I have a couple of comments, mostly directed to WMF, about fundraising and governance matters:
As a matter of good governance, I would not encourage WMF to be seeking large external partners who do solid due-diligence about their grantees until WMF demonstrates that it can complete an annual planning process that is aligned with the good practices already being demonstrated by affiliates and aligned with the expectations of the FDC. I feel that an external partner who conducted a thorough evaluation of WMF's current annual plan would find it to be mediocre at best and I question whether a large institutional partner would be willing to invest six-figure or seven-figure sums in WMF given the state of WMF's current annual plan. I am glad to see that WMF is in the process of addressing this shortcoming, and I hope for good outcomes this year.
Another issue that WMF needs to address is the state of its board. The handling of the situation with respect to two board members (the removal of James for opaque reasons, Jimbo's unprofessional comments about the removal of James, the appointment of Arnnon, and the Board's apparent decision not to remove Arnnon even after learning of his role in illegal activities) demonstrates significant problems in the board, and if I had millions of dollars to give in grants I surely would not entrust those funds to the WMF until there is a major overhaul of the board. Also, if I was an affiliate, I would have a lot of questions about the wisdom of fundraising on behalf of WMF given the serious PR liability that WMF has become, and I tend to think that at this time affiliates would be wise to put a considerable distance between ourselves and WMF because of the PR and fundraising collateral damage that we could receive from problems at WMF.
WMF needs to get its house in order.
Speaking in my personal capacity only,
Pine
On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 9:23 AM, Sydney Poore sydney.poore@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 11:02 AM, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Quite the opposite. For several years now, the FDC recommendations for applicant who come from rich countries have requested the Chapter investigate diversifying their funding sources. All have tried, and
their
success has varied depending on many factors. Some have actually been
quite
successful - I refer in particular to the recently announced grant by
I can also add that AFAIK the Foundation has never made the diversification of funds for chapters a hard rule. Rather, it encouraged organizations to seek alternative funding, when feasible. We have had historically cases of chapters that admitted they could relatively easily get external support, but just have preferred not to try to get it.
All in all we should balance two things: (a) resources are finite. If we can easily get additional funding, especially in the Global North countries, that's great! We'll have more to do core work in the areas where it is not possible. (b) applying for external funding should not divert us from our main mission, and should not make chapters jump the loops of insane bureaucracy, irrational strain of effort, etc.
Speaking as a former member of the FDC and current member of Simple Annual Plan grant committee, I agree with Dariusz but add that a good use of external resources can add more value than just the funded dollar amount.
Instead of speaking of "funding" we should substitute "resources". By seeking out external resources, which is more than external grant money, the wikimedia affiliates can build much greater capacity in a particular region or topic area (GLAM or STEM or Healthcare.)
I believe we have been relatively successful so far. However, I agree that the Foundation perhaps is not using its full potential in engaging chapters in a dialogue how to effectively address the local supporters (both individuals and on an institutional level). We should use the extensive network of committed organizations to our advantage.
It is key to the future of the wikimedia movement to identify institutional partners (big and small) who can advance the wikimedia mission.
It is happening now with many affiliate organizations, and growing, but it is not well documented or analysed yet. We need better analysis about the ways that external partners are benefiting from their relationship with the wikimedia movement and the wikimedia movement is benefiting from relationships with external partners.
This needs to be a joint dialogue between WMF and the affiliated organizations including User Groups. I hope that people will join the WMF strategic planning discussions and include their thoughts about developing external resources that can benefit the wikimedia movement. Also, this is a topic for Wikimedia Conference in Berlin.
Warm regards, Sydney Poore User:FloNight Wikipedia in Residence at Cochrane WikiWomen's User Group Wiki Project Med Foundation User Group _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe