Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round1/Wikimedia Australia/Proposal form
This proposal form for Wikimedia Australia's proposal to the FDC for 2012-2013 Round 1 may be viewed in tab view or standard view. To discuss this aspect of the proposal to the FDC, please visit the discussion page.
For some guidelines, please see this example proposal form.
All eligible entities will need to complete this form to request funds from the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC). The completed document must be published in English on Meta by the deadline for each round (23:59 UTC 1 October for Round 1, and 23:59 UTC 1 March for Round 2).
The purpose of this document is to provide the FDC with an overview of your annual plan, the alignment of the plan to the Wikimedia movement’s strategic goals, and the potential impact and effectiveness of the plan. This proposal should complement any annual planning documents you may have: please complete all fields as mandatory and add links to supporting documents where relevant.
Each section of the proposal provides guidance on the amount of detail expected in response to each question or field. If you have additional questions about the form, please contact the FDC support team.
A few terms used in the form:
Basic information
Table 1.
| Legal name of affiliated entity | Wikimedia Australia, Inc. |
| Contact name | John Vandenberg |
| Contact position in entity | President |
| Contact username | John Vandenberg |
| Contact email | jayvdb@gmail.com |
| Entity fiscal year (mm/dd–mm/dd) | 07/01-06/30 |
| Timeframe of funds currently requested (mm/dd/yy–mm/dd/yy) | 01/01/2013-31/12/2013 |
| Date posted mm/dd/yy1 | 01/10/2012 |
| Round submitted (1 or 2) | 1 |
| Currency requested2 | AUD |
| Exchange rate used (currency requested to $US) and date accessed (mm/dd/yy)3 | 1.01780 |
Table 2.
| In currency requested | In $US | |
| Total annual expenses of entity | 655,000 | 666,659 |
| Amount proposed to the FDC for the coming year's annual plan | 286,024 | 291,115 |
| Amount to be raised from non-FDC sources | 265,000 | 269,717 |
| If applicable, amount of FDC funds allocated to entity last year |
1The proposal is assumed to be final as of the deadline for each round (23:59 UTC, October 1 for Round 1, and 23:59 UTC March 1 for Round 2). After the deadline, the proposal must not be further modified; any further commentary should be included on the talk page.
2Currency requested is defined as the currency in which you wish to receive funds (e.g., EUR, GBP, INR).
3This exchange rate should be used throughout the form.
Background, history, and mission
This section provides the FDC an overview of your entity's background and history. Please respond to each question below with 1-2 sentences to a maximum of a paragraph.
- When was your entity established?
- 2008
- What is the mission of your entity, and how does it support the goals of the Wikimedia movement?
Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to promote equality of opportunity to access and participate in the collaborative creation of Free Cultural Works, especially educational works, and works about Australia, its culture, natural environment, and Australian news and media.
The purpose of the organisation is to:
- organise and participate in educational and social events that promote development of Free Cultural Works and related open source software systems, in particular wikis
- increase public awareness, support and participation in the projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)
- develop resources to assist Australians in the creation and maintenance of Free Cultural Works
Wikimedia Australia is recognised by the WMF as a 'Chapter' and as such will offer members an official voice in the global Wikimedia community, whose aim is to create unencumbered resources for use throughout the world.
- What is its current leadership structure (e.g., executive staff structure, board / governance structure)?
- If you have an organogram or organizational chart for your organization, please provide a link.
- Wikimedia Australia is run by a volunteer Committee of Management.
- How many staff are employed by your entity?
- 0
- Approximately how many volunteers participate actively in your entity?
- Approximately 30 people can be considered active participants in Wikimedia Australia. These come from both organisation members and non-members, and include the committee, WMAU wiki account approvers, regular participants in our mailing lists discussions, recipients of "small grants" and other volunteer support initiatives, and contributors to Wikimedia Australia programs that are conducted on Wikipedia and Wikinews such as outreach:HOPAU and w:WP:GLAM/SLQ.
- How many members does your entity have?
- 51 as of 1 October 2012.
Reflection on past activities and innovations
This section provides the FDC with information about your entity's past activities and strategies. Please answer the questions below with your reflections on the past fiscal year. Responses to each question should be one or two paragraphs.
- How does your entity define and measure "success"?
- A successful project has volunteer community engagement in the design and execution of the proposal, helps the organisation achieve objectives on the Strategic Plan, and is a fiscally responsible use of funds raised. For projects involving partner organisations, success also depends on Wikimedia Australia being seen to be a valued member of the partnership by the other partners and by the Wikimedia community.
