[Foundation-l] Grant agreements

[MZMcBride]

MZMcBride wrote:
> Sue Gardner wrote:
>> Oh. I can speak to this, at least a little. The Wikimedia Foundation has a
>> policy of publishing our grant applications when the grantmaking institution
>> is okay with it. We don't do a lot of grant applications, and of the ones we
>> do, I am guesstimating that two-thirds of the grantmakers have said it's
>> fine with them for us to publish, and about a third have asked us not to.
>> Some grantmaking institutions are very happy to publish, because they
>> believe the sector as a whole benefits from transparency about how things
>> work. (IIRC Hewlett is an example of that.)
>> 
>> I do not know where they get published: I'll ask.
>> 
>> But, some of the grant we receive are unsolicited gifts, in which case there
>> is no application, and nothing to publish. I think for example that our
>> recent grant from the Indigo Trust in the UK is an example of that.
>> 
>> I assume, MZ, that you're mostly interested in the Stanton grant, and I
>> don't remember their position on this issue. I do know they're not
>> publicity-seeking, and they don't welcome grant applications that they
>> haven't solicited. So they might be an example of a foundation that doesn't
>> want its agreements publicized: I don't remember.
>> 
>> We can find out :-)
> 
> That would be great. Thanks. :-)
> 
> It's mostly the large grants that I'm interested in, the ones that have the
> power to shape a significant portion of Wikimedia's short-term future.
> Personally, the applications (assuming there are any) are completely
> unimportant to me. I can't imagine they're much more than "we'd like X money
> to fulfill Y portions of our mission", though perhaps I'm wrong. But the
> grant agreements ("we'll give you X money over Y months to do Z") are the
> piece that has me curious.
> 
> Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. There's no rush on this, but I'd
> most certainly appreciate it if you could take a look or ask someone to.

Bumping this, so I don't forget. I think having public grant agreements
wherever possible is critically important, particularly with large grants
that have the potential to drastically (or dramatically) shape the future of
Wikimedia, at least short-term.

Is there a particular staff member that I can talk to about this? There are
some grant-specific people, aren't there?

MZMcBride