Grants:PEG/WM DE/Capacity Building 2010-2011/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2010-11 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/WM DE/Capacity Building 2010-2011.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Activities

As outlined in the Grant Request, we hired three new positions and upgraded another one:

Project Manager “Volunteer Support” (full-time, permanent position filled on 15. June 2011)
Project Manager “Usability & IT (full-time, permanent position filled on 1. March 2011)
PR Assistent: part-time position filled on 1.11.2010
Upgraded Fundraiser to Full-time: 1.1.2011

The hiring process lasted longer than expected, so we did not fill the positions to the planned dates, but significantly later. For the Usability & IT position, we upgraded the time of an existent employee to fulfill some of the tasks, until we filled the position permanently on March 1, 2011.

In addition, we were able to execute all other tasks successfully:

Rented a new office server and upgraded our mail infrastructure
Installation of “GRÜN” fundraising software

Project goal and measures of success

Project goal

Increase the ability of Wikimedia Deutschland to support the volunteer community through a continuous and professional support within the office of Wikimedia Deutschland
Increase both the reliability and the service level of the Toolserver infrastructure through a part-time (50%) position
Increase Wikimedia Deutschland’s development capacity
Upgrade our internal IT services as well as the fundraising infrastructure

Measures of success

At least 10 templates and forms have been developed by WMDE and implemented by WMF.

Not achieved. It turned out during the term of the grant that the complexity to implement such developments would be unduly high for both WMDE and WMF.

All featured articles are available in a format useful to visually impaired readers.

Partly achieved: We initiated a cooperation with the biggest library for the visually impaired and produced a CD with 30 featured articles as audio files. In addition, we supported a community run project to build and run a recording studio, that is still producing high- quality articles as audio files.

Three workshops (BLP, law, communication methods) have been conducted for OTRS team and mentors.

Achieved

The “Welcome to Wikipedia” initiative has been implemented.

Partly achieved: We overhauled the whole presence of all Wikimedia Deutschland support services within the Wikipedia, making it easier for beginners to get the support they need. In addition, we worked closely with the German “Mentorenprogramm” (run by volunteers to greet new editors and help them through the starting phase).

The book scholarship program and the Community Budget are well established within the community; 100 % more applications are handled by WMDE.

Achieved. In 2010, we granted 22 book grants, in 2011 we handled 89, plus numerous eLitStibs, giving users access to databases etc.

In 2010, 27.714 Euro ($34.057) were distributed through the Community Budget, in 2011 78.384 Euro ($96.325)

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects?

The hiring process was much more complicated and time-consuming than expected.

The focus of the grant was slightly to specific, it would have been better to use a different approach for measuring success.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

The impact is hard to measure, but we have some indications:

The usability of the Toolserver improved through the work of a part-time administrator payed for by WMDE.
Making our support services easier to find increased the demand of these services significantly, as can be seen in the increase of volunteers supported by WMDE

WMDE developed significantly between 2010 and 2011, partly because of the grant we received from the WMF. Details on what changed between 2010 and 2011 are documented in our annual reports 2010 (PDF; German only) and 2011 (PDF).

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Did you send WMF documentation of all expenses paid for with grant funds?

See below.

Details of expenditures:

As outlined in the grant request, this granted request served as a revenue sharing forgiveness grant due to legal and tax reasons that prevented WMDE to transfer money raised in the 2009 fundraiser to the WMF. The amount requested went into the budget of WMDE and enabled us to hire the positions outlined above and to invest in infrastructure.

All positions are filled permanently, and therefore all funds have been used in accordance with this grant request.

A detailed outline of the labour costs can not be published due to privacy reasons, but is available to the WMF upon request.

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

Not applicable

Will you be returning unused funds to the Wikimedia Foundation?

Not applicable

Additional requests and related proposals

Will you be requesting an extension or were you granted an extension?

No.

Please link to related grant proposals here: