Grants talk:Start/2019

Is there any annual report of WMF grants?

I would like to get a report which shows money distributed through the WMF grants program versus other categories.

• money by region (global north versus south, by continent or subcontinent, whatever)
• by thematic focus (if anyone does topic tagging like "women", "minority languages", whatever)
• by type of grant program (rapid, APG, project)

One specific question that I want to answer is the total amount of money which went from the WMF Grants program into India for whatever years there is data. Does anyone know if there are general reports, and specifically, where I can find grants info for, by, or about the region of India? Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:06, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Hi Lane. We have some of this information available regarding breakdown by grant program and some thematic focus on Meta (i.e. gender-gap focused, funding that supports emerging communities_, see Community Resources/Grants spending analysis. Gathering information on funding to a specific country will take a bit more time. MJue (WMF) or Jtud (WMF), is it possible to gather this information? I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 14:44, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF), Jtud (WMF), and MJue (WMF): I do not want to put anyone out of their way for reports, but if there is information about India, then I would like it. Wikimedia India is on track for derecognition by AffCom and there is a request for numbers about WMF finance in India to the community and otherwise. If you can get information by Wikimania in August then people would discuss it in person there. If this is too much trouble, then it could also be useful for you to say so. The general desire here for members of Wikimedia India to learn about the relationship India has with the WMF in terms of money.

I am looking that that emerging communities report and how this is reported on the "grants spending analysis" page. Thanks for this - the choice of reporting percentage breakdowns of individuals, emerging, and gender gap is a good division which applies to most discussions which the Wikimedia community is having. As I look at this, I am wishing that all these grants could have Wikidata/Wikibase tagging so that it would be possible to query these and run reports.

About the "grants spending analysis" - I see that the talk page has no comments and there are 5 incoming links from public pages reported at Special:WhatLinksHere/Community_Resources/Grants_spending_analysis. I take this to mean that this page is not well known, especially for how important it ought to be in guiding the many strategy discussions we are having now. I might like to present this somehow, maybe in English Wikipedia's The Signpost after the Q4 numbers get posted. I will think about this, thanks for all the information. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:02, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

The WALRUS meetup last night discussed access to information about grant funding in the monthly meeting documented at WALRUS/July 2019 (notes in etherpad, to be transferred to meta soon). The context there was wondering how much money went to conferences, which is something that you already report, so thanks. There was a request for regional information, not about India, but in general.

Pine}, you said in that meeting that around 2016 you had seen a report breaking down grant allocations by region. Do you have more information about that? Even if it was a one-off I am interested. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:53, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: I believe that at one time I saw a map which showed how much WMF grant funding was distributed per continent, but I cannot recall the year in which I saw that map. If a global map is not needed for your specific interest in India then I suggest that you request information about grant spending in India only, because this will probably be easier for WMF to research. My guess is that WMF would be willing to provide approximate totals for grant spending in each year for at least the past few years, with two important limitations: 1. funding for grants to individual people may need to be approximated or omitted in order to protect user privacy, and 2. some grants may be spent in or may effect multiple countries, such as if a Wiki Loves Monuments organizer used part of a WMF grant to travel from another country to India and stayed for a few days before departing. In addition to regular grant spending, you may want to ask for WMF for information about WMF spending in India that was done outside of the public WMF grants processes, such as for contracts with consultants, attorneys, or public relations organizations. --Pine (✉) 02:59, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

No proposal review this end of year?

I have submitted my proposals since november 2018. Today in december my proposals still can't be reviewed. Are they still going to be reviewed this year or next one? What's exactely the problem?--BamLifa (talk) 08:17, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello BamLifa, I apologize for the delay in review. We have been experiencing high volume of requests. Could you please clarify which request you're referring to? The only one I can find with your name on it was in draft. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 20:21, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello BamLifa, you can ignore my earlier message. I found two grants from you and commented on them. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 22:28, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Suggestion about the new grant system

Please do not book consecutive months for any special type of events. As in, if "Wiki loves monuments" is the only grant for august, please do not put any restrictions on September.

