Grants talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014 round1/Wikimedia Israel/Impact report form

Report received

Thank you, colleagues at Wikimedia Israel, for submitting this report! We're looking forward to reviewing it in detail and learning more about the impact of your work this past year. KLove (WMF) (talk) 17:15, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Wikimedia Israel Financial Report

We would like to upload the 2014 audited financial report, approved by the General Assembly last week. Can I edit the Impact report form? Thank you. Chen - WMIL (talk) 08:09, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Chen - WMIL! Sure, go ahead and add the link to the form. Thanks for noting it here! KLove (WMF) (talk) 03:57, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you KLove (WMF) (talk), see attached under 'Financial summary'. Chen - WMIL (talk) 08:54, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Feedback from FDC staff

The FDC staff (Katy and Winifred) shared their thoughts and feedback and asked questions about both the 2013-14 Impact Report and the 2014-15 Progress Report over a Skype call / Hangout held with each organization. What follows is the summary of the conversation covering these two reports. KLove (WMF) (talk) 00:21, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Appreciation

• We continue to appreciate WMIL’s focus Wiktionary and Wikisource, including the revitalization of the Wiktionary community.
• WMIL has strong relationships with high-profile and high-potential partner institutions in Israel, and is leveraging in-kind resources through its partnerships to support its programs. This includes an important partnership with the Ministry of Education.
• We appreciate the comprehensive approach WMIL is taking toward many of its programs. For example, they are developing comprehensive training materials for teachers and have moved from hosting one-time edit-a-thons to sequences including multiple events.
• We recognize the importance of the WikiWomen initiative and Wikimedia Israel’s work with the gender gap, and look forward to more work in this area.
• We are pleased to see Wikimedia Israel tracking the percentage of images in use of those generated through WMIL activities, and want to encourage WMIL to continue to think seriously about different ways to measure use and quality.
• We love Wikimedia Israel’s thoughtful approach to volunteer engagement, and appreciate that Wikimedia Israel is a movement leader in this area. We are impressed to see that Wikimedia is achieving good results on a small scale. WMIL is simulatenously experimenting with new ideas (including stopping those ideas that don’t work, and continuing to experiment with ideas that do get good results).

Concerns

• We note Wikimedia Israel’s growing focus on quality, and hope that Wikimedia Israel works to measure and showcase this aspect of its work in future reports and proposals. As it is, the outcomes reported (especially in terms of content) are very low with respect to the overall grant amount and amount of activity WMIL is implementing. While we have seen big improvements, a lack of metrics has not helped our ability to understand the impact of WMIL’s work.
• We are concerned with a lack of program focus. We don’t yet see an increase in the amount of activities leading to stronger outcomes, and so we are concerned about continued growth in programs, budget, and activity level.
• We encourage WMIL to deepen its strongest programs, and match program and activity level to organizational and volunteer capacity. Given significant challenges with volunteer engagement, we are concerned that there may not be enough volunteers to support program growth.
• While WMIL has been successful in raising in-kind donations, it has not yet had success in raising funds from institutional donors, which will be critical if WMIL plans to grow.

Reply from WMIL board and ED

Dear FDC staff,

We appreciate the time you spent to evaluate and share your thoughts and guidance on our progress and impact.

Following the feedback on our financial and progress report, Wikimedia Israel’s Board and Executive Director has held a discussion regarding the 2016 (and end of 2015) work plan, and its alignment and focus on impact and outcomes. In the short term, we’ve decided to hold a writing contest alongside this year's WLM photo contest, and to significantly lower our involvement in WLM next year, to be able to focus on more impact-yielding actions. In addition, we will continue to create quality content with the different Wiki communities we support and our partners.

Furthermore, we will evaluate our existing partnerships and will stop existing / not initiate new collaborations without that do not involve a significant content contribution or a clear possibility of community enlargement. That being said, we are intending to build upon our existing success in educational programs, and in 2016 have a renewed focus of our efforts on the academia, which is a major growth engine in our view.

Alleycat80 (talk) (Ido), Board Secretary, Wikimedia Israel.

Thank you, Alleycat80, for this update. Winifred and I really appreciate the thinking you, the Board and the staff are doing to guide WMIL in the next year. Cheers, KLove (WMF) (talk) 17:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)