Grants:PEG/Reporting requirements

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This page documents a process of the WMF Project and Event Grants program. Return to the Grants:PEG page at any time for more information!

Please do not edit this page. If you have a suggestion, please create a discussion page.

Purpose and background

This page is about reporting requirements for the Project and Event Grants program. If you want to submit a report, please use the grant report submission tool.

Grant reports serve grantees and the broader Wikimedia movement (including the Wikimedia Foundation and grantmaking committees). The movement, including WMF, needs to understand how grants are helping the movement. Furthermore, many people can learn from these reports in order to do better movement work, and so it is important that grantees reflect and share what they have learned so that others can understand what worked and what didn't. Finally, WMF needs to understand how funds were spent to make sure that WMF and grantees are complying with laws and regulations, so WMF can keep giving out more grants.

Reports are also an important tool for grantees to show what they have accomplished and to document what they have done in the past.

Reporting schedule

Project leads are responsible for ensuring that reporting requirements are met, and should review their grant agreements carefully to understand the reporting requirements specific to their grant. Before you agree to receive a grant, please read these requirements carefully and make sure you can meet the requirements. If you have questions about reporting requirements, please contact WMF.

For all Project and Event Grants, a final report is due by 60 days after the approved completion date listed in the grant submission.
For some Project and Event Grants, an interim report will be required by a date specified by WMF. For all grants with a term of 12 months or more, at least one interim report will be required. An interim report will often be required if a grantee requests a change to the project completion date or the reporting schedule.
The reporting schedule for your grant will be set in writing by your program officer or the grants administrator when your grant is approved or processed.

How to complete a report

Please publish your complete report on Meta using the form provided.

Your report should be published on Meta (this wiki). Please use an up-to-date version of the grant report form appropriate to the type of grant and report. To ensure you are using the correct form, please use the grant report submission tool. Your report should be complete, with informative answers to each and every required question on the grant report form.

Please include detailed information about your expenses with your report.

Your report should include a detailed public expense report, with any changes or inconsistencies documented. If changes are needed during the course of your grant, please review the guidelines for making changes to your grant. Your report should be accompanied by digital copies of receipts documenting all grant expenses that have been sent to WMF. Please review the guidelines for documenting your project expenses carefully before you spend any grant funds.

Your report should account for the total grant funds spent on the project and any grant funds remaining. Please review the guidelines around remaining funds to make sure you can report and handle any grant funds that you may not spend.

Please engage with the report review process.

Once your report is submitted, you will receive feedback and questions from WMF staff and the community. Although WMF will respond to your report submission within 30 days, it may take longer than that for WMF to accept your report. Your grant report will be considered "Under review" as long as you keep responding to requests or questions from WMF, and until it can be "Accepted" by WMF. If you do not respond to questions or requests from WMF within 21 days, your grant report will be considered "Incomplete" and you will no longer be in compliance with program requirements. In order to make sure you respond, please add your report's discussion page to your watchlist and monitor it regularly until your report is accepted. Active engagement in the reporting process, as well as the quality of your reports and their timeliness, will be considered as part of your record and could influence decisions around future grant requests.

WMF will review the completeness and accuracy of your reports, and may request information that is not yet included. WMF does not consider the success or failure of a project when reviewing grant reports, but looks at the depth and quality of information provided in the report as well as the grantees' insights and reflections about their work. Once your grant report is accepted, WMF may still need to contact you with questions about your grant or your expenses. In some cases, WMF may also need to follow up with you after a final report has been accepted in order to discuss the ongoing results of your work.

Submit your reports on time

We ask that grantees make every effort to submit grant reports on time. After all, grantees are provided with a 60-day period between completing a grant and needing to submit a final report, which should be plenty of time to make a report about most projects.

To make sure you meet this deadline, you can follow some of these recommendations:

Read and understand how to do a report: Read these reporting requirements carefully before you start your grant, and review them with your team members. Read other grant reports for projects similar to yours. Ask your program officer for examples of quality reports for similar projects so you can understand what makes a good report.
Plan reporting and assign roles: Budget time (and money, if needed) for reporting when you are planning your project. Clearly assign roles and responsibilities around reporting to your team members. If possible, try not to rely on only one person to complete this aspect of your project. If you share the work, reporting might be much easier and your report will not fail because you are relying on a single person to do it. Add your reporting deadlines to your calendar and ask your teammates to track them as well. Make sure that at least one person is assigned to be responsible for meeting each deadline.
Document your project as it happens: Document your project while it is taking place rather than relying on your memory long after activities have been completed. Document your project by taking notes, taking videos, taking photos, recording sounds, saving materials you produce, or keeping track of blog posts or articles documenting your project. These will all be useful when you compile your report. Do not wait to do your report. Memories fade quickly and it can be difficult to capture a project or event long after it has taken place, and it can be difficult to follow up with people involved with your project.
Ask questions about reporting: If you have questions about the reporting process while you are planning your project, doing your project, or making your report, ask your program officer right away so that you have the information you need when you need it. If you need a change to your reporting schedule or your project completion date, please review the guidelines for making changes to your grant.

Consequences for late or incomplete reports

We are sure this will never happen, but if you do not submit your report on time or if it is not complete:

Until your report is submitted, you will not be in compliance with program requirements. This means you won't be able to receive any grants from WMF, and this may also affect grants you are involved with in another role.
Everyone will be missing important information about your project!
WMF may take the necessary steps to recover grant funds for which a report or adequate documentation is not submitted.