Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Scaling the Team, Tech, Reach, and Impact of Wiki Project Med Foundation (Wikimedia Medicine)

Questions from regional committee edit

Hello Doc James, Ocaasi, and Wiki Project Med Team. Thank you for this thoughtful proposal. The US/Canada Regional Committee has initially reviewed the proposal, and wanted to ask a few questions about your plans:

1. What are the specific updates planned for the Apple version of the app? 2. We noticed a discrepancy in the number of active installs of app - 75k vs. 100k (both cited as active installs). In other places 100k is cited as the number of downloads. Please clarify. 3. Related question - your metric for global access category lists 75k active installs as a target metric for the grant - is this in addition to the 75k installs already achieved? How did you arrive at this numnber? 4. What languages will be targeted for translation and how will this selection best meet needs of users? More broadly, how might you engage users through a survey or other evaluation device to better understand their needs and uses?

Thanks! On behalf of the committee, Matthewvetter (talk) 16:58, 24 October 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi Matthewvetter! Sorry we didn't respond sooner. A ping only notifies people when the signature is added in the same edit (asked for a fix). We care deeply about the committee's questions and have attempted to respond in full as soon as we saw this.
  1. The specific updates planned are to add other language versions to the Apple app offerings. And update the content within the app itself, because it's over a year old.
  2. We said 75k installs refers to English installs; it's more accurately 73.1k active devices according to the app dashboard; the more than 100k installs refers to all active language versions.
  3. Our full English version has 65k according to the installed audience metrics (recently active users); we aimed to increase active users (not devices) by 10k, which is a reasonable target in a year's timeframe
  4. Translation relies on volunteer availability, so we can't perfectly steer this ship; however, our priority languages are those with low health information availability currently on Wikipedia, but large populations. These include Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Indonesian, Marathi, Telegu, Tamil, and Hausa.
Cheers Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:05, 20 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

In addition to this, I had a quick clarifying question. The budget has ~$15k reserved for fundraising related expenses to WikiBlueprint. However, I don't see anything that reflects fundraising income. Could you clarify? Is this budget the entire budget of the organization, or is there something else going on perhaps? Effeietsanders (talk) 17:59, 13 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi Effeietsanders!
  1. WikiBlueprint will receive 10% of this general funds grant, as that was their contract terms. WikiBlueprint is on point for the general funds grant, but not associated with the other income streams.
  2. Wiki Project Med will likely receive about $20,000 in funds from other sources in 2023/2024. The WMF general funds grant would be by far the majority of our budget. That $20,000 covers some admin costs and current contractors, but does not allow tech or programmatic growth.
Best Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:08, 20 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
Let me address WikiBlueprint's role directly. Beginning November 2022, James Heilman secured me as fundraiser on a 10% contingency basis through WikiBlueprint. My contract with Wiki Project Med to raise funds began well before this general funds grant and did not even include WMF as a potential funder. It began with a Letter of Interest sent to 8 other funders: Gates, Arcadia, Chan-Zuckerberg, Sloan, Robert Wood Johnson, Simons, Gordon and Betty Moore, and Newmark Philanthropies. It was only later that we added WMF to the potential candidates. My work with WikiBlueprint includes not just one grant proposal but: Proposal writing for all grants, Continuing fundraising, including from other funds and foundations, Pro bono management support (in kind) including hiring and program deliverables, Ensuring success of funds received, and Primary impact reporting for all grants received. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify! Ocaasi (talk) 20:28, 21 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
User:Ocaasi thanks for fixing my typo :-) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:16, 21 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 130,000 USD edit

@Ocaasi and Doc James: Congratulations! Your grant is approved for partial funding in the amount of 130,000 USD with a grant term starting 1 December 2023 and ending 30 November 2024. (Due to the time needed to process and send funding, it may be necessary to adjust the start and end dates slightly.)

The Committee is pleased that the previous issues related to the lapse of nonprofit status have been resolved, and appreciates the challenges that the Wiki Project Med Foundation is facing as it professionalizes. We understand from your proposal that you're investing in capacity building to avoid such situations in the future. If your organization needs support to maintain nonprofit status in the future, please do reach out and let us know.

The Committee supported funding for Wiki Project Med Foundation, and noted the following strengths of the proposal:

  • The organization has a well-established framework and infrastructure to operate in.
  • The proposal looks at the mission in creative ways and is not afraid to try out approaches that are perhaps not endorsed by everyone in the movement. As long as this is followed by a robust reflection and evaluation, this can help the wider movement learn valuable lessons.
  • The goals stated are very ambitious, but the committed efforts seem achievable.
  • The organization makes clear choices in their priorities

The committee also makes the following recommendations:

  • Revise the evaluation framework to focus more on impact rather than just output. Try to envision what is the impact that you would consider to be a success. For example, you list 2 million images as a metric for the NC Commons project. Another way to look at this would be to define a metric that captures the number of pages that are enriched with these images, or the number of people that see this content.
  • As you're engaging in developing projects that may benefit from community input, you may want to consider also including qualitative metrics that focus on learning goals. How would you evaluate for the next cycle whether you're on the right path?
  • A basic organizational chart could be helpful to understand the responsibilities in the organization.
  • The timeline seems ambitious and will require careful monitoring.
  • Finally, at the midpoint during the funding period (around May/June 2024), the committee requests an update on the fundraising efforts supported by Wiki Blueprint.

Best wishes for the success of the project,

Redwidgeon (talk) 02:29, 28 November 2023 (UTC), on behalf of the Regional CommitteeReply

Thanks User:Redwidgeon. We will take this into consideration. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:20, 28 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
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