Science editing events, grant applications, equity work, open education, and other photography events.

The Benin project with Villa Karo is a promising outreach opportunity, as by updating the Finnish Wikipedia with specialists, Finnish Wikipedia could be the best Finnish generic information source for African countries. This could be done with editing workshops and weekly competitions. Collaboration with Villa Karo (pdf) also makes it easier for Wikimedists in general to have access to Villa Karo residency.

Another significant opportunity is the terminology translation of math, physics, and chemistry reference book, as bilingual dictionaries are not available in Sami languages on these topics and is needed in primary and secondary schools if the subjects are taught in students' native language.

As for photography, in 2022, the Workers' Museum Werstas started a project documenting the 300 still-existing workers' halls. The background of Werstas' project involves collaborating with other workers' museums to get the most important workers' halls listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2026. (https://www.arbejdermuseet.dk/en/unesco/) From Finland, two buildings have been selected, one of which we already visited in the Helsinki rephoto in 2022. The Werstas project included a part where they wrote and updated Wikipedia articles about workers' halls with local volunteers. We plan to continue this in 2024 by organizing a photographing wikiproject, where we would take pictures for 300 articles written about the workers' halls, including aerial photography with drones.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Finally, we unfortunately have to inform you that due to the General Support Fund budget limits for this round, we might not be able to fully find all proposals (and it might also concern yours). Do you have any thoughts on how an eventual partial funding decision would impact your budget, activity plan and operations?

We would reduce "Staff and contractor costs' as it is the biggest part of our budget. This would reduce the number of student projects we can take on or shorten how long we have planned on employing people in Q4. Reducing employment lengths would impact our technical work. To reflect this we would have to prioritize either photo uploads or Wikidata editing infrastructure instead of doing both. This focus would also directly impact our projects in 2025, as in this context, photo uploads would support future WLM participation, and Wikidata supports Wikidata usage in Wikipedia. We would also prioritize knowledge transfer and documentation tasks over developing in Q4.

We would also try to find alternative funding sources to mitigate the impact of partial funding.

At end of the summer we would review the funding situation and revise our plans based on that.

--Zache (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Round 1 FY24 decision

Congratulations! The Northern and Western Europe Regional Funds Committee has recommended your proposal for funding!

The Wikimedia Foundation has approved the committee's recommendation to partially fund your proposal for 105,000.00 EUR for the implementation period of 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2024.

Comments regarding this decision:
We valued the organization’s programs in minority languages, education, culture and heritage, and gender and diversity, which demonstrated a commitment to improving user experiences, fostering inclusivity, and advancing free knowledge. The skilled team, including developers, Wikipedia editors, and language experts, contributes to the organization's ability to execute the described programs effectively. The emphasis on innovation and technology development, such as machine learning projects and photography upload tools, reflects the organization's readiness to adapt and improve.

At the same time, the committee felt that the upcoming strategic review will offer a good opportunity to develop a less reactive and more strategic approach in building a long-term vision for WM Suomi. We look forward to learning about the results of this review, and how you plan to diversify internal skill sets to provide longer term organizational sustainability.

We thank you for your contributions, your openness to share your progress, the honest review of your own efforts, as well as your willingness to innovative for the benefit of the movement!

Next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement.
2. If you have questions, you can contact the Regional Program Officer for the Northern and Western Europe Region.

Posted on behalf of the Northern and Western Europe (NWE) Funding Committee, –ABruszik-WMF (talk) 07:17, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much! --Zache (talk) 10:33, 1 December 2023 (UTC)