by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

How Your Nonprofit Can Have a Wikipedia Page (& if it can't, why not)

When you use a search engine to find something and, if you are like me, scroll past the AI generated result (which is often nonsense or at least somewhat inaccurate) and the paid-for-placement links, the first link is to the Wikipedia page that describes whatever it is you are looking for. Even in this era of search results manipulated by paid advertisers and corporations, Wikipedia pages remain a powerhouse for communications.

Not every nonprofit, NGO, charity, cause-based initaitive, etc., needs a Wikipedia page. And not every nonprofit will qualify to have a Wikipedia page. But if you feel your nonprofit deserves a Wikipedia page, or you want certain Wikipedia pages to mention your nonprofit or some prominent person associated with your nonprofit, read on.

To have a Wikipedia page that doesn't get deleted by Wikipedia editors (volunteers), you need to start weeks in advance (months is even better) with various actions. And even after you start these actions, you may find that your nonprofit doesn't meet the requirements to have a Wikipedia page of its own.

Who Gets to Participate in the Page Creation & Publication

Wikipedia pages are supposed to be generated by volunteers who are not closely-associated with whatever they are writing or editing (they aren't employees, or recent former employees of such, they don't have any financial ties to such, they aren't board members or founders of something related to such, etc.). If you are caught violating this policy, you get the dreaded A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject at the top of the page.

A big downside of this policy is that the most knowledgable people on a subject, including academic researchers with a particular area of expertise, are prohibited from editing pages on the subject that is the focus of their expertise. I'm not allowed to edit the pages regarding volunteering, including virtual volunteering, for instance. But the upside is that it's easy for most people to create and edit Wikipedia pages - including me: even though I can't do anything with those two pages, I've edited hundreds of Wikipedia pages, and created at least a dozen.

A lot of people interpret the rule this way: an employee, paid consultant or even your unpaid founder can do all of the research and writing of the Wikipedia page. But that page has to meet all of the criteria regarding notabiliity (more on that later), non-promary sources and a neutral tone, and to be published by a credible Wikipedia volunteer who does not "have a close connection with its subject." What "close connection" means is subject to great debate. Wikipedia does not believe Wikipedia volunteers should ever be paid for their contributions.

Do you have anyone among your own employees or volunteers, or family members of those employees or volunteers, who already have Wikipedia accounts and have edited pages? The way to find out is to ASK. If you already have some Wikipedia editor connections among your staff or board members, you have the resources needed to get information about your nonprofit on Wikipedia. If you don't, then you will have to recruit such volunteers. More on recruitment later. You want this person to agree to publish the Wikipedia page that is created, whether created by them or by someone else, and to agree to make necessary edits on the page after publication.

You have decide who is going to do all of the following research, who is going to do the actual writing, who is going to do the actual publishing, and if this is all going to be one person.

First Steps

Notability (a subject being "worthy of notice") is a test used by Wikipedia editors to decide whether a given topic warrants its own Wikipedia article. Because the judgement of notability is subjective, it does sometimes result in some pages that absolutely should be on Wikipedia being deleted and pages that shouldn't be remaining. For instance, Wikipedia editors are notorious for deleting women-related pages while keeping pages for men who are not nearly as accomplished as the women whose pages they've deleted. Wikipedia editors are overwhelmingly male and therefore tend to favor male-related content, while downplaying female-related content. That said, as long as you can make a STRONG case for notability, your page will probably not be deleted. Most of the advice on this page is about establishing notability.

Someone from your organization - either a staff member, consultant or your lead Wikipedia volunteer - needs to go to Wikipedia and make a list of:

organizations that are similar to yours in some way and have Wikipedia pages
any Wikipedia pages that have your nonprofit's name, or a staff members name, on them
any Wikipedia pages that use resources from your organization as citations

If you cannot find organizations that are similar to yours in some way that have Wikipedia pages, it may be that your organization, or type of organization, lacks the necessary notability to have a Wikipedia page.

Is there an organization that is in active opposition to what your organization is trying to do, and does that organization have a Wikipedia page? That's another great resource to help you create your own page that won't get deleted and to establish your organization's notability.

