Hello all,
This is so amazing to see, Kassia. Especially as someone who was a part of
the Resource Allocation Working Group of the Movement Strategy, this is
definitely a big leap in the right direction for Knowledge Equity. I am
especially excited to see a separate fund for mission-aligned
organizations, which traditionally had to compete with seasoned Wikimedians
or Affiliates.
I would also like to add my 50 cents here regarding the Rapid grants,
though. I completely echo with what Bodhi has said. With the Rapid Fund
having being increased to a limit of 5000 USD, I believe in some regions,
such as South Asia, some intermediate projects can also be executed using
them. As the entire year's plan of certain group was being executed in 2000
USD, with a bigger amount, there is an opportunity for them to potentially
start hiring some paid positions (one or two) along with buying equipment
or renting office spaces, which has traditionally been discouraged under
the previous Rapid Grants, and perhaps that will help prepare them for even
larger grants in the future. So, as Bodhi has already said making the Rapid
Fund as flexible as possible will really help the smaller affiliates to
test and innovate and grow!
Best
Satdeep
On Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 11:20 PM Bodhisattwa Mandal <
bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
Thanks for introducing the new grants design.
Coming from a small Indian affiliate trying to sustain ourselves and
delivering considerable impact even with a very limited capacity for the
last couple of years, I have some anxiety to share.
- The new Rapid Fund (<5000 USD) says it is meant for *short term
projects*. Till now our user group had planned year long projects and
applied for Rapid Grants to fund them. So, through this new fund strategy,
we have to apply for multiple Rapid Fund throughout the year, which would
be over-burden for our volunteer group. I would request to make Rapid Funds
as flexible as before to accommodate affiliates like us.
- General Support Fund, which will happen twice a year for a region,
will be the only option for us to apply for our bigger or ambitious
projects, which is fine. But then I need to know, if we have to compete
with large affiliates/partners in the movement as APG, Simple APG and
Project Grants are all merged here. I just hope, that it will be not the
case but if that is so, then I see little chance for smaller affiliates.
- I would also like to understand the thinking about how the movement
strategy recommendations will be implemented through this new grants design
to sustain small (un)registered affiliates or help run their projects,
which do not have the permission to receive foreign money as an
organization. What kind of support will be given to them? All Indian
affiliates fall in this category, so this needs to be clearly answered.
- Money fundraised in India is not considered as foreign money.
Will that be a procedure to distribute that to the Indian affiliates?
- Will CIS-A2K, the non-Wikimedia partner organization of WMF and
the only entity in Indian Wikimedia movement to receive foreign money, be
asked to implement movement strategy recommendations, so that Indian
affiliates can sustain themselves?
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group
On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 at 13:45, Mardetanha <mardetanha.wiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Can you let us know where the office hours will
be held? I don't see any
zoom or google meet links provided.
Mardetanha
On Mon, Jul 19, 2021 at 1:00 AM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
Thank you for the update. Currently, I am trying to understand all the
information provided in the pages.
I have started preparing a mapping-table for personal understanding,
might be of some help:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tRSolGdZ0k9CcTQgfUSCHk1Ypp1iPTTDFnn…
Could you kindly point out what is changing or what's new in each
category?
It would also be good to see more details on the Research and Tech grant
and Alliance Grant?
Thanks for the update once again.
ইতি,/With regards,
টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
(মাতৃভাষা থাক জীবন জুড়ে)
শুক্র, ১৬ জুলাই, ২০২১ তারিখে ২:৪৭ AM টায় এ Kassia Echavarri-Queen <
kechavarriqueen(a)wikimedia.org> লিখেছেন:
Dear Wikimedians,
The Community Resources team is excited to announce on Diff
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/07/15/community-resources-announces-new-funding-strategy/>
the launch of the new Wikimedia funding strategy focused on decentralized
decision-making, regional committees and reaching underrepresented
communities [1]. Over the last 10 months we have worked together with
communities to discuss, understand and develop an approach that addresses
their needs and moves us towards the realization of the 2030 strategic
direction [2]. Thank you for all of your participation to make this a
reality.
The three new funding programs:
The Wikimedia Community Fund
-
The Community Fund is a unified program with flexible support and
funding for Wikimedians working on knowledge equity aligned with the
movement’s strategic direction.
The Wikimedia Alliances Fund
-
The Alliances Fund, for mission-aligned organizations in
underrepresented communities who want to collaborate and amplify our work.
The Wikimedia Research and Technology Fund
-
The Research and Technology Fund for improving technology, tools,
and research to nurture a more responsive and accessible environment for
contributions.
This people-centred approach is built on the principles of equity &
empowerment, collaboration & cooperation, and the promotion of innovation
and learning.
Our team has also adapted to provide consistent regional support and
the establishment of a learning mindset for the funding approach. We know
this is just the beginning and it will be an iterative process. As we
implement and learn we will adapt. We also understand the worldwide impact
of the continuing COVID pandemic and our first priority is to be in
solidarity and have flexibility with communities around the world.
The three programs will be introduced in a phased approach throughout
the year. We will first launch with the Wikimedia Community Fund now in
July. We invite you to learn more about the programs on our meta page [3].
We have hosted a series of office hours throughout June and July [4]
and will continue in the coming weeks to discuss the new programs. Each
program officer is also reaching out and answering questions with
individual grantees as part of the transition process.
Office Hours:
-
03:00 UTC – 2021-07-23 (Asia-Pacific friendly time)
-
18:00 UTC – 2021-07-23 (Europe-Africa-Americas friendly time)
We thank you again for all of the collaboration to arrive at this new
strategy and we are excited to begin this journey together.
Wishing everyone the best,
Kassia on behalf of the Community Resources team
1.
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/07/15/community-resources-announces-new-fun…
2.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunc…
3.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start
4.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunc…
--
Kassia Echavarri-Queen (She/Her)
Director, Community Investment
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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