Grants:PEG/WM AU/Printing and Merchandise Startup Kit

Funded

This submission to the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2009-10. This is a grant to an organization.

IMPORTANT: Please do not make changes to this page now. They will be reverted.

This project has been funded, completed, and a project report has been reviewed and accepted by WMF Staff.
To review a list of other funded submissions by fiscal year, please visit the Requests subpage, and to review the WMF Grants Program criteria for funding please visit the Grants:Index.

Legal name of chapter: Wikimedia Australia Inc.
Grant contact name: Liam Wyatt
Grant contact user-name or e-mail: w:en:user:witty lama lwyatt@wikimedia.org
Grant contact title (position): Vice President

Full project name: Printing and Merchandise Startup Kit
Amount requested (in USD): ~~3240~~ USD 2500
Provisional target start date: ASAP
Provisional completion date: November 2009 - in time for our conference.

Budget breakdown

All costing is in Australian Dollars until final totals

All quoted prices are estimates

Printing

Essential stationery

Item	Unit numbers	Unit cost	Cost
Business Cards	1000	.20	200
Banner Stand	1	200	200
Essential Stationary Total			AU$400

NB Banner stands are typically used at stalls: examples

Promotional & PR

Item	Unit numbers	Unit cost	Cost
Postcards	200	.50	100
Bookmarks	200	.25	50
Brochures (from the "bookshelf")	1000	.75	750
"Little Wikipedia Primer" Booklets	100	1	100
Annual Reports	50	2	100
Book Samples (from PediaPress)	20	20 (inc. shipping)	400
Printing Total			AU$ 1500

400 + 1500 = 1900

Merchandise

Item	Unit numbers	Unit cost	Cost
Stickers	500	1	500
Pin Badges	200	1	200
T-Shirts	100	15	1500
Pens/Pencils	200	2	400
Merchandise Total			AU$ 2600

Total

Exchange Rate 1 $AU=.72 $US

Stationary & Printing = AU$ 1900 (US 1368)
Merchandise = AU$ 2600 (US 1872)

= AU$ 4500 (US 3240)

REQUESTED AMOUNT = $US 3240

Project scope

We will produce, as soon as possible, the merchandise listed above - selection/creation of design, obtaining of quotes for production and receipt of goods. We will then distribute a portion of this merchandise around the country to the Chapter Board members and prominent community members to distribute locally. A second portion of the merchandise will be retained for use at specific events (such as the national conference) and a third portion will be used as is necessary - unallocated.

For some of the printing listed above we will produce the total amount immediately (e.g. business cards and postcards) and distribute most of these to the Chapter Board members and prominent community members around the country. Other items we will produce as/when necessary for specific events (such as the PediaPress example books and the Annual report).

Project goal

The goal of this project is to "jump start" the Australian chapter's physical presence in the country by allowing for the creation of a range of materials which can be distributed - publications, merchandise, stationary. Currently the Chapter does not have the financial or logistical capacity to create any merchandise (for sale or for free distribution) or to even hand out our own business cards. This grant would quickly increase the public awareness and professional appearance of the Chapter.

Non-financial requirements

The "Bookshelf" of publications/brochuses from which we could quickly chose/adapt items to print
The designs for relevant merchandise (pencils for example) and suggestions for what colour/size/design is most popular (in t-shirts for example).
The templates for letterheads, envelopes and business cards in an open-document format.
Potentially some of the desired merchandise or printing has already been made elsewhere, in this case it might be possible to replace part of the financial grant with an in-kind grant.

Fit to strategy

This project will increase the reach of Wikimedia Australia by immediately giving us the ability to leave something tangible with people both within and without the community. We currently do not have the budget to produce any merchandise or printing and so this would allow us to improve the trust other organisations have in us (and therefore the likelyhood of collaborating) by being able to give professional quality WM-Au content. This also improves credibility and effectiveness. Currently we are obliged to write on the back of our existing "day-job" business cards, for example.

Financially this allows us to give our current membership something tangible for their effort and therefore encourage them to re-join. As a chapter in its 1st year most of our foundation members joined as soon as we became official, it is possible that without tangible benifits from this membership (such as an "official WM-Au t-shirt") there would be a sharp decline in renewals.

As a "starter kit" we expect that this grant request would be a one-off. In subesquent years there would hopefully be enough capital to be able to outlay the production costs. Also, we would hope that people would see what is already available and start to request specific variations - an indication of a self-sustainable merchandise aspect to the chapter.

Other benefits

Sense of affiliation
Potential for third-party endorsement if a celebrity uses the merchandise publicly
Members can more easily recruit their friends if they have something to give them

Measures of success

The measurement of success of the merchandise is the distribution of the material. If the merchandise is used, seen and requested across the country then we have been able to successfully avoid saturating one geographical area.

For the printing the measure of success is the usefulness and uptake of the various pieces of content. Some items are only for demonstration or as special gifts (such as the PediaPress books) whilst others are for mass handouts (such as the brochures). If the items are taken by the people we offer them to in the rough proportion to what we have printed then this is a successful uptake.