Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikivibrance activities 2024

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

Dear Wikivibrance team

Thank you for taking the time to submit your General Support Fund proposal in the Northern and Western Europe region. We are pleased to have reviewed your application and have the following comments and questions:

• First of all, we want to thank you for aiming to extend to Europe and to other continents your successful projects done in Africa.
• We are really appreciating your effort to engage young people and cover impactful topics such as the climate crisis.
• It was also good for us to see that there is a balanced amount between the operational cost and the salaries.

While elaborating on your proposed plans, the committee members proposed for you to consider:

• The metrics of the project could be splitted for young/old target groups.
• Tracking the user's retention is a good way to analyse the good success of a project.

It would be supportive of the Committee’s understanding of your plans if you’d be so kind as to elaborate on our following specific few questions:

• Can you please indicate how this funding will result in new measurable results, and how are they in accordance with the 2030 strategy?
• As we encourage empowering young people to rule this initiative, is there any assembly or any governance participation for your youth target group?
• There exists a potential overlap for this request to others in rapid fund requests by your local partners and also in other applications received in Africa. How do you consider this potential overlap, and how do you plan to resolve these?
• As you talked about an open source dictionary in 10 languages related to environment and climate change to be shared with different targets of people for educational purposes, can you tell more about your plans to manage this project, do you have any sustenance plans in case of an initial funding?

Due to restrictions on our ability to adjust our overall General Support Fund budget for this round, it may not be possible to fund this proposal. However, we do want to understand if a smaller partial funding could be beneficial and what activities you then would like to prioritise.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

On behalf of the NWE Regional Committee — Camelia (talk) 21:41, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you Camelia and the NWE committee members for your proposals; here are our responses:

Qn: The metrics of the project could be splitted for young/old target groups.

Ans: A majority of the Wikivibrance programs have worked alongside Young/adult target groups for example through the mentorship program that was held in the past;

• Although this is not directly mentioned, the climate and environment dictionary project would target adult/old groups through interactions with linguists, science communicators and/or science experts from local universities we would be working with. This is also applicable to the International photowalk activity that we have now integrated into the International Youth Day program after the feedback from the grants team. So, we would kindly take the split as a recommendation and include the metrics where we have them, but also keeping in mind that the old target group would require a new or different approach.

Qn: Tracking the user's retention is a good way to analyse the good success of a project.

Ans: We have a record of good success with user retention from our inception in 2021 with first time participating communities and organizers who have continued participation till date through the International Youth Day and Africa Youth Month Programs. Please see more on the WikiVibrance meta page. But we are also open to growing more in that direction and will consider the metrics for the young/old groups: this has already been the theme for the Africa Youth Month 2023 to determine the number of youths in the movement under the 1 million next level: youth-led movements beyond borders, and we will use this to build upon the metrics and determine user retention for 2024.

Qn: It would be supportive of the Committee’s understanding of your plans if you’d be so kind as to elaborate on our following specific few questions:

Can you please indicate how this funding will result in new measurable results, and how are they in accordance with the 2030 strategy?

Ans: Through the Words in Green Project which relates to Recommendation 9, this funding will result in new measurable results in terms of the different collaborative work that will come together to grow climate knowledge in and outside the movement (relates to Recommendation 5), the number of audio and written climate/environment words that will be documented and used on Wikimedia projects (relates to Recommendation 8), the number of language communities that will grow from the project, the number of the documented words that will be relevant for community members working on other campaigns such as WikiForHumanRights to support content translation in different languages, the application of the dictionary resources in varying spaces, the number of young people who will grow in capacity from implementing the project (relates to Recommendation 6). This funding will also measure the impact of Wikivibrance in terms of the number of youths in the movement, the number of recognised/rewarded youth efforts, and their contribution towards the sustainability of the movement in terms of participation, editing, organizing events and campaigns (Recommendation number 1 - initiative one: through the green words project and eight: through the international youth day and Wikimania events).

• The above measurable results will be compared with the statistics from Wikimania 2013 which indicated that the majority of participants were youths in the age bracket of 24 - 35 years, furthermore, these findings will be used as insights for the Wikimedia Communications department and/or other partners to understand the demographics of our movement and the future needs for sustainability through a Systematic approach to improve their satisfaction and productivity in order to help keep the people in the Wikimedia movement and bring new Wikimedians aboard.

Qn: As we encourage empowering young people to rule this initiative, is there any assembly or any governance participation for your youth target group?

Ans: Yes, for the second time, part of the Wikivibrance team has applied for a conference grant to organize the Wikimedia Youth Conference 2024 which will bring the youth to the forefront through the objectives of the conference which includes Kickstarting a conversation on the design of a youth charter that defines the organizing structure, youth definition, and strategy for building a thriving open youth movement.

Qn: There exists a potential overlap for this request to others in rapid fund requests by your local partners and also in other applications received in Africa. How do you consider this potential overlap, and how do you plan to resolve these?

Ans: We will consider the overlap once we get confirmation (from the Community resources/grants team) of local partners that have been funded for Wikivibrance overlapping activities in 2024.

• We will identify and communicate to the local partners that have included a budget for WikiVibrance activities in their approved General Support Fund and as such, will not be expected to apply for a Rapid grant again.
• We would only encourage the Words in Green Project co-implementing team from the Maghreb region, language communities working on the Words in Green project and affiliates or communities without General Support Fund or organizers not belonging to any affiliates to apply for rapid funding, in the different regions of the interested communities or organizers.
• We will make sure to let the program officers for each region be aware of such grants and the people or communities we are expecting to apply for Rapid grants.

Qn: As you talked about an open source dictionary in 10 languages related to environment and climate change to be shared with different targets of people for educational purposes, can you tell more about your plans to manage this project, do you have any sustenance plans in case of an initial funding?

Ans: As highlighted in our annual plan, this project will be implemented in collaboration with a team of about 7 members from the Maghreb region and focal points from 10 language communities. The WikiVibrance team will work with the Maghreb team to make a call for application that targets young people from the language community or reach out to the language communities to nominate focal points (1-2 people per community) who will in turn work with us to identify linguists, science communicator and/or science experts from their local university to work with. Each language community leader will be part of the committee that advises on the planning and implementation.

• When we have the general support fund approved, we would explore external partners, and a project toolkit containing the protocol and guidelines for replication or sustaining the project; at the point of conceiving this idea, we reached out to the co-implementing team to co-shape the idea which you can see in this document.
• We also shared the concept with Alex Stinson and Satdeep Gill to share their thoughts and would continue working with them in advisory roles on the project when the funding is approved.

Qn: Due to restrictions on our ability to adjust our overall General Support Fund budget for this round, it may not be possible to fund this proposal. However, we do want to understand if a smaller partial funding could be beneficial and what activities you then would like to prioritise.

Ans: We truly appreciate you for taking time to read our proposal and sharing the restrictions on your ability to adjust your General Support Fund. This is our first General Support Fund to support the growing work we are doing which has been driven by volunteer support since inception. But as we grow in our work, we see how the General Support Fund can help us keep youth engagement and participation alive in the movement.

• We know that if the youth energy we are building collapses, it will be difficult to resuscitate it again. Hence, we value resources that would support continued work. But we have also made considerations as you suggested through the following:
  • We have modified the budget to prioritize some projects that will be funded.
  • Reduced from two people to one person’s support/representation at WikiIndaba 2024
  • W’ell use online means and social media to celebrate the AYM 2024.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. Douglaseru (talk) 23:47, 10 November 2023 (UTC) - on behalf of the Wikivibrance Team