2013 Annual Review/Wiki version/Microgrants
Microgrants
One of the benefits of Wikimedia UK membership is the right to apply for microgrants to support work that furthers our objectives. Over the last year there have been several approved microgrants ranging in value from £5 to £250. While there isn’t space to highlight them all here, we can feature some good examples.
User:HJ Mitchell applied for a microgrant to improve articles related to the military operations known as Operation Flavius and Operation Barras. The microgrant was used to buy books relating to the operations. So far, two featured articles have resulted from the microgrant and more are in the pipeline.
User:Worm That Turned has an interest in a sand bank in Cornwall called Doom Bar. He had been working on the article for some time and found a book that would provide excellent source material. His microgrant application was successful and Doom Bar is now a featured article.
Deryck Chan is a student at Cambridge University and was keen to host a stall at the university's Freshers' Fair to promote the Cambridge University Wikipedia Society and Wikimedia UK. His microgrant allowed this to happen, while the charity also provided plenty of branded merchandise and even better, volunteers offered their time to help staff the stall! Over 200 people showed an interest at the Fair and some have even begun attending the established Cambridge meetup.
Tom Morris is a big fan of Open Street Map, an open source, freely licensed mapping project. Tom heard about an event called Operation Cowboy, an OSM "editathon" taking place in several locations simultaneously. His microgrant allowed him to host an event at the same time to join in the global collaboration. The event was for both experienced mappers and complete newbies and has led to an increase in participation.
All members of Wikimedia UK are eligible to apply for microgrants. See page 6 for more about membership and visit Microgrants to learn more about applying for a microgrant.