Grants talk:Start/2021

Committee for the allocation of grants

Dear ones, I would like to know how to be part of the evaluation committee for the allocation of grants, thanks, --Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 20:38, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

That's a good question. I want to know, too--BruneiWMUA (talk) 17:26, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

typo?

The following discussion is closed.

is this a typo/mistake (duplicate 'community') or am I not understanding a nuance in the text? Child and Youth Safety Policy must be in place for any activity that involves community underage community members. Thanks! Effeietsanders (talk) 16:45, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

@Effeietsanders: Fixed, thanks for the catch. :) I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:40, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

Viewing previous successful grants

Before the Grants Relaunch Process, there used to be a page listing previous grant proposals which were funded (and also not funded IRRC). It was a good resource to see what to do and what not to do when doing a grant proposal, but as far as I can gather, with the change to an external system for grant applications, such a page no longer exists. Is this correct? InsaneHacker (talk) 16:37, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

I just realized the pre-relaunch pages are still available, so grant proposals from back then are viewable, but it would be beneficial to be able to view approved grant proposals from after the relaunch. InsaneHacker (talk) 16:41, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

Yes. It's important to assess quickly the average workload associated with an application. Is it one day one page or one week 8 pages document ? Citing few past fund resquests (not the longest) would define the best practice so to clarify expectations within minutes and wipe out uncertainty. :) Yug (talk) 20:26, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Light hierarchic improvement

The following discussion is closed: DoneYug (talk) 14:24, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF) and DSaroyan (WMF): Hello there. As I read the Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund#General_Support_Fund_2's section and rotating schedules I noticed some possible improvements for concision and clarity, so I went ahead with some modifications ('It's a wiki'). But since this page is rather a "WMF's staff" page, please review those changes. It's mainly on hierarchy : detailed schedules moved as subsections of #General_Support_Fund_2. I also add group regions per group A and group B (two groups) rather that having to follow each region. I hope it helps. Yug (talk) 12:16, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

@Yug: Looks good to me, and thanks for your work. I think these changes are helpful. However, because these pages concern programs maintained by Foundation staff, I'd request that you let us know what changes you'd like to make before implementing them next time. You can bring this to our attention either on Grants talk:Start here or by e-mailing communityresourceswikimedia.org. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 22:22, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Got it, I will report future improvements on the talk page an ping you & active staff members as recommended. Thank for the review, too ! Yug (talk) 20:24, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Current Wikimedia Grants:Regions.

Found one. Add the map of the 8 regions into the same section. File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Funds_Regions.svg. Add the link Grants:Regions on table's title cell "Regions". This later page has an explicit legend. Accronyms such as CEE, SAAR, etc are too opaque for non-meta folks. Yug (talk) 20:44, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

@Yug: Add the map of the regions into the same section Which section? Do you mean create a map image for each region page with that region highlighted? I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 03:13, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Objective is to convey the definition of each regions to the reader / Grant applicant. Add the existing map in Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund#General_Support_Fund_2 should be enough. Yug (talk) 07:50, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

@Yug: Done [1] I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 08:02, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Fast! Thank you. Yug (talk) 14:24, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Round 2 calendar adjustment for regions from Group A

The following discussion is closed.

Dear All,

Based on feedback from the communities, the Community Resources Team proceeded to change the General Support Fund round 2 calendar to March-April for the CEE and Central Asia, the United States and Canada, Latin America and The Caribbean, and the Middle East and Africa regions. Thank you, Mercedes Caso (platícame) 19:07, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

@MCasoValdes (WMF): wouldn't that change (Group A, Round 2: February-March ⇒ March-April) mechanically affect Group B's round two (April-May) ? Yug (talk) 20:30, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

HiYug, Thank you for your comment. The calendar change of round 2 for Group A does not automatically affect or generate changes to Group B. Mercedes Caso (platícame) 20:50, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Results of that evaluation

> We're currently working on evaluating the program and results of that evaluation will be available on September 30, 2019.
Is there a link to this results? :) Iniquity (talk) 04:53, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

@Iniquity: Unfortunately, no. This work was partially completed, but due to staff departures in the over the past year, we have not yet had capacity to develop this work in a public-facing report. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:52, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the answer! :) Iniquity (talk) 14:03, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

eScholarships?

