Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Canada/2021

APG approved in the amount of CAD 130,000

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of CAD 130,000, with a grant term starting 1 January 2021 and ending 31 December 2021.

WMCA is strengthening its existing programming by building on previous cycle programs. Their priorities for this grant cycle include; i) increasing the quality, diversity, and quantity of free knowledge about Canada and other topics, diversity of the representation of Canada and the contributors in the volunteer community, and sustainability including on issues of financial independence and governance.

The group will be focusing on programs such as i) Develop and diversify free knowledge about Canada and other fields of knowledge, ii)Increase and diversify participation in the Wikimedia movement from Canada, and iii) Increase free knowledge about Indigenous Peoples in Canada.WMCA is building on existing partnerships and program success from the previous year in strengthening the programs proposed for this cycle. One of the successes they had and that they are building off is increasing the quality of content developed and having additional new contributors to the Wikimedia project.

The community affiliated with Wikimedia Canada is engaged in informing the priority areas WMCA should focus on. For instance, the community influenced the decision to focus on health sciences as part of program activities encouraging contribution to Wikimedia projects.

We see the use of WikiClubs to allow for geographical representation and implementation of activities. They are intentional in their activity plan about working with underrepresented communities including but not limited to women, non-binary people, and LGBTQ+ people. WMCA has a great model of supporting WikiClubs in being able to implement activities by taking the logistics and coordination bit of the work. They have also identified institutions that support the sustainability of their activities for partnerships and collaboration opportunities.

We however recommend that WMCA identifies other ways of involving communities from other geographical regions beyond East of Canada to avoid issues and tendencies of centralization of WMCA and especially seeing that Canada is a big country.

The use of Micro-grants is a great way of growing and sustaining the movement. It is also a great way of motivating the volunteers who are key in the delivery of the work.

Partnerships are key for their work with Atikamekw First Nation and the success of this partnership model will be used in the development of new partnerships with the other indigenous communities.

Best regards on behalf of the Simple APG Committee and Staff,--VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 10:53, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

On behalf of the Board of Directors and on my own behalf, a big thank you to the Committee for this recommendation. Once again this year, and this time in the context of a pandemic, we have worked hard to provide Canadians with the tools and support necessary for the appropriation and outreach of Wikimedia projects while spreading the word about Canadian subjects around the world. We will, of course, redouble our efforts to improve representativeness and greater involvement across all of Canada. After a few months of adjusting to the new realities of confinement and physical distancing, we look forward to an exciting and more active year in 2021. And for this, we are going to need all the resources available. Once again, thank you very much! Lea-Kim (talk) 16:35, 15 December 2020 (UTC)