Grants:APG/Proposals/2018-2019 round 2/Wikimedia Armenia/Staff proposal assessment

General Introduction

As decided at the end of last fiscal year (2017-2018), we have implemented a lightweight approach for Round 2 2018-2019 of Annual Plan Grants - General support. This will enable all participants to direct resources toward better alignment with the Wikimedia Strategic Direction. Applicants and staff have worked together between January to May. Staff offered feedback on past reports and plans, and worked with applicants to develop their upcoming annual plans. Organizations submitted lightweight summaries of their annual plans which are the basis for these funding recommendations. These recommendations are informed by the decision not to increase funding from last year's FDC recommendations. There is an exception for emerging communities outside of Europe. In this round, Wikimedia Indonesia and CIS were eligible for increased funding, and only Wikimedia Indonesia has requested a grant increase.

Working with organizations in a more systematic way to develop their annual plans has allowed:

• better alignment with the movement strategy direction, achieved by working closely with organization to develop their annual plans;
• funding capped at last year's level has prompted organizations to review and rethink some of their priorities, or to focus on securing external funding opportunities, and;
• a more thoughtful approach to grants metrics (focused on participation and content) and their use, including more qualitative metrics.

This lightweight approach has been adapted from the previous round. This round includes five annual plan summaries for the next grant period. Recommendations and remarks made by the FDC and staff in previous years have been taken into account by the organizations.

Text for approval - Wikimedia Armenia

• Wikimedia Armenia (WMAM): requesting approval for 68,957,500 AMD (~$134,000), for 6 months instead of one year as requested. WMAM is a high performing organization that has achieved impressive quantitative and qualitative results. WMAM has developed a plan in which distinct programs are integrated and work together as part of a larger system, in a way that feels both organic and strategic. The plan takes into account the needs of their community and an intelligent analysis of their own context, and proactively works toward their goals of building the Wikimedia movement in Armenia and increasing the quantity and quality of content available on the Wikimedia projects.

However, while receiving a large grant consisting of stable general support funding has enabled the organization to grow while capitalizing on their strengths and maintaining the approaches that make their organization successful, a number of governance issues have been reported which are worrying and might seriously endanger the stability of the organization. We still believe that support for WMAM’s programs is needed in the upcoming year, because it is likely to lead to programmatic results (movement building and volunteer engagement, quality and quantity of content), but we have received troubling reports from many parties over the past year that Wikimedia Armenia is not a well-governed organization. Wikimedia Armenia must address their organization’s governance problems before we make a decision about continuing our support beyond 6 months. Wikimedia Armenia must also commit to a governance audit or equivalent undertaken by a third party agreed upon by the WIkimedia Foundation, before this 6 month grant is approved, and must agree on a course of action with WMF to address their governance issues in order to be eligible for any future funding. During this period we advise WMAM to first attend to reforms at the board level, without making any unnecessary changes to their staff structure or staff team. Delphine (WMF) (talk) 21:29, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Approved by the Executive Director 13 June 2019