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Grants:PEG/WM PH/Annual program plan 2014/Reallocation

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Overview

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Currently, Wikimedia Philippines has excess funds from approved grants from Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation has requested the Chapter to return these excess funds, or as one of several options provided by email by the Foundation on September 10, to submit a reallocation request for documented expenses from 2014­ to 2015. Wikimedia Philippines has opted to take the latter option in the form of this current reallocation request.

Wikimedia Philippines was anticipating in good faith that the Foundation would have approved its grant request for its 2015 annual program plan and so is expecting that the excess funds from 2014 grants would be used to fund the 2015 grant. Unfortunately, the Foundation decided to first have Wikimedia Philippines undergo the external audit the Foundation regularly performs on affiliates and the audit itself was delayed for several months, so this precluded the 2015 grant request from being approved by the Foundation in 2015.

Unfortunately, this means that the Chapter has spent the excess funds in 2015 without a prior reallocation request. The funds were spent on expenses that cannot be avoided or on ongoing projects and activities that the Chapter was pursuing. The Chapter made sure that these expenses are reasonable and in line with past expenses that have been approved by the Foundation in previous years. Basically, the Chapter aimed to be prudent in incurring expenses and not to spend excess grant funds on items that are new, extravagant, or uncalled for.

Detail of excess grant funds

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The following table provides a breakdown of all excess grant funds that is documented to be held by Wikimedia Philippines.

Grant/reallocation Excess funds Status
Wikimedia Philippines Annual Program Plan for 2014 (report) ₱326,660.77 Report approved
2014 Philippine Cultural Heritage Mapping Volunteer Program (report) ₱466,817.12 Report approved
Freedom of Panorama in the Philippines legal opinion (report) ₱60,000.00 Not implemented
TOTAL ₱853,477.89

Reallocation budget

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The following table provides a high-level breakdown of the expenses that form the reallocation request. The itemized list of expenses, together with scanned receipts or documentation of the expense (for expenses that had no receipts), will be sent to the Foundation by email.

Number Item Amount Requested Amount Approved Remarks
1 Additional 2014 expenses ₱198,567.60
1.1 Admin services 5,000.00 5,000
1.2 Representation/Transportation/Fuel expenses/meeting expenses 34,707.27 0 WMF note: Funding not spent as described in approved budget.
1.3 Maintenance supplies and labor 6,136.50 6,136.50
1.4 Additional office furniture (office couch) 12,998.00 12,998.00
1.5 Facilitators' airfare during Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 16,976.00 0 WMF note: Travel would not have been approved if included in original request
1.6 Wikipedia merchandise (USB flash drives) 67,500.00 0 WMF note: Exceeded approved merchandise budget, did not request approval prior to purchase.
1.7 Tap and Learn Outreach 43,290.08 0 These are additional expenses for the SMART partnership.

WMF Note: Prior approval not requested, and would not have been approved for additional travel

1.8 Project start-ups/formulation 7,876.00 0 This includes Cebu and Bohol meet-ups and activity planning for 2015

WMF Note: Not included in original proposal, did not request approval prior to travel.

1.9 Other contingency 4,083.75 0 This includes the airconditioning unit installation expense that was previously reported in General operations 2013 grant reallocation report.

WMF Note: Exceeds the cap on contingency spending WMPH agreed to in grant request.

2 2015 operations expenses ₱287,853.33
2.1 Business registration and professional fees 14,197.30 14,197.30
2.2 Virtual office rent 19,675.00 19,675.00
2.3 Back office rent 114,361.62 114,361.62
2.4 Office supplies and maintenance, Internet access, electricity and water 24,910.46 24,910.46
2.5 Food 38,431.29 0
2.6 Transportation 35,183.00 0
2.7 Courier and delivery 2,351.00 2,351.00
2.8 Annual General Meeting 2015 34,843.66 34,843.66
2.9 Miscellaneous 3,900.00 0
3 2015 project expenses ₱305,315.29
3.1 Global Voices Summit 10,838.00 0
3.2 Wikimedia Foundation Visit 12,608.00 12,608.00 This covers Chapter expenses related to Mr. Asaf Bartov's visit to the Philippines.
3.3 GLAMcamp 2015 112,873.53 112,873.53 Mr. Zach Pagkalinawan was Wikimedia Philippines’ representative to the conference. He gave a presentation on the Chapter’s Cultural Heritage Mapping Project.

WMF Note: Approval should have been requested, but it appears there was a community decision making process to select the participant who traveled to the event.

3.4 Wikimedia Conference 2015 10,278.57 10,278.57 This includes the visa and miscellaneous expenses of Mr. Eugene Villar and Mr. Johnny Alegre, who are Wikimedia Philippines’ representatives.

WMF Note: Approval was given on the discussion page of the 2015 grant request.

3.5 July 2015 Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 14,996.12 0
3.6 Wikimania 2015 140,683.07 112,682.08 This includes the visa and miscellaneous expenses of Mr. Carlo Moskito, a special scholar of the Wikimedia Foundation, all expenses by Ms. Melodina Cruz, a scholar of Wikimedia Philippines, and joint expenses with Mr. Roel Balingit, Wikimedia Philippines' representative.

WMF Note: Approval should have been requested before offering travel funding to a community member, but it appears there was a community decision making process to select a participant to attend the event. Expenses for Roel not approved because the community only approved funding for Melodina.

3.7 Wikipedia Entertainment project planning 1,934.50 0 This is for initial discussions for a possible Wikipedia project that will be submitted to a third-party funder in 2017.
3.8 Wikipedia Education Program meetings 522.00 0
3.9 Remaining CHMP expenses 581.50 0
TOTAL ₱791,736.22 482,916

Further excess funds

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The excess grant funds remaining with Wikimedia Philippines is ₱853,477.89. The reallocation request budget is for ₱791,736.22. Therefore there is a remaining funds of ₱61,741.67 (approx. $1,280). If the Foundation approves this reallocation request as is, Wikimedia Philippines will return the stated remaining funds to the Foundation.

Reallocation approval

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We have reviewed your reallocation request and the documentation you submitted that included copies of reciepts and spreadsheets detailing expenses. Please see the notes we have added to the table in the 'Reallocation Budget' for more information on why expenses were or were not approved. We do understand that it can be difficult to track spending in real time, and that this can cause grantees to go over budget. We have approved the reallocation request for overspending on 2014 expenses that were approved in the original grant, or approved on the talk page of the grant. We have not approved funding for 2014 expenses that were not included in the original request, or that exceeded the limit that WM PH agreed to during the grant review process.

In 2015, we understand that WM PH expected to receive funding for annual activities and needed to pay operation costs before the grant request was submitted or approved. For that reason, we approve the reallocation request to cover basic operating expenses that were required by the local government. We will not retroactively approve spending on food, transportation and projects that were not discussed with and approved by WMF. WM PH should have requested approval on the discussion page of the 2015 request (this was done for the travel expenses relating to WMCon in Berlin, but not for other conferences) prior to offering travel scholarships to the community. However, we have approved the reallocation request to pay for some travel to movement events because it appears that there was a community discussion that led to the selection of community members who traveled to those conferences.

Please see Grants:Remaining funds for instructions on how to return funds to WMF.

PHP USD
Total grant funds retained 853,478 17,676
Total requested in reallocation 791,736 16,397
Amount of reallocation request approved 482,916 10,001
Amount to return to WMF 370,562 7,674