Hi Lisa,
OK, so who in the Wikimedia movement is reviewing the funding applications and deciding
where the money that Tides has been entrusted with gets spent?
Thanks,
Mike
On 14 Dec 2020, at 21:17, Lisa Gruwell
<lgruwell(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Mike-
Thanks for the question. The review and oversight that we will get from Tides is nothing
like the FDC review. They will be looking at, for example, "Is this grant supporting
activity that is legal for a 501c3 to fund?" It is in no way a replacement for the
work that the FDC or the Global Council would do regarding grants.
Best,
Lisa
On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 12:55 PM Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net
<mailto:email@mikepeel.net>> wrote:
Hi Lisa,
Isn’t this the oversight work that the WMF wanted to be able to do when it changed from
Wikimedia affiliates being able to fundraise directly to the FDC process? Why has WMF
chosen to outsource this to Tides rather than continuing to do it in-house? And why does
Tides now get to approve such grants, rather than a community appointed committee?
FDC was a process that worked extremely well, and was discontinued for obscure reasons.
The Global Council approach that the strategy was heading towards looked like it might be
a good replacement. Outsourcing it to Tides seems really bad.
Boldly creating a new fund for fellow organisations looks nice, but without community
involvement it’s a controversy in development.
Thanks,
Mike
On 14 Dec 2020, at 20:11, Lisa Gruwell
<lgruwell(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:lgruwell@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
Hi Chris-
I am happy to answer your questions about Tides. No, Tides is not picking the grantees.
The docket of grantees and the specific of the grants comes from us. Tides provides legal
and administrative review of the grants, approves them, and processes the grants(i.e.
wires the funding to the grantees). It is rare that there is ever a problem, but if Tides
were to see one, we actually appreciate the outside review and would be open to hearing
their reasons. There is no change for the reporting and transparency requirements for APG
grants. Tides will also not be making recommendations for the grants for the Knowledge
Equity Fund. They will play a similar role as I described for the APG grants. Again, I
know there will be more info on the Knowledge Equity Fund in the new year. I ask your
patience for the folks initiating this and trust that they will share more soon.
Best,
Lisa
On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 10:18 AM Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki(a)gmail.com
<mailto:chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks Lisa. That statement makes a lot of sense, though I do have some questions still.
Our first priority was to ensure that we had enough funding to support community grants.
We transferred the full amount for Annual Plan Grants (APG) for FY20-21 over to Tides to
ensure that all funding for affiliates for this year was secured, regardless of how
fundraising performed. It also gives staff at affiliates and the Foundation more time to
work together to make thoughtful grants, instead of an end-of-year rush. All affiliates
who will be receiving funding through Tides were informed of the arrangement last summer.
All other grantmaking (Community Grants, Rapid Grants, Project Grants) are still being
funded through WMF directly, as usual. There is a round of APG grants set to go out via
Tides this week.
Are Tides simply administering these funds at the WMF's direction, or will Tides
start to take over decisions about who gets these grants and what amount different
entities are eligible for? Has there been any change to the reporting and transparency
requirements that go with the APG grants? What is the intention about how APG grants will
work, since the FDC was abolished a couple of years ago and there is unlikely to be any
community-driven replacement for it until at least a year or two's work has gone into
the implementation of the strategy?
As of now, this is a one-time commitment of approximately $4.5 million. We are still
working on the specific initial objectives of the fund and how it will operate. As a pilot
initiative, we’ll be learning and adapting as we go.
Funding knowledge equity sounds like a great idea, but I have not previously heard of an
organisation making an irrecoverable $4.5 million transfer without knowing what that money
will be used to fund. Is there anything more that can be shared apart from "it'll
be used to fund knowledge equity somehow"? And as above - is this going to be a
WMF-led process (maybe even involving the community), or will Tides be actually making
recommendations about who and what is funded? If the latter, how are Tides going to adjust
to the Wikimedia community's expectations about transparency?
Thanks,
Chris
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