Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Ukraine/2020

Budget remark from WMF

Hello WMUA collagues! @AntonProtsiuk (WMUA): @NickK: @Ilya: As stated in my last email, I would like you to review the budget and take away the 10% contingency line and rethink how some of that contingency can apply to your programs or other parts of your budget. These are the things you might want to look at, especially in your context:

• exchange rate
• misc operating expenses
• misc program expenses
• building operational reserves

We can discuss this specific point in a call if you want so that it is clear for you, but I ask you to update the budget in the coming two days so we can have a final grant request amount. Thankl you! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 12:59, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Delphine (WMF):, thank you for your comment and sorry for the delay.

We decided to convert the contingency line into US$4,000 unforeseen community projects and events line, for the following reasons:

• Due to the very short period between strategy approval and grant proposal submission we might have missed some ideas of community projects or events. If there is a good idea coming from the community that would be aligned with our strategy and would not require significant staff time, we might want to fund it. US$4,000 was chosen as roughly US$1,000 per each of four programmes. We will obviously contact you before using them.
• Due to legislative changes since mid-2019 we can keep incoming funds in USD, and mandatory conversion to UAH was abolished. This allows us sufficient protection against exchange rate moves.
• We have already budgeted other operating expenses in the line 5.1.7.
• We do not have any specific plan on operational reserves, but we would be glad to discuss with you what is the best way to build them

We can indeed schedule a call to discuss this — NickK (talk) 12:40, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

Simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that WIkimedia Ukraine receive a grant of 105,140 USD for one year. Their plan is solid and clear, with a great influence from their new strategic plan. It is good to see WMUA on the path to being more focused and to see how they are building upon years of experience in various activities and programs, while evolving them to match real needs and gaps.

For the committee, Philip Kopetzky (talk) 20:20, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

P.S.: Sorry for the delay!

Wikimedia Ukraine's APG approved in the amount of 105,140 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 105,140 USD, with a grant term starting 1 January 2020 and ending 31 December 2020.

One of Wikimedia Ukraine's great achievement this year has been the development of a thoughtful and collaborative strategic plan. This plan is aligned with the 2030 Wikimedia Strategic Direction and takes into account the outcomes of the Movement Strategy process, while also looking back at past achievements, strengths and weaknesses. We find that this strategic plan is a great step in the right direction for WIkimedia Ukraine, and that it will support their ongoing focus and prioritization efforts.

In 2020 Wikimedia Ukraine is looking at better understanding the needs of their community to see how they can best support initiatives that will answer be of high value both to the editing communities but also the general public using the Wikimedia projects.

This year's program structure takes into account the directions that the strategic plan has developed for the organization. It is divided into 4 programs.

Their "Content Enrichment" program focuses on content gaps in Wikimedia projects and aims to bridge those gaps with a particular attention to quality. This shows a real strategic approach to long standing activities and a good way to renew interest and secure impact. Beside their regular contests, it is good to see WMUA innovate with a contest about adding free and open source sources and focus on Women in STEM. We are also noting the attention WMUA is wanting to pay to other Wikimedia projects, especially Wikisource.

WMUA is building upon its experience in organizing photo contests and related media events to continue adding media content to the Wikimedia projects. We are looking favorably at the fact that they are bringing on dedicated support for the international organization of Wiki Loves Earth and that they are looking at passing the baton to a dedicated team for organizing the international part of WLE. This seems to be a thoughtful part of organizational development that fits with WMUA's stated strategy of focusing on local content and communities. It is interesting to notice that GLAM partnerships are upheld and developed specifically to serve the goal of content enrichment WMUA's strategy.

