Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/AfroCROWD:Championing Communities of African Descent on and in Wikimedia and Improving the relevance of Wikipedia and open technology to communities of Color (renewal in 2024-25)

Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)

Hello Shanluan, and thanks for your renewal proposal supporting AfroCROWD's activities in 2025-2026. Please see a few brief questions and feedback from me below:

• The current proposal includes an earlier three-year plan for 2022-2025 stemming from an earlier multiyear funding request that was not supported. Can you confirm what specific parts of this annual plan are still relevant for AfroCROWD's activities and goals in the next year? Also, because the current proposal's is intended for activities between 2025-2026, it would be better to include an annual plan that specifies activities during this timeline for clarity, even in a renewal proposal.
• Can you share more about some observations you have seen from the valuable testimonials from community members and partners, both local and global, who have been deeply impacted by our collective work mentioned in the proposal?
• AfroCROWD and Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group held a really great session that I attended during WikiConfernece NA titled Working for representation on Wiki, which includes some fantastic storytelling from you and a number of other community members. Would you be able to summarize more about that session and how it went, as well as any outcomes from the conference that will inform AfroCROWD's work in the next year?

Please let me know if you have any questions or needs for clarity around these comments and requests. To support our review and decisionmaking, responses to proposal feedback from myself and Regional Committee members will be due on 2 May 2025. With thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 18:41, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

I agree with Chris that a summary of your WikiConference NA session and some additional information on how the 2022-2025 plan relates to the coming year would help in reviewing this request. Looking forward to hearing more! Wugapodes (talk) 05:21, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

We really appreciate your time and consideration. Please see this Response Document which includes some of the testimonials from AfroCROWD partners and participants (some of whom called their experiences life changing!) and other reflections discussed. It also includes answers to the above questions. We also have updates to our annual planning for the year 2025-2026. The plan uses the same themes started year one of the original three year plan with updated considerations and best practices from intervening years. Our intended schedule for 2025-2026 is included. As a renewal request limits fields, we could only share up to 2025, but that is updated now. Shanluan (talk) 22:58, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Comments from Emjackson42

Hi, @Shanluan. Thanks for this proposal. I'd like to ask the following:

• The prepared timeline ends in June 2025. What activities do you have planned for the period of grant funding that you are requesting with this application?
• What activities have you taken since your last application to explore and secure additional funding beyond the requested WMF funding?

From last funding round, it looks like the following requests were not addressed (unless I am missing them). Can you please address these points as well? Thank you.

• Regarding metrics, the committee is not fully clear on what one-year outcomes AfroCROWD expects for new editors. The proposal on Meta-wiki states a target of 200 new editors, whereas the annual plan document states very different goals for new editors. On this talk page, please confirm and update these metrics and documents to reflect AfroCROWD’s actual goals for this next year. Relatedly, the annual plan document should generally reflect a programmatic summary for AfroCROWD’s work over the next year, rather than capture both programmatic and evaluation/metrics.
• In terms of its reporting, the committee requests greater clarity in the specific roles and responsibilities AfroCROWD has around its reported activities, and whether those events are completed or still ongoing. Based on your reporting, the committee generally understands what activities and events your organization was involved with and who you collaborated with, but the substance of AfroCROWD’s contributions around planning and implementation was not clear. For example, the 2022-2023 Impact Report notes that AfroCROWD collaborated with WikiVibrance to organize an expo for youth. How did AfroCROWD contribute or help prepare that expo? To address this need, the committee requests providing a summary or table in future reporting that includes:
  • The event or program name
  • The specific role played by AfroCROWD for the event (e.g., primary organizer, equal collaborator, invited guest, advisor, etc.)
  • The event or program location
  • The event or program duration

Emjackson42 (talk) 18:59, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for your time and this response. We will plan to take this into account moving forward. The questions are also answered here: Please see this Document. We also have a worksheet for future events that incorporates this and is reflected in our listed events. The remaining items on timeline are answered in the responses in the section above. We also plan to reach out to partners for in-kind donations and they are generous where possible. For example, partners often offer space and refreshments as well as expertise and speakers, which allow saved resources for us. We are also reaching out via letters to supporters. Shanluan (talk) 15:37, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Thank you to the committee for your support and consideration. Shanluan (talk) 23:02, 2 May 2025 (UTC)