Research

Make a list of newspaper articles that do more than mention your nonprofit or the person you want to create a page for: the reporter, or someone quoted in the article who is not a part of your nonprofit, calls the nonprofit or the person an expert, for instance, or notable, essential, pioneering, or otherwise important, even in passing. If you don't already have a list of such articles, get a subscription to newspapers.com or visit your local library and start making a list, in the style of how you would reference such on your eventual Wikipedia page.

Has a prominent person mentioned your nonprofit or founder on social media? Find those original messages online and make a list of them, in the style of how you would reference such on your eventual Wikipedia page.

Has your nonprofit or the person you want to create a page for been a part of a human rights, civil rights, or environmental struggle that has a Wikipedia page already? Or a historic event that has a Wikipedia page already? Do you have a resource that says this and that resource is NOT your organization's web site or blog, not a book written by your founder, etc.? Make a list of those Wikipedia pages and be ready to weave that content and those links into the content you create.

Look at the pages of those organizations that are similar to yours, and the page of an organization that is actively opposted to what your organization is trying to do (if any). Look at:

how many sources - references - they have that are NOT from their own web site or blog, and what kinds (newspaper articles, book references, blog references, etc.). You will want to have at least 10 such references for the content of your page (the more, the better).
how many Wikipedia pages link to them, and which ones (on the right of the page is a column called Tools, and under it is a link, What links here). You will want to identify just as many pages for the page you eventually create (the more, the better).
the content. How is their page structured? You should probably structure your page similarly. Some examples: PassBlue, TechSoup, PeaceCorps and Appalshop.

Could your organization create a Wikipedia page with enough content, sources (references) and content to establish notability for Wikipedia editors? Doing all of the above will tell you, yes or no, as well as provide you with the third party references so that you don't get the dreaded badge at the top of your page, This article relies excessively on references to primary sources.

Earlier, I noted that you need to make a list of any Wikipedia pages that have your nonprofit's name, or a staff member's name, on them. You are going to turn each first reference on a page to your organization into a live link to the new page you create, once you publish your page. But before that, you now need to make a list of Wikipedia pages that SHOULD have your nonprofit's name, or a staff member's name, on them. For instance, go look at the list you made of organizations that are similar to yours. What Wikipedia pages link to them, and why? If an organization similar to yours is listed on another organization's Wikipedia page under "See Also", should your organization be listed there as well? Here's what I mean: go look at the Wikipedia page for NetDay. Under "See Also" are other prominent nonprofit initiatives that are or were focused addressing the digital divide. If I were creating a new page or revising an existing page for such an initiative, following my own advice, I would make sure the page I'm creating or revising was also linked everywhere these other initiatives are under "See Also."

Criticism / Controversy

If there has been criticism or controversy regarding your nonprofit or prominent person and this criticism or controversy has been in the news, don't avoid it: create a section for it. Write what it is in a neutral, non-judgemental tone and cite the sources you think best represent what the criticism or controversy is (at least two). Creating the section yourself, and presenting it yourself, reduces the chance of someone creating the section themself and presenting the information in absolutely the worst light possible.

Don't do this unless the criticism or controversy has been in the news. For a community theater, for instance, I wouldn't mention every show that's resulted in a protest, but I would mention a show that resulted in an elected official trying to introduce some ordinance or legislation (as well as the elected official that made that effort).

Identify Who Will Draft the Page

The person who drafts your Wikipedia page needs to be someone who either has drafted a Wikipedia page that has NOT been deleted or who is exceptional at adapting his or her writing style to whatever the requirements are at hand. Wikipedia writing should be flat and neutral: no propaganda, no PR-esque-sounding phrases, no "selling." There should be no indication in the writing that the page creator or editor is a fan, or critic, of the organization or cause. The person who drafts the initial page needs to be able to undertake this kind of just-the-facts style of writing.

The person who drafts the page also needs to understand how to write in the Wikipedia "code": how to create links to other Wikipedia pages, how to create an info box, how to create section headings, how to format references, etc. This all can be self-taught, and usually is: most Wikipedia editors have no training at all. They taught themselves by following the example of others, looking at how other pages were formatted, etc. In other words, the person you choose for this task needs to be able to do it, but may never have done it before. If the person is a competent writer and understands HTML, they are probably a great candidate for the task.

