Gerard Meijssen wrote:
I am really surprised how little attention this is getting.
Don't worry, I'm paying attention.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=10611792#About_the_FDC
When I look at the composition of the Funds Dissemination Committee, it's difficult for me to get too upset. It's a fairly diverse group of Wikimedians that I respect and trust. The recommendations themselves seem considered and measured (punintentional). Based on my limited observations, the FDC is doing an acceptable and thankless job.
I found the comparison chart provided in this report somewhat lacking, so I created my own that adds a few columns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=10618176#Comparison
Wikimedia Deutschland requested more money ($1,575,600) than any other requesting entity (the next highest was Wikimedia UK's request of $672,381). That's a pretty big difference.
Wikimedia Deutschland was not really exceptional in seeing a large difference between amount requested and amount recommended: DE --> -30.185%, CH --> -30.147%, UK --> -22.663%, etc.
And the report was pretty explicit about the reason for Wikimedia Deutschland receiving less money:
---- The FDC is very concerned that there is so little detail in the proposal about both budget and programs for an organization of this size, especially when compared to other proposals. With this recommendation to cut their allocation, it is the sincere hope of the FDC that significant concerns around the lack of focus in activities and large expenses for many of Wikimedia Deutschland’s programs will be recognised and acted upon.
[...]
Considering Wikimedia Deutschland’s size and budget, the lack of details and depth in this proposal and budget, compounded by vagueness, is a serious concern and is simply not acceptable. The FDC does not find a focused rationale behind its budget, which is serious considering that Wikimedia Deutschland is making the largest APG funding request overall and it is requesting more than 25% of the total funds available. The costs of each program are not sufficiently detailed, making it hard to determine if amounts allocated for each program are reasonable or not. From the information available, the FDC considers administration costs included in this proposal to be extremely and unusually high, especially those related to the Board. ----
I'm not sure how the FDC could have been any clearer here.
A smart response from Wikimedia Deutschland would be "we understand we fell short and we'll seek to address these issues for the next round." Becoming combative and talking about how the Wikimedia movement is too U.S. and Europe-centric (which is a funny view considering how the UK, CH, DE, and NL chapters fared in this round of funding...) is neither helpful nor productive, in my opinion.
And while centralized fundraising certainly creates unusual political and power dynamics, it's vastly preferable to the former practice of simply having a few small (in size) chapters get an excessively high amount of money that they didn't have the resources to properly manage or allocate. That was the past reality and we are improving and I'm grateful for that.
We're increasing funds dissemination accountability and we're being more financially prudent with donor resources. What, exactly, is upsetting?
MZMcBride