— Overview
The Community programme exists to support and empower the dedicated individuals who freely share their time and knowledge to advance Wikimedia projects. We are deeply grateful to all volunteers who contributed to our common mission in 2024, as their work is essential to everything covered in this report.
We made significant strides in 2024, focusing on strategic partnerships, community support and diversity initiatives that build and enhance our community and further our impact. The development of the first-ever Wikimedia CH Community strategy marked a significant milestone in early 2024. Implementation of this strategy will continue through 2026.
A major focus this year was supporting and empowering community-led initiatives through targeted project grants and workshops. The programme strengthened existing relationships while forging valuable new partnerships across Switzerland's language regions, emphasising sustainable community growth and engagement. Alongside these efforts, we strengthened our community infrastructure by updating policies and developing new mechanisms to understand and respond to community needs.
— Highlight activity
Building Diverse Communities Through Strategic Partnerships
In 2024, Programme Community expanded its impact through strategic partnerships that helped reach new audiences and address content gaps on Wikimedia projects. These partnerships and events established in 2024 helped us attract new volunteers to the Wikimedia community.
A cornerstone achievement was our partnership with the Swiss Archives for the Performing Arts (SAPA), which led to three edit-a-thons across Switzerland's language regions, which in turn resulted in new partnerships with like-minded organisations and institutions:
- In Lausanne, we collaborated with the association Sujettes during the city's first "Journées du Matrimoine", working with Les sans pagEs to document women in theatre and dance.
- In Bern, we began a partnership with the University Institute of Theatre Studies to plan a Wikipedia writing workshop focused on women artists who have influenced Swiss performing arts, which will take place in 2025.
- In Ticino, we partnered with Performance Art Network CH (PANCH) and Revolving Histories for a workshop combining Wikipedia editing, interviews and public mapping to document the region's performance art scene and initiatives.
We also established a new partnership with Hello 50:50 World, a movement to increase equality and diversity in the tech industry, as a result of our ongoing “For more visibility on Wikipedia” edit-a-thon series. The series’ focus on women in technology and "Bring a Friend" concept help attract new editors to Wikipedia and new volunteers to our community.
These partnerships have been key to encouraging new volunteers to join our movement while creating long-term relationships with organisations that share our commitment to free knowledge and diverse representation. We hope to strengthen these collaborations and create others in 2025.
— Key programme activities
- Strengthened our support of long-term partners with project grants and community-led workshops, including: a new monthly permanence with Les sans pagEs in Lausanne that attracted several newcomers; new follow-up sessions for the Wiki4Peace camps, which were very successful; workshops at the ETH Library and the National Museum; and workshops on Black LGBTQ+ activists and other topics led by Noircir Wikipedia.
- Supported the Les sans pagEs association's 6th Annual Wikiconvention, which helped both beginner and advanced contributors acquire new skills around writing and editing Wikipedia articles.
- Attended and supported several important community conferences, including WikiConvention FR in Canada, ItWikiCon in Italy, WikiCon in Germany and Wikimania in Poland.
- Helped organise and fund the Wikipedia for Peace: Not Your Soldier camp in collaboration with Service Civil International Switzerland, attracting mostly beginner editors to Wikipedia.
- Partially funded the media contest Wiki Loves Folklore 2024 to encourage uploads of photos, videos and audio files depicting regional traditions on Wikimedia Commons.
- Continued our partnership with FATart to host Wikipedia workshops at their community space in Schaffhausen through the first half of the year.
- Supported two more successful Women for Wikipedia edit-a-thons to expand women's visibility on Wikipedia. We also welcomed a new patron, the Federal Office of Culture at the spring event.
- Collaborated with Wikimedia DE to support the AdminConvention 2024, which brought together Wikipedia admins to share and learn from each other.
- Updated the scholarships, grants and microgrants policies and translated the missing pages into German, French and Italian.
- Prepared a community survey— which will be published in early 2025— to better understand community needs.
- Collaborated with Programme Innovation to help fund and support the first Italian-speaking Wikimedia Hackathon in April.
— Programme impact
- Successfully established new strategic partnerships that expanded our reach and helped attract new volunteers.
- Strengthened community infrastructure through policy updates and new support mechanisms, including regular permanences and follow-up sessions.
- Increased diversity in both content and participation through targeted initiatives and partnerships, exemplified by the success of the Women for Wikipedia edit-a-thon and its new patronage from the Federal Office of Culture.
- Financed six projects focused on community-driven activities through grants totalling 60’000 CHF.
- Enhanced international collaboration through active participation in global events and support of cross-chapter initiatives like the AdminConvention 2024 and the WikiCons.
— Looking ahead
In 2025, Programme Community will build upon successful partnerships while implementing our updated Community Strategy through four main directions: volunteer recruitment and empowerment, community health and retention, community management, and international coordination. We will use feedback from our Community Survey and Impact Academy participation to continuously improve our activities.
New partnerships are planned with organisations such as Benevol Schweiz and Professional Women of African Heritage (Prowah), while thematic networking will focus on diversity and sustainability through the Climate Alliance. The programme will also take on an important role in an international pilot project addressing hate speech, coordinating actions and increasing related resources.
Support Free Knowledge!
Join us in supporting access to free and unbiased knowledge. Besides being an active member in Wikimedia CH, or a contributor to Wikipedia and its sister projects, you can give tax-deductible financial support. Wikimedia CH is an independent non-profit. Your donations directly support some of the most popular collaborative reference projects in the world.
Wikimedia CH would like to thank the staff, community, board, partners and donors for making these projects possible.
Together, we are working towards a diverse, open and, above all, knowledgeable society in Switzerland and beyond.
Photo credits
- English daisies (Bellis perennis) on the shore of Lake Geneva (lac Léman), Montreux, during early spring. Entry in Wiki Loves Switzerland 2022. Photo by Matias Senger - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Gramophone in the Swiss National Sound Archives. Photo by Medea7 - own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Bern at sunset. Entry in Wiki Loves Switzerland 2020. Photo by Giles Laurent - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Wiki for Peace Camp 2024. Photo by Flor (WMCH) - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Participants at the Women for Wikipedia edit-a-thon in May. Image by Zalo13 - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- FATart space in Schaffhausen. Photo by Kerstin (WMCH) - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Wild chamois in the Aletsch Forest Nature Reserve. Entry in Wiki Loves Switzerland 2022. Photo by Giles Laurent - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Lauterbrunnen. Entry in Wiki Loves Switzerland 2022. Photo by Dini78 - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.