Grants:APG/Proposals/2023-2024 round 1/Wikimedia CH/Impact report form

Purpose of the report

This form reports on Wikimedia CH's results for 2024 (1 January - 31 December). Wikimedia CH has recently become financially independent and does not rely on an Annual Plan Grant (APG) from the Wikimedia Foundation. Therefore, this report provides an overview of the year without strictly adhering to the APG format.

Metrics

Wikimedia CH is in the process of revising our complete impact logic, strategy and metrics with the help of the Value for Good programme and the Mercator Foundation through their Impact Academy. We will soon introduce a new system to more accurately measure our impact and output. The new metrics and the underlying evaluation methodology and strategy will be detailed in upcoming reports. We would be happy to explain our roadmap on this topic to interested parties.

Program impacts

Executive Summary

Wikimedia CH had a strong year in 2024 with new partnerships, a new community space and new programmatic strategies. We're advancing towards the goals set out in our five-year strategy despite significant changes within our team. Our focus on building a more inclusive future guided our work throughout the year as we strengthened our position as a key player in Switzerland's digital landscape and knowledge ecosystem. We continued to professionalise our operations while adapting to an evolving environment where topics like artificial intelligence and climate change increasingly impact our work.

Our impact

The Wikimedia Movement is built upon the dedication and passion of volunteers who generously contribute their time and expertise across all our programmes. We extend our deepest gratitude to all volunteers who contributed to our mission in 2024. Our impact around advancing free knowledge in Switzerland and beyond wouldn't be possible without them.

Our programmes saw significant achievements across the board. We strengthened our GLAM partnerships, particularly with the Swiss National Library and KBCB, leading to new community spaces and collaborative events. In Education, we expanded our reach through initiatives like translating Wikeys and launching new student training programmes. Our Community programme developed its first-ever strategy while supporting numerous community-led workshops and edit-a-thons. Innovation continued exploring AI applications and advancing the WikiKlima project, while Public Affairs & Partnerships strengthened our advocacy work and expanded our outreach.

A highlight of the year was our successful Wikipedia Day and General Assembly in Bern, which brought together around 100 Wikipedians, association members and partners. The event, which focused on Wikipedia and AI, helped strengthen our role as a thought leader around the impact AI has on free knowledge.

Our people

Our team grew significantly in 2024— from 12 to 15 team members, totalling more than 13.5 full time employees. There were several new hires and shifts in responsibility throughout the year. These include welcoming a new Operational Team Lead and a new Education Lead, expanding our Innovation and GLAM teams, and restructuring our Community team to better serve Wikipedians and volunteers. These changes strengthened our operational, educational and technical capabilities while improving our ability to serve Wikipedians and volunteers.

At the board level, we saw changes in leadership as Matthias Nepfer – Head of Innovation and Information Management at the Swiss National Library and long-time Wikipedian – was chosen as the new Board President following Muriel Staub's departure. Meanwhile, Catherine Janssens became Vice-President, and Mauro Cassina continued the role of Treasurer.

Our organisation

Throughout 2024, we focused on organisational development, sustainability and impact. We revised our salary system, updated our Travel Policy with a stronger environmental focus and completed a Carbon Footprint Analysis that informed a new sustainability strategy. The "Value for Good" programme with the Mercator Foundation helped us to create an impact logic to better measure and ensure our impact, efficiency and return on investment.

We also strengthened internal collaboration and team dynamics through quarterly in-person staff meetings and an end-of-year gathering that included board members. These events helped reinforce our commitment to strong internal relationships that help multiply our impact.

Our future

Looking ahead, we will continue implementing our new Community strategy and Education plan while advancing Innovation projects, particularly around AI. We will deepen our partnerships and co-create more events with partners. The Mercator Foundation's "Value for Good" programme will help us further improve our impact measurement and efficiency.

We will also begin preparations for two significant milestones in 2026: Wikimedia CH's 20th anniversary and Wikipedia's 25th anniversary. Throughout these preparations and beyond, we remain committed to ensuring free access to unbiased knowledge as a cornerstone of democratic society.