- Please give at least three examples of successful activities that your entity has completed. If available, provide links to information about these activities.
wmau:GLAM-WIKI was an Australian conference in 2009 to bring Wikimedia and GLAM together. This conference was where many of our GLAM projects were first conceived. The model and branding of this conference was replicated in Europe.
w:WP:GLAM/SLQ was a WikiAcademy program run in the first half of 2012, partnering with the State Library of Queensland to provide workshops in regional Queensland. Over 50% of the draft articles created during the workshops were promoted to mainspace. The program was executed with expenditure under 50% of the budget. State Library of Queensland developed their own training manual, which they continue to use after the program has concluded. This program was received well in the library sector, with other Australian state libraries approaching Wikimedia Australia to discuss running the same program in their state. In response, Wikimedia Australia established an annual program to ensure regional training extends to the rest of Australia, and is preparing to run pilot workshops with another state library.
outreach:HOPAU is an ongoing program to assist in building a Paralympics community to participate in the documentation of the history of the Paralympics in Australia. Our partners are University of Queensland and the Australian Paralympic Committee. The highlight of this program was obtaining press passes for two experienced Wikimedians to attend and cover the the 2012 London Paralympics. While the focus of these Wikimedia reporters was Australian Paralympics, they also provided coverage of other nations.
- What are the plans/strategies that did not work for your entity in the past? What did your entity learn from that experience / those experiences?
- Wikimedia Australia had several plans on the 2011-12 budget that were not realised. The most significant failed strategic item was the employment of our first staff member. Despite good intentions, the organisation has not been able to establish the policies and process needed for this. In order to prepare the organisation for this leap, and not be delayed another year, we have decided that we can not rely on volunteer effort to undertake this important task.
- What else has your entity learned or innovated upon that could benefit the broader Wikimedia movement?
- The most recent innovation that is beneficial to the broader Wikimedia movement is our wmau:Proposal:Camera equipment program, which supports volunteers and improves Wikimedia Commons. Before the WMAU program was approved in January 2012, the committee had approved one small grant for camera equipment in July 2011 (wmau:Resolution:Toby Hudson's Small Grant). With the program in place, we have approved reimbursement for camera equipment purchases of $1600, and are currently reviewing another application for reimbursement of $500.
Where available, please link to the following to provide supplemental information to the FDC:
- Link to previous completed fiscal year annual plan
- Link to previous completed fiscal year annual report
- The report for 2011-2012 has not been written. It is due at the 2012 AGM which must be held before December 2012.
- Link to previous completed fiscal year grant report (if your entity has received funds from the FDC)
Year-to-date progress
This section provides the FDC information about how your entity is progressing against the current fiscal year's planned budget (revenues and costs).
Please provide the relevant information below. "Year to date" refers to the period between the start of your entity's current fiscal year and the date of submission of the proposal(+). If it is helpful to link to your entity's current fiscal year plan and budget, please do so.
Table 3.
Current fiscal year planned budget Year-to-date actuals+ Variance In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US % Revenues (from all sources) 0 0 304 309 Spending 41,000 41,729.80 1222 1243.75
+ Actual year-to-date financials should be provided as close to the proposal submission date as possible; best approximations are sufficient.
Table 3. details: Wikimedia Australia is moving from an annual plan aligned with its fiscal year to an annual year aligned with to the calendar year. As a result of this, and low expenditure from the previous fiscal budget, the period between July 2012 and December 2012 is operating from the wmau:2011-2012 Budget, with a planned spend of $41,000, which will bring our bank balance to $100,000 to be use in the 2013 Annual Plan.
The income between July and October 2012 consists of new memberships & renewals, and interest earned on money in the bank.
The expenses between July and October 2012 are for project activity before 1 July 2012 (SLQ project) and applications for funding under approved Wikimedia Australia programs (small grant and camera equipment).
Wikimedia Australia is anticipating an invoice for $11,000 from the APC for HOPAU program activity, and the remainder of the planned spending is allocated to existing program activity.
Based on the variance percentages above, please describe how your entity is progressing against revenue and spending targets. If you expect your entity to be significantly under or over target on either revenue or spending, please provide a detailed explanation.
Key initiatives and objectives of the upcoming year annual plan
The table is intended to provide an overview of your entity's upcoming year annual plan and its alignment with the movement's strategic goals; please provide short phrases or 1-3 bullet points for each initiative in the table below. Feel free to add more details below the table (1-2 paragraphs per initiative). You can also link to any other documents that you think might be helpful as context.
If you feel you have an initiative that fulfills a strategic goal that is not immediately identified with a Wikimedia strategic goal ('readership' rather than 'editorship', for instance), please add that in the table and offer us your rationale.
Please link to your entity's strategic plan if you have one.
- Strategic plan link: wmau:Strategic Plan
Table 4.
Key initiatives What are the objectives of this initiative (include metrics)? Which Wikimedia strategic goal(s) does this initiative address? What key activities / milestones are associated with this initiative? How will your entity accomplish this initiative? How will your entity measure and track success of this initiative?
Table 4. details: Our 2013 Annual Plan is at wmau:2013 Annual Plan.
Additional context for the upcoming year annual plan / SWOT
Please provide 1-2 paragraphs for each response below. SWOT stands for your organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- What organizational strengths enable your entity's plan (e.g., leadership, governance structure, community participation, fundraising)?
- Our leadership are fiscally responsible and have experience with the university and government sectors. Our membership includes many academics and support staff involved in most large universities in Australia.