A good test for a person new to Wikipedia who is going to be in charge of the intial draft is for that person

to create a Wikipedia account
to create content for their Wikipedia user page

Here's my Wikipedia user page.

If the person who is going to create and publish your Wikipedia page is a new Wikipedia user, then that person has about three months of work to do BEFORE they can publish the page. This work involves establishing Wikipedia credibility for themselves in the eyes of other Wikipedia users. Creating content on their user page is a good start. They must also have a track record of making meaningful, appropriate edits to existing Wikipedia pages. Even better is if they have also contributed to a Talk page.

I can't tell you exactly which pages to get started editing, because I don't know you, your interests, your knowledge nor your expertise. I can tell you that

Most small towns and historic neighborhoods have lousy Wikipedia pages and it's easy to find credible online sources to update them - or even something from your own book shelf, if you are a local.
Companies you have worked for, if they are small, may have Wikipedia pages, and they may be scant on info, or not have been updated in a long time. If you have the knowledge and sources to update such, especially if that source is NOT generated by the company itself, that's another good opportunity to edit.

Before you edit a page, always check the Talk page first, to see if that edit has been made before and was ultimately rejected.

FYI, my first Wikipedia edits were regarding my hometown in Kentucky and a man that was mentioned frequently in my Master's Degree project regarding Theater as a Tool for Community Development/Issue Awareness (I had several pages of well-resarched, diverse sources - it was easy to do).

The person who drafts the page does NOT have to be the person who publishes the page. In fact, for some organizations, the person who drafts the page will be an employee or consultant and, therefore, that person will NOT publish the page. But that person should, absolutely, have a Wikipedia account and a user page (I strongly advice the person use a personal email address, not a company email address, and that the person does NOT use the company name or acronym in his or her user name).

Draft & Revise the Page

I draft the very first version of a Wikipedia page offline, in a SimpleText file. The page looks like a page on Wikipedia when you click on "edit", meaning all the coding is visible. I test it in my Wikipedia user page sandbox. I always save the latest version of the page from the sandbox, after I've been fiddling with it, into a SimpleText file; I'm always afraid of it being deleted from the cloud.

If someone at the organization wants to see the page and offer input before its published, I recommend you present the page on your Wikipedia user page sandbox: sit together in front of a computer screen or projection, or have a live video conference where you share your screen. You, the page author, and the person that wants to edit something, need to discuss every edit, because often, the edit the employee or founder or whomever wants isn't possible, because it violates the Wikipedia policy of neutral language or the info doesn't have a citation that's NOT from the organization itself. You may have to remind them frequently of various Wikipedia policies and you may have to remind them that ANYONE can edit the page after it's published, so there's zero guarantee it's not going to be changed, despite what they want.

Publishing the Page

When is the page ready to publish? In my opinion, the page is ready to publish when:

You have spell checked it one more time.
You have tested it in your Wikipedia User Page sandbox and all of the links work correctly and the references render correctly.
You have at least 10 references, and at least half of those 10 references are NOT published or written by the organization itself.
You are ready with a list of at least 10 other Wikipedia pages that, immediately after you publish, you are going to go to and edit those pages so that they link back to the page you have just created.

Publishing is an intense experience: you have to move quickly and you need to do both publishing and all that back-linking to your new page in ONE day, in just a few hours. If you publish the page but then delay linking other pages to it, your page will very likely get marked for deletion.

If you followed the advice on this page, you have made a list of other Wikipedia pages that should link to your published page, and the moment you publish the new page, you are ready to start editing those other pages to link back to your newly-pubilshed page. Get at least 10 done within the hour that you have published the new page; more is better.

If Your Page is Marked for Deletion

The page will NOT be marked for deletion if you have followed the above advice - in most cases. If your page is marked for deletion, then you probably didn't do something that was recommended above:

You don't have enough references to citations that aren't from your own web site or blog or a book your founder published.
You don't have content, with references, that make a strong case as to why your nonprofit or its founder is notable and worthy of a Wikipedia page.
You don't have enough other pages linking back to it.

But please note that Wikipedia is notorious for deleting pages that are about women or women-related subjects. If you have produced a page that you believe meets all of the necessary criteria, but is about a woman or women-related subjects, the Wikipedia volunteer who published the page needs to contest that deletion. The big challenge in that: the volunteer may have been willing to publish the page, but not contest its deletion. The best way to ensure the volunteer doesn't have to do this is to make sure you have followed all of the suggestions on this page that you are reading now.

Monitor the Page

For the first month of the page's publication, look at it at least once a week. After a month or two, have a look at it at least once a month. You can see what edits have been made, and by whom, under "view history" on the page. Unless an edit is incorrect, leave it alone: the more people that have edited your page, the more credibility it has.

I have said "your Wikipedia page" a few times here. But the reality is that it's not yours: it belongs to the community that is Wikipedia. Any Wikipedian can edit that page. If you discover an edit that's incorrect or that you think could be better, have either your trusted Wikipedia volunteer to make the edit or recruit a new volunteer to improve the edit. And any employee of the organization, even the subject of a Wikipedia page, can create a Wikipedia account and go under the "Talk" page for a Wikipedia page and make their case for or against an edit (just be transparent about who you are).

Recruiting Wikipedia Volunteers

Do you have anyone among your own employees or volunteers, or family members of those employees or volunteers, who already have Wikipedia accounts and have edited pages? The way to find out is to ASK. If you already have some Wikipedia editor connections among your staff or board members, you have the resources needed to get information about your nonprofit on Wikipedia and to maintain that informaton. If you don't, then you will have to recruit such volunteers.

If you cannot find a Wikipedia volunteer from among your network, you can try to recruit one through the channels you usually use to recruit volunteers, or posting a role description on your web site and then linking to it from your social media accounts. I have detailed advice on volunteer recruitment here.

You want this Wikipedia volunteer, at minimum, to:

provide you with their real name (not just a Wikipedia handle) and email address.
be a Wikipedia editor with at least 50 edits (verifiable via their user page) and with a user page with content they themselves have put on it.
state that they understand and will adhere to the Wikipedia content policies.
agree to publish the Wikipedia page that is created, whether created by them or by someone else, to create the links from other pages back to this new page immediately upon the page's publication, and to agree to make necessary edits on the page after publication for at least four weeks after.

This minimal amount of service will take less than two hours to complete.

Do you want this volunteer to do even more? Do you want this person to do any of the first steps or research steps outline above? That's at least five more hours of work. If your organization is a national organization or somewhat well known, it will take far more. Do you want the person to also draft the page? That's probably another eight hours of work. Add in communicating with you and you've got 15 to 20 hours of work, at minimum, for all of the above, for just ONE page.

How long will the volunteer have to do all of the work you are requiring? A week? Two weeks? Four weeks? Two months? Your turnaround time can also affect whether or not a volunteer is willing to take this on.

Make sure you put everything you want the volunteer to do in writing, and make sure the volunteer says "Yes, I am agreeing to this" or signs an agreement to do so. This will NOT constitute a legal agreement, but it will help make sure everyone is on the same page regarding what they are agreeing to.

What About a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon?!

There are a lot of subjects that are woefully under-representated on Wikipedia. For instance, less than 20% of biographies in English-language Wikipedia are about women. Maybe some of the subjects related to whatever the cause is of your nonprofit also are under-represented on Wikipedia, or the information is in dire need of updating.

While Wikipedia frowns on people who "have a close connection" with a page's subject editing that page, or creating that page, that frown goes away if the effort is a part of a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. Wikimedia recognizes that edit-a-thons improve the encyclopedia and can be a great way to help new Wikipedians learn to edit. An edit-a-thon is like a hackathon for aspiring or experienced Wikipedians. These events tend to take place over one or two days and they focus on improving one subject, or one group of subjects. Some are for onsite volunteers, some can involve online volunteers, and some are hybrid events. A Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon might improve your organization's page on the site, but the goal is for an entire subject-matter to be improved, not just one page. See How to run an edit-a-thon on the Wikipedia web site for more. And if you do hold a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, consider contacting your local media in case they want to cover the event. Definitely take a LOT of photos at the event, if it's onsite, and share them on your web site and on social media.