Hi, are the equivalent of WikiCite/e-scholarship grants possible through this process, please? Having gone through one via WikiCite, they are quite useful for bringing together teams that would have otherwise met and collaborated at a hackathon, but can't do so at the moment due to COVID. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 21:37, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

@Mike Peel: Hi Mike, sorry to have missed this question after returning from the holidays. Currently, Rapid Grants is not resourced to be able to support these sorts of proposals as the WikiCite program does. However, we have had a chance to review practices and outcomes from that program so far, and there are a number of aspects of the program that I think could be adopted by Rapid Grants in the future, including arrangement like the one you describe. These and other changes to our grant programs are ones we are considering the in the Grants Strategy Relaunch process we are currently engaged in. IF there are specific kinds of funding criteria or needs that were supportive in the WikiCite program, this feedback would certainly be welcome there. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:57, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Thanks for the reply, I hope you do consider adding it in the future. I was mostly asking as I would have applied for one in if they were available here. Hopefully @Wittylama: can follow up in the relaunch discussions from a strategic perspective, all I can say is that they were very useful as a grantee to bring a group together to work on a topic. :-) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 10:58, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

When will grants be decided?

There is inconsistent information. Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn#Application_timeline says the 15th of the next month, whereas Grants:Project/Rapid/Apply says it's the end of the month of application. Which one is correct? Femkemilene (talk) 09:07, 27 March 2021 (UTC)

@Femkemilene: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I've edited these pages to reflect better our current practices. We try to get decisions to applicants by the end of each month. However, this may not be possible for several factors including the current load of Rapid Grant proposals for review, responsiveness from the applicant, and the need to resolve certain requirements to prepare a grant agreement or meet eligibility. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 01:10, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

Numbering Items

Would anyone mind if I numbered the items in the tables? I occasionally need to quote the items in conversations and it would be much easier if they were numbered. I JethroBT (WMF). Do you have something against it? Oscar . (WMF) recommended that I talk to you, because we are in doubt about how to do the code.--Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 22:58, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

From Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn --Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 23:00, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

@Felipe da Fonseca: Hi Felipe. Yes, numbering and referring to items by their item number is perfectly fine, and has been done by other grantees in the past. Is this in relation to a table for a budget or some other kind of table? It it also OK to make a spreadsheet using Google Sheets instead of making an on-wiki table if that is preferred. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 10:01, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF)Actually I would like to standardize and fix the numbering, so this creates a common language, so it needs to be onwiki. It's not just for a single activity: a) it's about offfwiki discussions of criteria; b) but also about eventual onwiki discussions: since I'm striving to improve communication between the en.wiki and the meta and WMF, for example: when I finish the translation, I'll make an announcement talking about the grants and I want to mention some items. Do you have any idea what codfication to use?--Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 10:09, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF) I don't want to have to number it manually, because then it would have to be changed every time. Do you know what wikicode would number automatically or do you know of someone who can do it?--Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 19:54, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF) Ping.--Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 13:15, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

@Felipe da Fonseca: Sorry, I have not had sufficient time to look into good practices for numbering criteria using the table. The usual practice of using the # markup doesn't work well for tables, and I know that using the <ol> markup is I think is discouraged because HTML markup is generally discouraged for formatting in that manner. Speaking more generally, while I like the idea of a general reference system using something like numbers for clarity, I do not think it's a good idea to invest a lot of time into developing this system at this stage though, because I don't know exactly how the funding guidelines or their presentation and formatting will change with respect to regional committees. If we start numbering them, and then a number of changes need to be made to the funding guidelines, it may be confusing for applicants. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 02:39, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

