Grants talk:APG/Glossary

Hey folks -- Bridgespan, Barry & I talked the other day about how it's feeling like we are going to need a glossary of terms for the FDC process, since we are beginning to develop specialized language like "eligible entity" and "letter of intent" -- language that may or may not be particular to Wikimedia, but which will certainly have a specific meaning inside the Wikimedia FDC process. Those specific meanings should be documented, or else the process risks being impenetrable for new participants. Therefore, please feel free to add to the content page here words that need definitions, and feel free also to take a crack at creating definitions. Or, comment here on this page. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 00:16, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Hi Sue - we took a stab at defining most of the terms on your list with the exception of four terms: Eligible application, Funds request, Major donations, and Programmatic activities. We decided not to define "eligible application' in the interest of keeping the glossary a static document that will not change as our recommendations do. In the circumstance of "major donations" and "programmatic activities" - they are both terms that we have not used often in the draft FDC proposal and also don't have strong, agreed upon definitions. We would be happy to take a crack at defining these terms if you feel valuable. Divya (talk) 21:15, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

I've made a few non-substantive edits. A few things are still unclear:

• Grant Advisory Committee (GAC) A group of volunteers from the Wikimedia community whose role is to advise chapters, groups, and the Foundation on improving grant applications and the grants process. Volunteers, chapters, and other groups that are not eligible for funds from the FDC may apply for restricted funding through the Wikimedia grants program.

  Could it be clarified that the Wikimedia grants program is entirely administered by the GAC ... (is it?).

• Other revenues Sources of funding for the WMF or other entities that are not initiated from Wikimedia websites or grants raised from cultivated relationships. Examples of other revenues include membership dues and endowments.

  Hard to work out what this means. Is this better? By entities, does it mean chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups? If so, can they be described together as affiliated entities? I haven't edited this one.

  Other revenues Funding for the WMF or (?affiliated) entities that is neither initiated from Wikimedia websites nor raised from cultivated relationships. Examples include membership dues and endowments.

• Project funding "if the project involves no ongoing expenses such as staff" – the GAC is considering an application by the Serbian chapter for staff funding ... there seems to be some fuzziness about this rule, and I'm confused that the definition here is pretty cut-and-dried. I changed the "and/or" to "and", since it's established that FDC-eligible entities can't apply to the GAC for anything.
• Slate of FDC recommendations – I added "annual".
• Spending "Spending includes the expenditures" ... – I removed the "includes"; is there anything else that spending covers?
• Wikimedia Chapter "... within a specified geographical region (country)" – I changed to "within a specified country". Still covers DC and NYC. But there's still a glitch in that the Catalan-speakers could apply to be a chapter within Spain. The glitch is less obvious now than before I edited, but it's still there. Tony (talk) 08:40, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Updates

I know this page was created historically to accompany the framework and founding documents, but I've recently updated it in the hopes that it could be useful in our process currently. I don't think we need to maintain a historical copy in this case, but I'm open to suggestions if others feel differently. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (FDC Support Team) talk 17:15, 16 September 2014 (UTC)