- What external opportunities enable your entity's plan (e.g., socio-political context, community participation, fundraising)?
- Our partnerships with other institutions, include GLAM, Universities and national peak bodies.
- What are key risks or threats that would prevent you from achieving your plan (e.g., leadership turnover, governance challenges, lawsuits, fundraising, community participation, socio-political context)?
- Community participation in physical events remains low.
- How will you minimize these risks and threats?
- Fund participants from inter-state to attend events in capital cities and be trainers in regional workshops.
Financials for the upcoming year's annual plan
- Provide your financial overview for the upcoming year in the format below.
- Please link to your detailed budget (translation into English highly recommended) in addition to completing the tables below.
- Detailed budget link: wmau:2013 Annual Plan
- Revenues
Please list anticipated revenues, by source (e.g., FDC, Wikimedia grants programs, public funding, membership fees, local donations, event fees)
Table 5.
Revenue source Anticipated (in currency requested) Anticipated (In $US) Donations (1) 2948 2998 Membership Fees (1) 534 539 Interest (1) 494 498 Partner Contributions (non-movement) (2) 265000 269505 FDC Contribution (3) 286024 289186
Table 5. details: (1) Amounts shown are projections for the 2012/13 financial year. Amounts have been calculated based on a 10% increase on revenue from the previous financial year, except for membership fees which are based on a 10% increase followed by a 50% decrease, as the membership fee for the chapter has been cut by 50% for this year.
(2) Subject to partner approval.
(3) Subject to FDC approval.
- Current entity staff (e.g., Included in year-in-progress budget)
Role / functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff.
Table 6.
Role / Function Number of staff Percentage of staff time+
+Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members. For example, for full time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half time staff, you would put 50% in this column.
Table 6. details: No current staff for entity.
- Proposed new staff for upcoming year annual plan
Role / functions might include program administration, finance, fundraising. Please include both part-time and full-time staff.
Table 7.
Role / Function Number of staff Percentage of staff time+ Duration Rationale for hiring new staff Management and Communications 1 100% 12 months Per wmau:Strategic_Plan#Core:_Professionalise_WMAu_operations_and_fundraising: Core: Professionalise WMAu operations and fundraising
As Wikimedia Australia has grown from a small volunteer-driven organisation with limited funding opportunities to a larger and more complex operation, conducting the organisation's affairs in a professional and legally compliant manner has become both more important and more challenging. However, getting this right is a critical factor in the continuing growth and success of the chapter. We will achieve this by:
- employing professional staff to assist with tasks such as fundraising, financial accounting and communication, where not meeting our obligations can result in serious adverse consequences;
- developing new procedures and improving existing procedures around common tasks such as operational procurement, travel allowances, grant disbursement and use of technical assets;
- fostering a culture of accountability and reporting, especially where chapter or donor resources are concerned;
- examining the policies and procedures of other comparable organisations (such as the WMF and other chapters) to determine if any of their ideas are applicable in the WMAu operating environment;
- investigating existing management frameworks (such as Prince2, ITIL, etc) to see if any value could be gained by adopting these methodologies in the chapter.
Alignment with WMF strategy:
- Stabilise infrastructure: Build internal capacity to better support the movement and achieve its strategic goals.
- Stabilise infrastructure: Expand public awareness and support for the Wikimedia movement.
+Please include estimates of the percentage allocation of staff members. For example, for full time staff, you would put 100% in this column. For half time staff, you would put 50% in this column.
Table 7. details:
- Summary of staff expenses
Table 8.
In currency requested In $US Current staff expenses Proposed staff expenses 90,000 91,602 Total staff expenses 90,000 91,602
Table 8. details: Note this figure includes both the salary for the employee, as well as associated on-costs (superannuation, payroll tax, etc).
- Expenses by program/initiative
Expenses are costs associated with any programs, initiatives, or projects your entity manages (e.g., event costs, materials, transportation). Please exclude any staff costs that are included above. “Programs / initiatives” might include education programs, outreach programs, etc. Please include any administration costs (e.g., office space rental, utilities) affiliated with each program along with any overall administration costs that are not affiliated with any particular program (e.g., Administration should be considered a "Program" under the first column.)
Table 9.
Program / initiative In currency requested In $US GLAM 190,000 193,382 Research 200,000 203,560 Conferences 65,000 66,157 Other programs 80,000 81,424
Total expenses 535,000 544,523
Table 9. details:
- Summary of total revenues and expenses
Table 10.
In currency requested In $US Total Revenues 555,000 564,879 Total Spending 655,000 666,659 Net (revenues less expenses) 0 0 Reserve balance, if applicable+ 0 0
+ Cash reserve balance should include cumulative reserves and any net revenue
Table 10. details:
- Verification that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities
Enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.
- The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. Grants for such activities (when permitted under U.S. law and IRS regulations) should be sought from the Wikimedia Grants Program.
I verify that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities yes
- This form was created by: John Vandenberg (talk) 12:21, 6 October 2012 (UTC)