This section will help you identify and clarify your goals, decide what programs, events and other strategies will help meet those goals and determine how to measure progress towards goals.
Choose the best program for your community
Run a WikiChallenge. Experiment with online contests with no cash prizes, and distribute barnstars to the winners. --learning pattern needed--
Find ongoing WikiProjects to partner with. Some WikiProjects may have a similar focus, or try to achieve similar goals. --learning pattern needed--
Set program goals and key measures of success
The best programs focus on one or two realistic goals and have clear measures of success. It is important to establish these in the program planning process, both to write a strong grant proposal and to keep the team of organizers focused on key activities.
Wiki Loves Monuments have many goals! View the WLM evaluation report to see the complete list.
Example goals:
Increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects
Making contributing fun
Building and engaging community
Increasing support for the open knowledge/free content movement
Set achievable goals: Realistic goals will can help volunteers remain engaged and have a rewarding experience.
Refer to reports on Wiki Loves Monuments and other photo events: On average, individual WLM contests generate 4,000 images, 13% images in use, 153 participants of which 68% were new users. New user retention and quality image rates are both below 1%.
What kind of resources you need to be successful? This an important step, whether you are planning a contest for the first time or have planned a contest before. In this section you will find guidance on how to build a team of volunteers, and links to research on budgets and timelines used in successful contests.
Determine how much help you need and find volunteers to support you
Taking part in an international competition such as Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Earth can require significant volunteer time. That said, the structure and excitement around participating in what has been the largest photography contest in the world makes participating in the international contest a great first-project for volunteers to organize together.
Project roles for volunteers: Important roles include creating lists and maps of locations to be photographed, securing partnerships, planning events, promoting the contest and managing judging processes.
Identify organizations that will benefit from your contest and ask for their support
Partners or sponsors can support your event by donating prizes and event space, promote contests to new audiences, provide planning and judging support from subject experts and more. It is important to begin speaking to existing and potential partners many months before a photo event to secure sufficient support.
Budget templates: This page will help you with the technical task of creating a budget for a grant proposal.
Expense Tracker: Blog post on a tool WM Czech Republic developed for easy processing of volunteer expenses. Can be modified for any group and makes photo expeditions/walks much easier to organize!
WMF Grants can be used to pay for photo contest prizes and other expenses as well as programs supporting photography communities. In any grant proposal, it is important to demonstrate that your community supports the project, and that the project is necessary to reach community goals.
Wikimedia organizations or individuals: Apply for a Project and Event Grant (PEG) from WMF to pay for prizes and prize delivery. Do this a few months before the contest begins to ensure the funding arrives in time.
People who participate in contests are often driven by a desire to win a prize or gain recognition from the community. This section will help you determine what kind of prizes may motivate contest participants, and will provide guidance on how to pay for and deliver those prizes.
Choose a prize that participants will value, and that you can deliver
Simplify contest coordination and improve participant experience by featuring important information on event pages, using categorization bots and tools to track participation.
Create contest event pages that will attract and delight your participant
Good event pages are especially important for photography contests because they attract a large number of new users who have very limited knowledge of how Wikimedia works. It is important to create an event page for your contest that will both help people get the information they need as well as provide a collaboration space to set and achieve achieve shared goals.
CentralNotice banners: Allows for large-scale announcements across Wikimedia wikis via banners. Can be geo-located and shown to both logged-in and anonymous users. Helpful in promoting your event!
Tracker: Blog post on a tool WM Czech Republic developed for easy processing of volunteer expenses. Can be modified for any group and makes photo expeditions/walks much easier to organize!
Logic Model: A visual representation of how your program works – a “picture” of your program. A Logic Model includes what you put into your program (resource inputs), what you do (program activities and participation), and what you plan to achieve (program outputs and resulting outcomes).
Improve contest or program participation by focusing on promotion, and plan events or provide resources that will help participants increase the diversity and improve the quality of images they capture.
Choose the best promotion strategy to reach your target audience
Good promotion is a key element of success for photo contests because, often, the goal is to reach new users, especially those with strong photography skills.
Promote photo contests:Learn how to reach talented photographers to participate in photo events.
Photography contests often attract talented photographers who may not have contributed content to Wikimedia before. Plan programs and events that will motivate talented photographers to continue adding valuable images to Commons.
Keep in touch with contest participants
Photo contests and events are a great way to reach new contributors, but they may need extra encouragement to become part of your community.
Increase editor retention by creating newbie-friendly event pages and offering support and encouragement off-wiki.
Develop programs to give photographers access to equipment and events
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