Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedians of Arusha

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello CaliBen and Gladys Gibbs

Thank you for taking the time to submit your proposal. We are pleased to have reviewed it and have the following comments and questions;

• It is a clear proposal, especially concerning its focus on a language and the activities proposed to achieve the desired goals are feasible.
• The activities listed when successfully carried out will bridge the gender gap in terms of participation by women and content about women on their language wiki. The outreach to the other regions in the north has great potential for increasing participation and adding members to the community.
• The team is capable based on knowledge of their community, experience in running a project and identified key roles which include a project coordinator and assistant.
• We see alignment between resources requested and the target impact.
• Could items and the amount of columns D and E be broken down further. For instance, what are the rates associated with food and venue and internet costs?
• There is no mention of a photographer, though a Photowalk will be embarked. We suggest a budget for a photographer.

Questions from staff;

• Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?
• How have you ensured accountability and transparency are achieved as a community.
• How have you in the past and plan in the future to coordinate and collaborate with other organized Wikimedia communities in Tanzania such as Wikimedia Tanzania and Unistu Loves Wiki?

We see a significant portion of your resources is on staff and while we understand the purpose of the request we have a few questions to support us in understanding the measures you have put in place to support this transition from volunteer-led to hiring staff to manage projects;

• Have you taken time to review the labour laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint
• Employees' experience in organizations is enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.
• Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?
• Seeing that there will be a compensation/staff costs element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 14:44, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Responses to MEA Regional Committee's feedback

Hello MEA Regional Committee and VThamaini (WMF)

Thank you for taking the time to review the proposal and for providing your valuable feedback. Please find the responses to the questions and comments below:

• Could items and the amount of columns D and E be broken down further. For instance, what are the rates associated with food and venue and internet costs?

Response: This is done.

• There is no mention of a photographer, though a Photowalk will be embarked. We suggest a budget for a photographer.

Response: We have members in the community who have experience as photographers. During the photo walks these members would take lead in the process. We will use the allocated budget to rent a few cameras instead that will be used. To cut down the cost of hiring a professional photographer we will use the available resources.

Questions from staff;

• Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?

Response: We have been managing the resources through the use of team members who have the required skills. The core organizing team has always been having a member who has financial management skill set to help with the management of the financial resources. The team member is the one who is responsible for the documentation of the resources used. We have been using Microsoft Excel for documenting the resources.

We have planned to have the same system in place for the future but we have planned to be more advanced by having a paid staff who would work as an accountant. He/she would be responsible for managing the financial resources.

• How have you ensured accountability and transparency are achieved as a community.

Response: We have community discussions about the matters that concern the community and we allow the community members to define what the community should do and be. Community members are given equal chances to share their thoughts on the activities and projects in which they would like to participate. We effectively use our social media channels especially WhatsApp to communicate all matters of the community to ensure transparency.

• How have you in the past and plan in the future to coordinate and collaborate with other organized Wikimedia communities in Tanzania such as Wikimedia Tanzania and Unistu Loves Wiki?

Response: In the past, we have been able to coordinate and collaborate with other Wikimedia Communities by allowing community members to participate in activities that are done by the other communities, we have been able to collaborate in the facilitation of events and activities taking place in other communities, we have been able to share our experiences with the other Wikimedia communities in Tanzania and thus provide room for peer learning.

In the future, we plan to prioritize conversations and plan for collaboration and coordination with other organized Wikimedia Communities. We have created a Whatsapp group including all the lead organizers in these Wikimedia Communities in Tanzania. We will be having monthly calls which aim at creating awareness of activities, and sharing opportunities for collaboration and peer learning activities. We have planned to share our plans such as the monthly plans and collaborate with each other on events and projects.

We see a significant portion of your resources is on staff and while we understand the purpose of the request we have a few questions to support us in understanding the measures you have put in place to support this transition from volunteer-led to hiring staff to manage projects;

• Have you taken time to review the labour laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint

Response: We have reviewed the labour laws and regulations in Tanzania. To ensure compliance the program coordinator and the accountant will take responsibility to ensure that all the labour laws and regulations are adhered to.

• Employees' experience in organizations is enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.

Response: Yes, we understand that organizational culture is key to to any organization achieving its intended goals. We plan on developing an organizational culture which aligns with all the proposed staff so that they feel supported, comfortable and valued. We will build an organizational culture that is based on teamwork, accountability and transparency that would lead to a high staff performance in their respective roles.

• Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?

Response: We have a total of four staff members and these are the Program Coordinator, Program Assistant Co-ordinator, Communications co-ordinator and an Accountant. Staff members will reporting respectively as follows: The accountant and the communications coordinator will be reporting to the Program Assistant coordinator who will be reporting to the Program Coordinator. As it is a very small team all staff members will be able to support each other in different tasks and responsibilities that they are to undertake. Staff will also be getting support from external experienced Wikimedia groups in Tanzania like Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili User group, University Students Wikimedians User Groups and Wikimedia Tanzania User group. We also plan to seek for support from other Wikimedia organized groups that are not in Tanzania like Wikimedia Rwanda User Group and Uganda User group

• Seeing that there will be a compensation/staff costs element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.

Response: We are still in a process to be legally registered as a non profit organization. We plan that later this year we will fully be legally registered as a recognized organization. Our intended plan of action is to temporarily be registered while we are working to be permanently recognized.

Thank you and please let us know if there is anything else we can elaborate more. CaliBen (talk) 20:42, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of US$66,448 [ $58,900USD + 10% management fee)

Hello CaliBen and Gladys Gibbs,

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of US$66,448 [ $58,900USD + 10% management fee), with a grant term starting 1 July 2022 and ending 30th June 2023.

We are excited to see the community of Wikimedians in Arusha led by Eben Mlay, grow and remain inspired by the determination to develop even further both at programmatic and operational capacities. It was clear from the proposal the theory of change you proposed and especially with the focus on the Swahili language, addressing the gender gap, reaching out to more community members in the northern part of Tanzania.

We believe you hold the capacity to stably implement the proposed projects pipeline and continue to encourage you to collaborate with other communities in Tanzania such as Wikimedia Tanzania and MagoTech. We recognize that your operational capacities are yet to be fully established and recommend you work with; a fiscal sponsor who will support you in managing the grant and a consultant who will support you in putting in place organizational and operational structures and systems that will enable you to for instance hire and manage staff, since you are not in a position to do so at the moment. With this need, we recommend that you adjust your budget to cater for this cost that will go towards developing increased capacity.

Overall, thank you for your work and all you do for the community and the Wikimedia movement.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 17:54, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

VThamaini (WMF),

Thank you so much! We are currently working on finding a fiscal sponsor as recommended.

Thanks again --CaliBen (talk) 14:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)