Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
I’d like to share a few upcoming milestones with you.
The deadline for the Letter of Intent for the next round of proposals in 2014-2015 Round 1 is June 1, 2014. The Letter of Intent[1] is the first step required for eligible Wikimedia organizations[2] to submit an annual plan grant proposal to the FDC. The Letter of Intent is a simple letter that indicates interest in applying for funds in the upcoming round. It is non-binding, but is a required first step. The one exception to this deadline will be for any current applicants in the current 2013-2014 Round 2 cycle: if any current applicants choose to submit a proposal in Round 1 as a result of the decision in the current round, they will have an extension through July 8 to declare this intent.
In July 2014, four new members of the Wikimedia community will be appointed to the Funds Dissemination Committee by the WMF Board of Trustees. In 2013, two members were elected by the community to join the inaugural seven members, bringing the total to nine members. This year, four current members will be replaced by four new members who will be appointed by the WMF. These four newly appointed members will join current members Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro), Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit), Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy), Delphine Menard (notafish), and Sydney Poore (FloNight). We will be sending out more information shortly about how and where you can express interest in joining the committee. You can read more about the committee’s roles, requirements, and expectations on Meta[3] . In 2015, five new members of the FDC will be elected by the community.
Finally, the Funds Dissemination Advisory Group[4] will be meeting at the end of May to review the first two years of the FDC process. As per the FDC framework,[5] they will be advising WMF’s Executive Director on whether to proceed with this grantmaking program and what improvements to make to the process.
As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me and my colleagues at FDCsupport@wikimedia.org.
Warmly,
Anasuya
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Eligibility_criteria
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/FDC_...
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Fra...