Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, I write to confirm that the board has approved [1] the full slate of the FDC’s Round 2 2016-2017 recommendations [2] for the Annual Plan Grants. We also have taken good note of the FDC recommendations concerning the Wikimedia Foundation's annual plan. In this round, 4 organizations will be receiving a total of roughly US $1,605,000. Grants are made in local currency, so the USD figure is approximate.
One entity appealed to the Board about the recommendations of the FDC. The Board has carefully considered the appeal. After considering all of the information, the Board decided not to override the recommendations of the FDC, and separately responded to the appeal in more depth.[3]
The Board wants to thank the Funds Dissemination Committee members and staff for the time and effort they have put into this process, as well as all members of the community who have participated in this round of review, analysis and deliberations. We appreciate that so many Wikimedians have contributed to this participatory process, and we value those efforts.
Thank you to all the organizations who submitted proposals in this round, and for the work that the volunteers and staff of these organizations have put in to further our movement’s mission.
Volunteers are at the heart of the Funds Dissemination Committee. We are lucky to have a committee comprised of nine dedicated community members who give a lot of their time and energy into making this funding program a reality. We thank you all for your work this year.
Five of the members of the FDC have terms that have ended this year. I want to thank Itzik Edri (User:Itzike) and Michael Peel (User:Mike Peel) for their years of service to this committee and congratulate (Michał Buczyński (User:Aegis Maelstrom), Lorenzo Losa (User:Laurentius), and Liam Wyatt (User:Wittylama) for their reelection. I also welcome back Osmar Valdebenito to the FDC and welcome Katherine Bavage as a first timer on the FDC and congratulate them both for being elected. The Board is looking forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Dariusz Jemielniak (“pundit”), on behalf of the WMF Board of Trustees
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_approval_of_FDC_recomm...)
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_recommendations/2016-2017_rou...
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Appeals_to_the_Board_on_the_recom...