The "Increasing Participation" program has two key objectives, to increase the number of new participants and editors in the WIkimedia projects but also to increase their diversity. One of WMUA's most iconic events, the Wikimarathon, managed to mobilize volunteers in 38 cities and attract 650 participants, which shows how they manage to appeal to editors, new and old around specific topics. WMUA sees their education program as a way to increase participation, and is intending to hold more workshops toward teachers in order to include Wikipedia as a tool in the educational process. It will be interesting to see if WMUA's context actually brings in more participants in the longer term and what their retention numbers will be. Education programs are not usually a source to build participation of long-term editors, but certain contexts may prove different. It is good to see a focus on gender through a dedicated course on gender studies, a course which resonates well with WMUA's real efforts at tackling the diversity of editors, with an activity bringing on expert voices on certain subjects, and others targeting underrepresented groups to invite them to participate in Wikimedia projects: women and representatives from local language minorities.

The Community support program presents a very varied and interesting array of activities, focused and useful to increase capacity building, with a particular attention to the technical side of editing a and technical participation in the projects.

The Program "Awareness about Wikimedia projects" presents good efforts to support all other programs, working on themes important to the Wikimedia project thriving in the local environment, such as work on freedom of panorama, but also dedicated and focused communication and advocacy work to enhance awareness of Wikimedia Projects and of Free knowledge in general.

Through this plan and in their metrics, WMUA shows a very intentional approach to evaluation, and to tracking their results. This is emphasized by a clear intention to engage in research to understand the needs and wishes of their community, but also research that will help them identify where their approach will have the most impact. It is great to see how they are planning to adapt their programs following this research.

Wikimedia Ukraine's plan is of high quality, with clear objectives and extremely good contextualization of what they are doing, which shows how thoughtfully and strategically they are engaging in this year 2020. We are looking forward to see their work unfold this year.

Best regards, Delphine (WMF) (talk) 20:22, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

Midpoint deadline extension

Hi @WJifar (WMF):!

As discussed by email, we would like to formally request midpoint deadline extension until 26 July or one full week after 2019 final report review, whichever is later.

Given that we have a few projects (notably Wiki Loves Earth delayed due to COVID-19), onboarding of our new communications manager Anastasiia, potential improvement of our 2019 final report and preparation of the 2020 midpoint (potentially including feedback from our previous report) in parallel, we risk not being on time.

Can you please approve this extension? Thanks — WMUA Treasurer NickK (talk) 15:05, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Approval of Midpoint report deadline extension request

Hello NickK, thank you for putting your request here. I am approving your request to submit your midpoint report on July 31st. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 20:19, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

Thanks Woubzena! — NickK (talk) 12:23, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Request for shifting a project from one program to another

Hi @WJifar (WMF):!

We would like to request official permission to make a slight change in the distribution of our projects, namely to move our planned school curriculum article contest from the "Content Enrichment" program to the "Increasing Participation" program.

The reason for this change is that we would like to focus within this project not so much on the pure volume of articles created/improved but more on attracting new editors from among Ukrainian educators. It would be in line with the spirit of our Wikipedia Education Program, which is a part of the "Increasing Participation" direction.

We are planning to organize this contest in the fall. Last year's edition, which we organized for the first time, saw 75 educators signing up and some 25 people participating actively, and we are looking to expand the contest's scope this year.

Our planned expenses for this project ($1000; currently it is numbered 1.1.4 in our grant budget) would not be affected by this change, and neither would be our general annual budget. Naturally, the budgets for the two overall programs would change respectively, with Content Enrichment getting a $1000 decrease and Increasing Participation seeing a $1000 increase.

Our overall planned metrics for the "Content Enrichment" will not be decreased, while planned metrics for the "Increasing Participation" program can be slightly increased thanks to the arrival of this new project. --AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) (Project Manager at Wikimedia Ukraine) 13:35, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Approval of program changes

Hello AntonProtsiuk (WMUA), thank you for describing in detail the changes you would like to make. I am approving your request. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 23:05, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Midpoint Report Submitted

Hi! Just writing to highlight that we submitted the midpoint report yesterday. --AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) (talk) 08:47, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Midpoint Report Accepted

Hello AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) and Wikimedia Ukraine Colleagues, thanks for submitting your midpoint report. We have reviewed the metrics, budget, and report and marked them as accepted. Thank you for your work for the Wikimedia Movement! Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 12:45, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Unforeseen usage request

Hi @AWang (WMF): and @DSaroyan (WMF):,

We are willing to use a part of our "Unforeseen community projects" line for the Science contest. This contest would be similar to the one we have held in previous years: it was not initially planned, but given COVID conditions we had less offline interactions with universities and a team of our volunteers want to offset it with an online contest. The expected budget is 1000 USD from the line "2.X Unforeseen community projects and events".

Please note that we are currently underspending on other lines, especially on scholarships, so we will not overspend on the entire grant.

Do you agree with such use of the unforeseen line?

Thanks — WMUA Treasurer NickK (talk)

Hello NickK, thanks for posting your request here. We have reviewed and approved it. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 05:51, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation Request

Hi @I JethroBT (WMF):!

We would like to request reallocation of grant funds for the CEE Spring article contest.

We are requesting reallocation in the following way:

•  +500 USD on 1.1.3 CEE Spring 2020 article contest
• -500 USD on 1.4 Wikiexpeditions and photography grants

The CEE Spring contest in Ukrainian Wikimedia projects has proven much larger than anticipated this year. The main reason: its participation dates coincided with the most stringent COVID-19 lockdown, and the contest benefitted from Wikipedians' increased free time. As a result, this contest became the largest one in the history of Ukrainian Wikipedia by the number of articles submitted.

By contrast, Wikiexpeditions and photography grants have been affected negatively by the quarantine, particularly event cancellations and funding restrictions on travel. We were not able to finance them for 6 months. Now that the WMF restrictions have been eased, we might allow 1-2 expeditions by the end of the year, but we are highly unlikely to use up all the money allocated. --AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) (talk) 13:16, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello AntonProtsiuk (WMUA), I'll respond on behalf of Chris. Thanks for posting your request, I have reviewed and approved it. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 09:21, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation Request December 2020

Hi @I JethroBT (WMF):!

We would like to request a slight reallocation of our 2020 grant funds.

We are requesting reallocation in the following way:

•  +400 USD on the Science contest (2.X Unforeseen community projects and events, see #Unforeseen usage request above)
• -400 USD on 2.2 Wikipedia in Education

Our science photography contest has proven larger than anticipated, partly thanks to improvements in promotion and perhaps partly because of the COVID-19 lockdown. As a result, we have reached a record number of photos and participants since the contest was first held in 2015.

Conversely, we have underspent funds dedicated to the Wikipedia in Education program, primarily because we have not held any large offline training sessions for educators because of the lockdown. --AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) (talk) 22:45, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

@AntonProtsiuk (WMUA): Thanks for this request Anton, and for your organization's work to adjust your resourcing to support the unanticipated growth in the science photography contest. Glad to hear there is renewed interest in the event. This request is formally approved. Good luck with the contest! I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:09, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Request for Deadline Extension for the Final Report

Hi @I JethroBT (WMF):!

We would like to ask for reporting deadline extension.

Although we can complete the report by January 30th, it would be really helpful for us if the deadline could be extended by February 10th.

The reason is that our resources are overstretched in January — both due to traditional reasons and due to this year's unique challenges.

Traditionally, January 30th is the date of Ukrainian Wikipedia's birthday, and it takes a lot of work from us (preparing our traditional Wikimarathon, engaging in media activities etc.)

This year, the situation gets complicated by the pandemic (it's not possible to organize a physical meeting to speed up reporting preparation), as well as by global Wikipedia's 20th anniversary, which we celebrating more widely than a non-jubilee global Wikipedia birthday.

Thanks! --AntonProtsiuk (WMUA) (talk) 21:42, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Hello Anton. Thank you for reaching out with the request which is understandable and therefore granted. We look forward to receiving your report on February 10th. We wish you the very best in your activities attached to both the Wikipedia birthday celebrations. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 10:49, 14 January 2021 (UTC)