Grants:IEG/Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship/Finances

This project is funded by an Individual Engagement Grant

Budget

Below is your approved budget. Please use this table to keep track of actual funds spent for each line item and list the difference from the approved budget at the end of the grant period.

Expense	Approved amount	Actual funds spent	Difference
Programmer	$3000	$600	$2400
Graphic designer	$4000 $6120 $4000	$4335	$-335
Program development (Soni)	$5200	$5200	$0
Project manager (I JethroBT)	$7800	$9865	$2065
Researcher (Gabrielm199)	$2600	$2600	$0
Community engagement & PM (extension period)	$3560	$3560	$0
Total	$24720 $22600 $26160	$26160	$0

Request changes

We understand that sometimes plans change. Please use this button to request approval for changes to your grant’s budget while your project is in progress. Any variation of 20% or more to any line item in your budget must be approved by staff here before you make the change (for projects with budgets of $15,000 or more, the accepted variance is 10%).

Budget change request

I request that the line item for our graphic design position be changed from $4000 to $6120.

Rationale

For our current designer, we negotiated a rate of $40/hr over the course of 17 weeks starting on 18 August 2014 and ending 15 December 2014, amounting to the aforementioned $6120. The design needs for our space are nontrivial; key elements needed for the space include a landing page, navigational elements, profiles, and a set of icons. Our team determined that it was unrealistic for us to hire a designer within our original budget for a necessary length of time for brainstorming, drafting, revising, and implementation of these design elements for our space. The $4000 budget wwould severely limited the amount of time we would have to dedicate to these steps in the design aspects of this project. I JethroBT (talk) 10:02, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi, I JethroBT - Your rationale for the increase makes sense and the rate of pay for your designer is within reasonable benchmarks for the US. As such, I'm approving this request for an additional $2120 to be used for design. We'll update your table on this page to reflect this increase, which will be included as part of your second disbursement. Cheers, Siko (WMF) (talk) 23:37, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

As a note, this line item for Graphic Design was reduced back to $4000 due to our initial graphic designer leaving the project prior to our second disbursement of funds. At this time, we do not require additional funding for graphic design needs. I JethroBT (talk) 10:30, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

Budget change request

I request an additional $1125 for marked for community engagement needs, and an additional $4500 marked for additional project management tasks, and totals $5625. I also request that our budgeted amounts for our programmer and graphic designer be changed to $600 and $4335 respectively, as these roles have been fulfilled and funds dispensed for the entirety of the project's needs. I JethroBT (talk) 22:32, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Rationale

We currently do not have anyone slotted for community engagement needs in this project, which I have essentially been doing in terms of recruiting mentors for the space, initiating and facilitating discussions about how our space will work, and directly teaching mentors about the space in preparation for our pilot. The requested extensions for this project will require additional time for these kinds of needs, and I anticipate time will be needed to engage editors who are not participating in the Co-op with regard to questions/concerns about our space and how it functions. I have estimated that I will spend an average of 7.5 hours per week over the final 10 weeks of this grant doing community engagement tasks, and request a rate of $15 per hour for this work, which amounts to the $1125 requested.

Additional project management time is also needed to devote to coordinating design and development efforts. My time as a project manager was spent seeking out candidates, contractors, and volunteers who could help us accomplish our goals in these areas, and has only recently been spent actually evaluating and discussing tangible drafts of the mentorship space. Furthermore, I have been primarily responsible for putting out reports of our activities over the past several months, and due to the time commitments of the other grantees of this project, and my broad involvement amongst all the needs to get our space built, it is likely I will be taking the lead on reporting our general activities in the future. Over the next 15 weeks (3.5 months) we have requested for extensions, I estimate I will need 15 hours per week to complete these tasks, and request the same rate of $20 per hour for this work, which amounts to the $4500 requested. I JethroBT (talk) 22:32, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi I JethroBT, thanks for documenting here - it can be difficult to estimate time and cost at the start of many projects, and I understand that in this case the additional time has also increased costs for participants like yourself. So, I'm approving an additional $3560 to be disbursed to you today. Also approving reallocation of $2065 (unspent from your programmer budget) to be used for community engagement and project management instead. This should free up the $5625 total to fill the identified needs you've described here. We will update the table to reflect the change, and get a disbursement to you soon. Cheers, Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:03, 28 January 2015 (UTC)