Your Organization Might Need an Entire Wikipedia Strategy

Your organization may need more than a content-rich, accurate Wikipedia page. Your organization may be concerned with a subject and need to ensure that this subject is accurately represented on Wikipedia on a variety of pages. Examples of nonprofits that need Wikipedia strategies:

Historical societies and history-focused nonprofits. Are the Wikipedia pages accurate that relate to the history your organization is trying to preserve? Does more need to be said on these pages about subjects your society or nonprofit works to preserve and celebrate?
Any museum, no matter how small, no matter the focus of its displays. Are the Wikipedia pages accurate that relate to the items in your museum? Does more need to be said about them?
Any organization that celebrates a culture or ethnic group in a specific location. Do the pages about that neighborhood, town or city note this culture or ethnic group and its history? Do pages about that culture or ethnic group mention your location? When did people from that group first arrive in the community and does the Wikipedia page for that city reflect that arrival and the group's contributions? Are important people from that group that have impacted the community profiled on Wikipedia and do other pages link to those profiles? Your organization itself may not warrent a Wikipedia page of its own, but you need to be aware of what Wikipedia is saying about subjects related to why your organization exists.
A nonprofit that is focused on a notable geographic area or geographic feature that may have a Wikipedia page of its own, like a river, or a river valley, a mountain, or forest. That nonprofit could be a hiking club, a trails association, or any "Friends Of" group. Does the page for that geographic area or feature have all of the information it should have? Is it linked from everywhere it should be? Does the page have information about issues your organization is focused on, like preservation, ecology, creation of a hike and bike trail, etc.?
Any nonprofit focused on celebrating someone or named after someone. Are the Wikipedia pages accurate that relate to that person and his or her work, adventures, whatever? Does more need to be said? If this person your nonprofit is focused on is a woman, I can almost guarantee the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second question is yes.

Wikipedia, officially, would say that your nonprofit employees and lead volunteers are too close to these subjects to be allowed to edit these pages, outside of an edit-a-thon - despite your obviously being the most qualified to do so. But there's nothing to prevent a staff person for being in charge of creating a wikipedia strategy, identifying pages that need updating and mobilizing Wikipedia volunteers to make the necessary and appropriate changes. And if you do the activity as a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, Wikipedia even offers advice on How to run an edit-a-thon (see the previous section for more details).

ALSO SEE:

REQUIRED Volunteer Information on Your Web Site
If your organization or department involves volunteers, or wants to, there are certain things your organization or department must have on its web site - no excuses! To not have this information says that your organization or department takes volunteers for granted, does not value volunteers beyond money saved in salaries, or is not really ready to involve volunteers.

Easy, Effective Ways to Publicize an Event or Activity in Forest Grove, Cornelius, Gales Creek & Gaston, Oregon - especially for nonprofit organizations, government agencies & communities of faith
I think the title says it all.

Finding a Computer/Network Consultant
Staff at mission-based organizations (nonprofits, civil society organizations, and public sector agencies) often have to rely on consultants, either paid or volunteer, for expertise in computer hardware, software and networks. Staff may feel unable to understand, question nor challenge whatever that consultant recommends. What can mission-based organizations do to recruit the "right" consultant for "tech" related issues, one that will not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it comes to tech-related discussions?

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Activities
Details on not just what groups of volunteers can do in a two-hour, half-day or all-day event, but also just how much an organization or program will need to do to prepare a site for group volunteering. It's an expensive, time-consuming endeavor - are you ready? Is it worth it?

Recruiting Local Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks
Having plenty of volunteers usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter). This resource will help you think about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific demographic.

Using Third Party Web Sites to Recruit Volunteers
There are lots and lots of web sites out there to help your organization recruit volunteers. You don't have to use them all, but you do need to make sure you use them correctly in order to get the maximum response to your posts.

Recognizing Online Volunteers & Using the Internet to Honor ALL Volunteers
Recognition helps volunteers stay committed to your organization, and gets the attention of potential volunteers -- and donors -- as well. Organizations need to fully recognize the efforts of remote, online volunteers, as well as those onsite, and not differentiate the value of these two forms of service. Organizations should also incorporate use of the Internet to recognize the efforts of ALL volunteers, both online and onsite. With cyberspace, it's never been easier to show volunteers -- and the world -- that volunteers are a key part of your organization's successes. This new resource provides a long list of suggestions for both honoring online volunteers and using the Internet to recognize ALL volunteers that contribute to your organization.

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