Grants:Project/Rapid/Plan/SampleReport/Editathon

Please see the related sample proposal for editathons.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes! We hosted 6 editathons and had a good mix of both new editors and existing editors. It was great being hosted at a library as the library staff were very helpful in pulling resources for participants. Recruiting online mentors was also very helpful. They followed-up with editors between sessions and helped monitor their articles. It took longer that we expected for new people to learn the basic skills to create new articles, so we focused our efforts on helping them add sources or edit existing articles.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Project metrics

Project metrics	Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
6 events	6 events
30 participants	28 participants
20 new editors	18 new editors
60 articles created or improved	76 articles created or improved	There was more work focused on improving articles than creating new articles. You can see the category for all articles created or improved on our event pages, link.
15 repeat participants	22 repeat participants	We counted this as participants that came to more than one event.

Learning

What worked well? What didn't work so well? What would you do differently next time?

Partnering with the library worked well as we had immediate access to good sources. We did an overview presentation at each editathon for new editors, but we found it really took more one-on-one support for people to be able to make their first edits. We spent too much time talking about the pillars of Wikipedia and details new editors do not need to understand to make simple edits. Having some kind of buddy system may work well in the future. As mentioned above, having online mentors really helped make sure edits were not reverted and people felt supported between events. We also set up a Facebook page for participants to ask questions and share challenges and successes.

People were very appreciative that we offered child care and a got feedback from ~15 people who said they would not have been able to make it if there was no child care. Next time, we will ask people to indicate on our event page when they sign up if they need child care so we can plan appropriately.

Organizing a themed editathon was a great way to get new people engaged who are passionate about art and specifically female artists. Other ideas to keep them engaged include bringing in a guest speaker next time like a local artist, or organizing a trip to a local museum. We'd also like to leave space during the editathon for people to share their work by giving a quick overview of the people or topics that they're editing about!

We are wondering now how to make this is a regular event. The library has already agreed to keep offering the space twice a month!

Finances

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on. Please email receipts to rapidgrants AT wikimedia DOT org

Food and drink = $875
Child care = 4 hrs x $20/hr x 6 events = $480
Miscellaneous supplies = $62 (name tags, printing cheatsheets, etc.)

Total spent = 1,417 USD

If there are remaining funds, please list the amount here. Remaining funds must be returned to WMF, reallocated to similar activities or applied to another approved grant. Let us know what you'd like to do.

We have 63 USD remaining. We would like to retain the funds while we apply for a follow-up grant. We expect to submit a new grant request within the next 30 days.