Hi All, Julia, Jayantilal etc.
I am equally concerned that there is ZERO transparency of funding
activities of WMF Inc in India.
It seems that everything is being routed through CIS only. The
Wikimedia India Chapter also
seems to be a dead duck.
My emails are also not being posted to the mailing list and are being
censored. It is really a very unhealthy
state of affairs in India.
Dr. Shymal Bagchi
On Thu, 16 Mar 2023 at 03:30, Jayantilal Kothari <jayantilalkkd(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi Julia,
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the upcoming Wikimedia
Foundation fundraising campaign in India. While I appreciate the efforts
being made to raise funds, I am unsure about how donations are collected
from India.
According to an interview with WMF's Raju Narisetti in the Indian
Express[1], 10% of the grants raised by the Wikimedia Foundation go back to
the Indian Wikimedians who write and edit on Wikipedia. However, there
seems to be a lack of transparency about which projects in India are
receiving these funds.
Last year, WMF raised $165,232,309[2], which means that 10% of this amount
is approximately 13 crores rupees. Could you please share more details
about the projects in India that received this funding? Such claims are
used as emotional hooks to encourage more Indians to donate, but no one
seems to know which Indian community or projects are benefiting from them.
As an Indian community member, I am not personally aware of any
community-facing initiatives that have received such funding. I would
appreciate it if you could let me know if I am missing something.
It is important to note that making false claims to raise money from
Indian citizens is a serious matter and may have serious legal
consequences. To ensure that the Wikimedia Foundation is true to its
commitment, it is essential to be transparent and provide accurate
information about the allocation of funds while raising funds in India.
In my experience, WMF employees often come up with lengthy replies that do
not directly address the concerns raised by community members. Therefore, I
suggest that actual spending numbers be included along with information
about the projects in India that received funding. Expected reply could
include a list of projects with money sent to Indian communities. This
would provide greater transparency and help build trust within the
community.
Is there a report on how much money has been raised from India and how it
has been spent?
Also, are you aware of how Wikipedia have led to riots in Delhi?[3]
Thank you,
Jayantilal
[1] :
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/raju-nari…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2021-22_Report
[3]
https://www.opindia.com/2020/02/delhi-riots-wikipedia-article-biased-anti-h…
On Fri, 10 Mar 2023 at 2:39 AM, Julia Brungs <jbrungs(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Dear community members,
I would like to inform you all about the upcoming annual Wikimedia
Foundation fundraising campaign in India.
The fundraising campaign will have two components.
1.
We will send emails to people who have previously donated from India.
The emails are scheduled to be sent between the 2nd of May and the
1st of June.
2.
We will run banners for non-logged in users in India on English
Wikipedia itself. The banners will run from the 30th of May until the
27th of June.
Prior to this, we are planning to run some tests in April and May, so you
might see banners for 3-5 hours a couple of times before the campaign
starts. This activity will ensure that our technical infrastructure works.
I will be in touch again in the next few weeks, to share with you a community
engagement page where we will outline more detail around the campaign,
share some banner examples, and give you space to engage with the
fundraising campaign.
I will also be hosting a community call during April (date to be
confirmed) to which you can bring your questions and suggestions.
Generally, before and during the campaign, you can contact us:
-
On the talk page of the fundraising team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fundraising>
-
If you need to report a bug or technical issue, please create a
phabricator ticket
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/edit/form/1/?template=118862>
-
If you see a donor on a talk page, VRT
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Volunteer_Response_Team> or
social media having difficulties in donating, please refer them to donate[image:
@]wikimedia.org
Thanks you and regards,
Julia
--
*Julia Brungs*
Senior Community Relations Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Regards,
Jayantilal
Sent from my iPhone
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