Grant Advisory Committee

As announced at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin in March 2011, the new Wikimedia Grants program by the Foundation will make use of a Grant Advisory Committee, made up of 10 to 20 volunteers from the Wikimedia community, whose role would be to provide feedback on grant requests, help improve grants, help to close gaps in information and ensure estimates or goals are realistic, and generally advise chapters, groups, and the Foundation on improving grants and the grants process.

Wikimedia Foundation
Official website

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Committees

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Community-wide

• Chapters
• Grant Advisory
• Language

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• Communications
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Disbanded

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• Fundraising
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• Special projects
• Static content
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• Wikimedia Research Network

Goals

The committee's goals are:

1. Encourage and mentor chapters and other groups to:

• Learn about and understand the Wikimedia Grants program
• Draw up compelling project plans with an emphasis on strategy alignment and measures of success
• Request funding, i.e. submit a grant request on Meta

2. Help the Foundation evaluate requested grants, not by a yes/no vote, but by deliberation and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of individual proposals in public, i.e. on the Talk pages of the proposals. The aggregate experience and know-how represented by the committee should be able to provide excellent feedback and assessment of proposed projects and plans, and thereby help the Foundation decide how the movement's resources may best be allocated.

The Work

Members are tasked with the following:

1. Read through grant requests as they are made. The committee's attention will be pointed to new grant requests by Asaf Bartov, who manages the Wikimedia Grants program at the Wikimedia Foundation. Members aren't required to engage on every single request, but are encouraged to do so. Members are expected to leave comments and questions on the grant request's talk page, or, if they have nothing to contribute but have read the request, to just sign their name on the request's talk page.
2. Offer the group requesting the grant (in the grant's Talk page, or privately if absolutely necessary) some guidance and advice on improving the request in terms of clarity, focus, detail, goals, etc. Committee members will ask questions, offer advice, encouragement, express concerns or point out potential problems, mention and link to relevant (good or bad) examples or related resources, etc.
3. When the request has stabilized following any improvement phases, submit assessments of the grant request (again, on the Talk page) in terms of:

• Fit with the mission and strategic priorities of Wikimedia.
• Potential for impact in the projects that the grant aims to support.
• Availability and readiness of volunteers and other non-financial resources required to implement the grant.
• Degree to which the grant will add new knowledge to, or spur innovation in, the Wikimedia movement.
• Efficiency of proposed use of funds
• Quality of the proposed measures of success
• Sustainability of impact beyond the duration of the grant.

The Grant Advisory Committee's assessments help chapters and groups come up with better-planned and more thought-out programs, and helps the WMF make better decisions on allocation of funds.

Membership

1. Abbas (WMKE)

   Bduke (WMAU) Bduke resigned February 2012.

2. Béria Lima (WMPT)

   Harel (WMIL) Harel resigned March 2012.

3. Ilario (WMCH)

   Isha (WMAR) Isha resigned April 2012.

4. Josepnogue (Amical)
5. Kiril Simeonovski (WMMK)
6. Lankiveil (WMAU)
   
7. marctaltor (WMES)
   
8. Mayur
   
9. Mstislavl (WMRU)
   
10. Packa (WMCZ)
    
11. Polimerek (WMPL)
    
12. Solstag (MCL)
    
13. Sudhanwa Jogalekar (WMIN)

We are now looking to expand the committee! When the method of appointment is decided, announcements will be made on wikimedia-l, internal-l, and on this page.

Inactivity

GAC members who have not engaged on any request for at least four months will be asked privately whether they're still interested in serving on the GAC or whether they would like to step down. GAC membership of those who do not step down but who remain inactive for another month will lapse and be terminated.

Interested Volunteers

Please volunteer to help us make better decisions about grants! The GAC handles between 3 and 12 new grant proposals a month. Some proposals are longer or more complicated than others, and some warrant more discussion than others. It is expected that a GAC volunteer devote at least 3 or 4 hours a week to GAC work (see above), assuming there are open requests or reports.

If you are interested in joining the GAC in the coming selection process, please sign below:

1. — [ Tanvir | Talk ] 14:15, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
2. ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪
3. Danny B.
4. --ProtoplasmaKid (talk) 14:09, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
5. --MikyM (talk) 18:02, 1 May 2012 (UTC)
6. Kirill (talk) 00:47, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
7. -- Namayan 05:54, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
8. Nasir Khan Saikat (talk) 06:21, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
9. Seddon (talk) 13:43, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
10. --Perohanych (talk) 18:27, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
11. --Cindamuse
12. KTC (talk)

Note: Much remains uncertain about the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) at this point, but it is already expected that one would not be a member of both the FDC and the GAC. If you would like to help in the GAC but think you might want to serve on the future FDC, I would still recommend signing your name above! You can always resign from the GAC and move to the FDC once its membership is determined. In fact, I would argue a meaningful term on the GAC would be a good supporting qualification we would be looking for on the FDC.