Movement Strategy initiative #1: Systematic approach to improve satisfaction and productivity

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
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  • Finally, the Diff blog, maintained by the Movement Communications team, has become a central platform in our Movement to recognize individual volunteers, projects, and affiliates. In 2021, the first full year of the platform, Wikimedia volunteers, including organizers, affiliate members and WMF staff, published 341 blog posts, nearly doubling that number (654 posts in 2022). These posts have been viewed more than 750,000 times by nearly 500,000 visitors.

Finally, this initiative urges the movement to assess the needs of Wikimedians in different contexts to support a diversity of contributors better. Here too, there are several initiatives contributing to this goal:

  • The Community Wishlist Survey, organized by the Community Tech team, is a collaborative mechanism to assess the software needs of volunteers. It started in 2015 with 107 proposals submitted, and in 2022 the number grew to 467, when 1439 volunteers cast 9554 votes. Features like the gadget Who is active or enabling Thanks Button by default have been prioritized thanks to this collaboration.
  • In 2020-21, the Movement Communications Insights project organized 10 focus groups with 113 participants. It produced six recommendations in a report about how the Foundation can communicate better with the different parts of the movement. This report has informed Wikimedia Foundation plans, like building a better front door for all the information about the Foundation and coordinating within Foundation teams before communicating with the larger movement.
  • In 2021, the Movement Strategy Implementation Grants program was launched, encouraging applicants to start their long-term programs by researching the needs of their audiences. Since then, 12 projects have been funded to build leadership and capacity skills as well as needs assessments.
  • In 2022, the Community Resources team launched Let’s Connect, to support affiliates and individual grantees in assessing their needs and collaborating in a peer-to-peer environment. As of June 2023, 245 participants took part in 30 Learning Clinics. 60% of these participants were from the Middle East and Africa. Half of them had been two years or less in the movement.