Greetings, friends,
As you all know, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) meets twice a year
to help make decisions about how to effectively allocate movement funds to
achieve the Wikimedia movement's mission, vision, and strategy. [1] We
recently met in San Francisco to deliberate on the 11 annual plan grant
proposals submitted for this round of review. [2] We thank these
organizations for their hard work on their annual plans and proposals.
The FDC has now posted our Round 1 2014-2015 recommendations on the annual
plan grants to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees:
http://goo.gl/Ea7d4I . [3]
With the support of the FDC’s two Board Representatives (Bishakha Datta and
Frieda Brioschi), the WMF Board will review the recommendations and then
make their decision on them by 1 January 2015.
This round, proposals came from ten chapters and one thematic organization,
totaling requests of roughly $4.7 million USD. Before our face-to-face
deliberations, which were held from 15-18 November, the FDC reviewed the
proposals in careful detail, aided by staff assessments and analysis on
impact, finances, and programs, as well as community comments on the
proposals. Our conversations were intense and the decisions were not easy;
each proposal was carefully considered both in its own context and
environment, and strengths and concerned were discussed. We are
recommending grants totaling roughly $3.8 million USD.
Now that the recommendations have been published, there is a formal process
to submit complaints or appeals to the Board. Here are the steps for both:
Any organization that would like to submit an appeal on the FDC’s Round 1
recommendation should submit it to the Board representatives to the
FDC by 23:59
UTC on 8 December 2014 in accordance with the appeal process outlined in
the FDC Framework. A formal appeal to challenge the FDC’s recommendation
should be in the form of a 500-or-fewer word summary directed to the two
non-voting WMF Board representatives to the FDC (Frieda Brioschi and
Bishakha Datta). The appeal should be submitted on-wiki, [4] and must be
submitted by the Board Chair of a funding-seeking applicant. The Board will
publish its decision on this and all recommendations by 1 Jan 2015.
Complaints to the ombudsperson about the FDC process can be filed by anyone
with the Ombudsperson and can be made any time. The complaint should be
submitted on wiki, as well. [5] The ombudsperson will publicly document the
complaint, and investigate as needed.
Please have a look at the calendar [6] to see other upcoming milestones in
the annual plan grants / FDC process.
Again, we offer our sincere thanks to the 11 organizations who submitted
annual plan grant proposals to the FDC.
On behalf of the FDC,
Dariusz Jemielniak ("pundit", FDC Chair)
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015_round1
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Appeals_to_the_Board_on_the_reco…
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Complaints_about_the_FDC_process
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Calendar