User:KHarold (WMF)/Sandbox/Learning Patterns/Partnerships for Contests
Partnerships
problemYou are planning an event and want to work with another organization to provide prizes, promotion or support from subject experts.
solutionPartners or sponsors can support your event by providing prizes, promotion or planning support from subject experts. Learn who to talk to and what to ask for.
creator• KHarold (WMF)
status:in progress
What problem does this solve?
editPartners or sponsors can provide prizes, assist with judging and help you reach new users by promoting your contest.
What is the solution?
editHow to find and work with partners
editWhen to contact potential partners:
- It is a good idea to contact potential partners at the end of the calendar year, when they are making their budget and promotional plans for the coming year.[1]
- Plan on contacting several potential partners a few months before your contests. Not everyone will say yes.[1]
How to talk to a partners:
- Talk about how Wikipedia and how the competition topic supports or is in line the goals of the partner organization.[2][3]
- Ask for something spesific, such as a prize, event space or help promoting the contest to their community.[4]
Who to contact:
- Someone who has an existing relationship, such as a GLAM partner.
- Employers, such as universities, libraries.
- Organizations who will benefit from increased coverage of the contest topic on Wikipedia.[5]
Prizes
editJudging
edit- Expert judges from partner organizations can bring extra attention or prestige to your contest.[8]
- Expert judges may be able to evaluate the quality of content in their area of expertise more quickly than an experience Wikipedian with limited knowledge in that subject area.
- It is a good idea to limit the amount of time that experts or partners must spend as a judge. Asking for 30 minutes of time can be easy to commit to.[9] [8]
Promotion
edit- Promotion may be one of the most vaulable aspects of working with a partner or sponsor because they have access to mailing lists, social media followers and other communication channels to reach people who are interested in the subject of your competiton but have not edited Wikipedia before.[10][5]
General considerations
edit- Partners may also be able to provide sources or bibilographies, or help identify content gaps or important articles that need to be written.
When to use
editSee also
editExamples
edit- Wikimedia Estonia worked with a local nature magazine on a photo competition that the magazine was running. The magazine provided a small prize, and the contest reached 17 photographers who uploaded 20 images, including 2 featured images, that are all in use. "This is a photo competition for professionals who are maybe not ready to publish their photos under free license. This photo competition seems to serve well as an outreach instrument to carry the message of free culture to people who can make quality photos."
Related patterns
editExternal links
editReferences
edit- ↑ a b “It is best to ask a partner for a prize at the end of the year because this is when they are making their budget and promotional plans for the coming year. There are usually more queries going out than prizes coming in. If you are not asking soon enough you get more negative answers. ” - Kaarel
- ↑ "Partners want to help because they like free knowledge, have contact or personal relationships with members of the Wikimedia Estonia community. We explain why supporting Wikimedia is good, but usually [they have] personal interest around topic, i.e. the Greek embassy supports the Greek competition." - Kaarel
- ↑ “It is very easy to get funding from people in the scientific community because they recognize the value of Wikipedia and because they want the prestige of being associated with the competition.” - Yoni
- ↑ "If you reach out, good idea to know what you want and why it is related to your competition. It is good to have repeat partners, since they are easier to organize and work with." - Kaarel
- ↑ a b "We send tweets to partners or groups who will benefit. We try to match our communication to the audience we want to reach, but reach out beyond traditional user groups and it really works for us. We reach new communities by contacting new audience leaders, for example, sending a press release about a week before a contest to organizations who have a large following of people who might be interested in the topic." - Alex Amical
- ↑ "Depending on size of partner, they can provide the prizes. If partner is a tourism company, they can provide travel packages (hotel on beach, kayak trip, etc.)." - Alex
- ↑ “We are mostly targeting undergraduate students, 1st prize is 1,200 USD, so that is a lot of money for them. For a physics department, this is not a lot of money, but for a student it is very motivating.” - Yoni
- ↑ a b “For big contests, we ask partners who have expertise to act as judges. This brings prestige to contest and to the judges organization. We try to make sure that it is a small task for them to judge, no more than 10 or 20 minutes in a week." - Alex
- ↑ "This judging system is another thing that gets a lot of people involved in WP. We have 40 scientists throughout Israel that participate by reading and commenting on just one article. It is not a lot of work because they are reading something from their field that may only take 30 minutes of time. Usually these judges haven't contributed to Wikipedia before. This is very helpful because afterwards, if people want to improve a page they have specific feedback from a subject area expert.” - Yoni
- ↑ "Good promotion most important, good partners who can promote and support beyond prizes. We have scarce human resources, so having a partner promoting works better."- Kaarel