(Translation markup is another complication here, as it often is.) I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 02:41, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF) thank you for your answer. Okay, let's wait to number this, but did you see in my post at "Wikimedia Forum" how this kind of numbering is important? It makes it much easier to know what we are talking about. My topic at Wikimedia Forum was closed, but could you please comment what is expected to be done with these norms after the implementation of the regional committees? --Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 17:06, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

Digitization project

Hi! My team is planning for a digitization project (a kind of GLAM, but rebranded to something else) and are planning to ask for Rapid grants. As for this project, we will need camera and scanner for the project. Can this be bought as the material for the project? This is because the section in Facilities, equipment and materials stated "any equipment for purchase such as laptops, book scanners, cameras, and projectors" is not eligible for funding. What if the equipment to be share amongst Wikimedia community? Is it possible? Thank you. WAqil (talk) 12:29, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF):, @WJifar (WMF): I'm sorry to ping you guys but I kind of need attention for this. Looking forward for yall comments. Thank you! WAqil (talk) 13:31, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

@WAqil: Hello Wafiq, thanks for this question about equipment purchases. We are currently in transition with our funding programs, and the Rapid Grants program is in the middle of transitioning to the Rapid Fund program. It will operate in a similar way as Rapid Grants, but one important change is that our funding guidelines will not be the same. Our funding guidelines are now intentionally more open and flexible to focus on the general needs for different kinds activities and projects, and less focused on eligible or non-eligible expenses. This change means that yes, some equipment purchases may be proposed and considered. However, this does not mean that all equipment purchase requests will be funded. For example, equipment intended for personal usage or very limited use for movement-related activities is unlikely to be supported. Regional Committees and Program Officers reviewing proposals will also want to see a clear explanation of how the equipment will be used to support the stated goals of the proposal and why it is important. The expected impact of the project may also be a consideration. As you've noted, I think it is a good practice to develop a concrete plan and system to share equipment with other volunteers as well (such as using a system like this one), and to think about how the equipment will used beyond the grant period. (Also, on a separate note WJifar (WMF) is no longer working at the Wikimedia Foundation.) I hope this provides some guidance on your question. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:26, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Confusing categories

Hi I JethroBT (WMF) or anyone else from the WMF – I'm a bit confused about these two categories.

• Category:Rapid Grant funded in FY 2021-22
• Category:Funded Rapid Funds in FY 2021-22

What are the differences here, as I cannot seem to make sense of this. - Fuzheado (talk) 16:13, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

@Fuzheado: Yes, I can understand why this would be confusing. Category:Funded Rapid Funds in FY 2021-22 is the one that will be used moving forward, and Category:Rapid Grant funded in FY 2021-22 is no longer necessary to use as far as I know. Because Rapid Funds and our new general funding structure did not launch exactly at the beginning of the fiscal year (i.e. from 1 July 2021), we were still processing proposals using the Rapid Grants program for part of the year before we officially launched, so there are some recent grants that fall under that older category. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:31, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

I'm still confused. Does this mean that Category:Rapid Grants is deprecated and is for archival purposes only? If so, shouldn't that page state that so we don't go looking there for Rapid Grant funded content in 2021? Should we be looking at Category:Wikimedia Community Fund - Rapid Fund instead as the master category? - Fuzheado (talk) 17:31, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

@Fuzheado: That's correct. And yes, I agree we should indicate these changes more clearly on the relevant category pages. I'll see if I can complete this work using a relevant template or notice on those category pages by early next week. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:50, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

Thanks much! Looking forward to more clarification on those pages. - Fuzheado (talk) 09:20, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

@Fuzheado: Just following up here, but I've made this template and have started to incorporate on relevant category pages for clarity. I'll be adding it elsewhere later this week, but Feel free to add it wherever you think it might be helpful, and let me know if there's any other clarity that might be helpful to add to the notice. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 22:33, 18 October 2021 (UTC)