To clarify my earlier comment about the term "impact": this has been used as a term of art by WMF in ways that I think are difficult even for native English speakers to grasp without specific instruction in how WMF uses the term. In practice, among grantees, the term seems to be used to mean a variety of things: "outcome", "output", "success", etc. I am hopeful that we can discontinue use of the word "impact" because of its confusing and varied uses in practice.

I am in favor of attempting to quantify how much return on investment is received on the money and time (including precious volunteer time) invested in and by the affiliates and the people who participate in affiliate work. I suggest using terms other than "impact" to describe these returns on investment.

I share a number of Kerry's frustrations with WMF grantmaking for affiliates; some of those frustrations were factors in my decision to significantly decrease my involvement in Cascadia Wikimedians, although there were other significant factors as well.

Pine

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