Strategy at a glance

Our vision

As Wikimedia CH, we:

Bring people together with the aim of disseminating free knowledge for a smart and open society.
Enable Wikipedians to share knowledge and connect them with the Wikimedia universe.
Are a collaborative and accountable association representing the interests of our multilingual communities in Switzerland.

Our mission

To collect, curate and disseminate free knowledge.
To promote the work of contributors (more information: Community webpage).
To help Swiss memory institutions share their knowledge, collections and curatorial resources digitally with a global community through a global platform – all this to make (Swiss) cultural heritage and its diversity more accessible to the world (more information: GLAM webpage).
To sensitise all levels of education to sustainable use of digital information (more information: Education webpage).
To advocate for free knowledge, including at the political level (more information: Outreach webpage).

Our strategy

Impact directions

GLAM – We collaborate with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) throughout Switzerland to provide digital access to memory institutions’ collections and artefacts. We aim to share the country’s culture and history in a sustainable format and across all borders.
Education – We deliver and collaborate on education programmes that advance learning at every level, for both children and adults. Our work supports lifelong learning as well as teachers and trainers at schools, universities and other institutions of higher education.
Community – We help the Wikimedia CH community grow, supporting existing members and cultivating new Wikipedians. Among other activities, we train and mentor Wikipedia editors and support the diverse and multicultural interests of our community with targeted programming.
Public Affairs & Partnerships – We believe in using our unique position in the field of information exchange to be an influencer on national and international issues concerning open access and open knowledge. We offer our viewpoints on copyright, technology and more.
Experimentation & Innovation – Our Innovation Lab is a dedicated space for experimentation and improvement that helps us anticipate and address societal changes while optimising projects that advance our core purpose. We aim to create a safe framework to explore bold ideas, exchange knowledge and improve tools in an accessible, non-judgmental way.

Programme GLAM

Overview

The GLAM programme made significant strides in 2024, despite changes to the team and ways of working. A major achievement was creating a new community space at the Kunsthaus Biel Centre d'art Bienne (KBCB), which quickly became an active hub for workshops and collaborative events. This complemented ongoing partnerships with institutions like the Swiss National Library and the Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts (SAPA), the latter of which resulted in over 11,000 new images being added to Wikimedia Commons.

As the year progressed, the programme increasingly focused on archives and decolonisation projects, setting the stage for these to be key themes in 2025. This included work on archiving objects and 3D projects, as well as multiple decolonisation initiatives in collaboration with partners like Supsi and the National Museum Zurich. The programme also strengthened its international presence through successful campaigns like International Museum Day 2024, which brought together the International Council of Museums (ICOM), multiple Wikimedia chapters, and GLAM partners in a comprehensive series of contests, panel discussions, and educational video releases.

Highlight activity

New Community Space and GLAM Meetups

One of the significant achievements of 2024 was establishing a new community space at the Kunsthaus Biel Centre d'art Bienne (KBCB). The space quickly became a vibrant hub for collaborative knowledge-sharing through monthly GLAM meetings held on the last Friday of each month. These meetings bring together artists, Wikimedians, and cultural professionals to co-create and co-edit Wikipedia content, fostering a unique environment where artistic and digital cultures intersect.

A highlight of this meeting series was the ninth gathering on November 29, which focused on the theme of faces and masks. The event featured a presentation by curator and artist Ila Wingen, who studied in Paris and has expertise in facial representation in art. What made this meeting particularly special was its role in launching a new cooperation project with Nairobi, connecting Swiss GLAM initiatives with African art perspectives.

The event exemplified the potential of the KBCB space to facilitate multilingual and cross-cultural dialogue. Nearly 50 participants joined both in person and virtually, including Rose Musyoki from Nairobi (who writes for ArtNetwork Africa) and Ivonne Gonzalez, along with members of the French and German Wikipedia communities.

This successful collaboration sets the stage for future cross-cultural projects, with plans to present the results at the next Wikimania. The KBCB community space, secured through 2025, will continue to serve as a vital platform for such partnerships that bridge cultural gaps while expanding free knowledge on Wikimedia projects.

