Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Shared Knowledge Annual Plan 2023

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 41,099 EUR

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 41,099 EUR (~$42,665 USD) with a grant term starting 1 January 2023 and ending 31 December 2023.

The committee highlighted important strengths of your proposal in their review. First, Shared Knowledge has done a good job of making clear connections between its programmatic goals and activities that will help achieve those goals. For example, the aim to build a culture of community service around contributing to Wikipedia is well supported by your efforts to engage with university students and staff to build Open Access resources that support the movement. These resources have the benefit of supporting other movement activities and practical needs for contributors. You’ve also been able to develop effective partnerships with expedition leaders, academic faculty, and film editors to support your programmatic work and goals around multimedia content.

The committee is also supportive of Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia’s intention to merge into a single organization for next year, and appreciates the joint letter declaring this plan and why it will be useful for both organizations (e.g. to improve recognizability). Efforts to increasingly collaborate together on both the CEE Meeting 2022, some regional campaigns, and other programmatic areas demonstrate the complementary strengths and capacities of your organizations. However, the committee expected more discussion and decisions around this transition to have been completed earlier in the year, and it was not clear what prevented this work from occurring. An earlier decision could have supported your organizations to provide a more concrete plan and schedule of what work needs to be done to complete a merge, and for that work to have begun already. The committee emphasizes the importance to prioritize this work this year, including discussions with the board and members and developing shared strategies as a joint organization.

Based on these circumstances, the committee is requiring specific reporting detailing the following for your midpoint report:

• a general timeline of tasks required support a merge for your organizations that will support your goal to submit a single General Support Fund application for next year

• an update on progress your organizations have made to support this merge.

This information can be submitted as a joint report with GLAM Macedonia for your midpoint reporting.

Because this transition is expected to be substantial, and that it will be an important priority for your organization this year, the committee was not willing to fully support the proposed budgetary growth for programmatic and staffing needs. Instead, the committee supported a roughly 15% increase in the amount of funding provided last year. In order to support the extent of growth you are seeking, the committee would like to see substantive progress made towards the proposed merge.

We are aware that the work around merging two nonprofit organizations is difficult and nontrivial, and so we encourage you to reach out to your program officer if there is a need for conflict resolution, or funding support, or other guidance that will help you complete tasks related to completing this merge (such as meeting facilitation or mediation) during the year.

The committee looks forward to Shared Knowledge’s work over the next year, and is eager to learn about and support your progress towards building a unified Wikimedia affiliate for North Macedonia.

On behalf of the Regional Committee, MikyM (talk) 20:51, 17 November 2022 (UTC)