That way, grants have to wait a maximum of 30 days before they can be made. Like shift a August plan to september.

Right now, if I wanted to plan something in August, the earliest I can do them is October. Similarly, January plans wait till March.

It's not good thinking. I overall disagree with the limitation in the first place, but that's a different discussion that is probably visited and revisited. I do however think that communities will suffer if there are such large spans of time when rapid grants are unavailable.

Soni (talk) 21:45, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

Hello Soni, thank you for your input on this. Unfortunately, this year's schedule is set but we will take this into consideration for the next year. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 20:36, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Awareness Grants

Hi all,

What that means? Could you create a page to explain it and give some examples?

Thank you. Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton ^m 19:29, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

WJifar (WMF) any light here? Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton ^m 00:27, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

@R.T.Argenton: Hi Rodrigo, Awareness Grants are basically any project aimed at introducing and teaching about Wikimedia projects to communities who are not aware of them, or may not be aware of how to use them. Some generic examples are listed under the General promotion campaign and video campaign in the Plan your project page. Some specific examples include funded projects that came out of the New Readers Inspire Campaign. Do these resources help answer your question? I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:36, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF) I did not received the notification, and this account is not connected to the others, sorry for not answering.

This helps, I wish I could see this earlier, but okay.

Thank you.Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton ^m 01:23, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

No response to Proposal

I applied for a rapid grant on the 3rd September draft to proposed and notification through email as well. I didn't receive any review and reply about proposal my proposal Grants:Project/Rapid/WEP-Digital_literacy_for_Student_Teacher from WMF Nawaraj Ghimire (talk) 15:11, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Rapid grants only available for seven months of the year

Hi everyone. I am trying to organize a training session/edit-a-thon to improve Wikipedia's coverage of climate change. I understand the desire to prioritize contests and campaigns, but the current restrictions are having the effect that for things that don't pertain to one of the existing contests and campaigns, there are only seven months in the year when organizers can apply for funding. So I'm just pointing out that 1) the prioritization of certain contests and campaigns is having the effect of making it more difficult to organize any other kind of event that might be equally worthy, and 2) There is fundamentally a tension between the idea of a "rapid" grant system and having to wait several months for the next window in which the thing you want a grant for is not excluded. Clayoquot (talk) 17:54, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

Hello Clayoquot, thank you for leaving your comments here. We're continuously working on improving the rapid grant program to respond to the needs of the community. We've received a lot of feedback regarding the constraints and we'll be exploring different solutions in the next fiscal year. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 22:53, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. This issue was a depressing reminder for me about the ability of the world's institutions to pivot in response to the climate crisis. Does the WMF have any funding bucket dedicated to improving content around climate change? Clayoquot (talk) 23:08, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Small grants available for Wikimedia GLAM projects in the Global South

Hi all

Wikimedia Sverige has a small grants application open for people in the Global South who are interested in events and other projects with GLAMs. Please do pass this on to people you think would be interested or suitable for a grant. The projects need to be completed by February 29, 2020.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FindingGLAMs/Minor_grants

FindingGLAMs can fund events that improve the quality and quantity of data related to galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) and other cultural institutions on Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects. This could include, for example, events to train librarians to add information to Wikidata, research events with historical societies to find lists of cultural institutions in your country, transcription projects for Wikisource etc. The focus of the project is making more material available on the Wikimedia platforms rather than creating new material (such as by purchasing scanning equipment and digitizing books).

Funds can not be used to cover the event participants’ time or lost income from other work. Applications to cover trainers’ or organisers' time or lost income from other work have to be filed with and transferred through a local Wikimedia affiliate.

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 12:44, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Hello John Cummings, thank you for sharing this information with us. I will pass it on as necessary. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 22:49, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks very much @WJifar (WMF):, please do pass it on to people you think would be interested, happy to write a blurb for you or whatever, just let me know what you need. John Cummings (talk) 18:31, 3 December 2019 (UTC)