Key programme activities

Built upon our partnership with the Swiss National Library with a GLAM-on-Tour event at the library and organised a second GLAM-on-Tour event at Château Chillon in collaboration with "Les Sans PagEs," focusing on the history of witch trials in the canton of Vaud.
Organised an edit-a-thon with the Swiss National Museum where the museum collections could inspire participants to create and update Wikipedia articles.
Created a “Mind the Gap” video series on archive gaps and how to reduce them on Wikipedia to develop a more sustainable future for archives.
Continued the WikiNeocomensia workshops and professional meetups for GLAM professionals and partners.
Began a collaboration with the Richterich Foundation around archiving for contemporary art.
Strengthened our relationship with FemNetz by attending the FemNetzCon 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.

Built upon our partnership with the Swiss Archives for the Performing Arts (SAPA) to promote archives and data about the performing arts in Switzerland through a series of edit-a-thons, which resulted in the upload of over 11,000 images related to Swiss performance art to Wikimedia Commons.
Supported International Archives Week 2024 with the Association of Swiss Archivists around the theme "#CyberArchives" with an online panel about archive gaps.
Organised a global campaign for International Museum Day 2024, collaborating with ICOM, other Wikimedia chapters and GLAM partners. The campaign included:
- three contests around translation, media and data;
- a panel discussion about "Wikimedia, Museums and Education," and;
- three video releases on museum education and museums' role as centres of education and innovation and institutions for research
As part of the Swiss OpenGLAM working group, planned and participated in the 2024 GLAMhack event, which focused on decolonisation and how people impact culture as they move around the world. We also began planning the 2025 edition in Winterthur with the Foundation for Art, Culture and History.
Worked with Programme Innovation to restored and begin developing version 2.0 of the GLAM statistical tool to enhance stability and improve performance.
Launched an archiving of objects and 3D project spanning late 2024 and early 2025.
Supported Classroom to the Amazon, a Swiss-Brazilian initiative aimed at bringing more knowledge about the Amazon to Wikimedia platforms.
Advanced multiple decolonisation projects, including the event focusing on faces and masks as a prelude to the Nairobi project and a research project with Iolanda Pensa in collaboration with Supsi and the National Museum Zurich.

Château Chillon à Veytaux
The Universitätsbibliotheki in Bern
A map of Swiss Archives

Programme impact

Key accomplishments

The partnership with the Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts yielded tangible results, with over 11,000 images of Swiss performance art being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, substantially expanding public access to Swiss cultural heritage.
Our campaign for International Museum Day 2024 demonstrated successful multi-stakeholder collaboration, bringing together ICOM, multiple Wikimedia chapters, and GLAM partners to create comprehensive educational content through contests, panel discussions, and a video series.
The new community space partnership with KBCB in Biel has created a sustainable hub for community engagement, providing a free venue for workshops and events while strengthening local partnerships.

Lessons learned

Building trust with partners creates opportunities for deeper collaboration. For example, KBCB offered us a community space and co-creates events with us.
While we successfully executed many activities and events, advance planning is crucial to maximise impact. This is particularly important for large-scale initiatives like International Museum Day and GLAM-on-Tour events.
Our focus on team- and community building is essential for successful activities. Investing in physical spaces and regular meetups creates stronger bonds between Wikimedians, cultural professionals and artists. These connections lead to more collaborative projects and better content creation.
We need to create more awareness about our chapter's mission among potential partners and the general public. While we've had success with individual partnerships and events, there's still work to be done in helping people understand why Wikimedia projects need support and how they can contribute.

Looking ahead

In 2025, the GLAM Programme will continue to focus on museum transformation in alignment with ICOM’s new museum strategy, which focuses on civil society, sustainability, disruption and digitalisation. The ongoing wars, uncertainties and environmental disasters have highlighted the importance of heritage and open knowledge. Through a series of events and video releases, the GLAM programme will address the challenges for museums in the future, as well as new forms of archiving and creative knowledge bases. We will also continue our focus on decolonising collections and encouraging inclusive narratives. We aim to broaden the cultural network by reaching out to smaller GLAM institutions and artists' collectives for more diverse knowledge creation processes.