Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia MKD Annual grant 2024
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General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 74,072 EUR edit
Congratulations! Your proposal is approved for partial funding in the amount of 74,072 EUR with a grant term starting 1 January 2024 and ending 31 December 2024. The Regional Committee is pleased to support the formation, expected recognition of Wikimedia MKD, as well as its first year of activities in 2024. The committee recognizes that the work involved in this process of merging two separate affiliate groups (GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge) was complex, involving important discussions on leadership, governance processes, and legal consultation on merging nonprofit entities together. We appreciate your communication with us regarding your progress as well as informing us about additional funding needs to support this complex task. When the final tasks around Wikimedia MKD’s recognition are complete, we hope your staff and volunteers will take some time to celebrate this important milestone together.
The committee offers the following comments, questions, and remarks regarding your proposal:
- The committee appreciates seeing the strengths of both organizations coming through in the current proposal. For example, we appreciate seeing that the Education program has expanded to include both engagement with students both in higher education – where Shared Knowledge often focused its work – as well as in secondary schooling institutions that GLAM Macedonia has supported previously.
- It is interesting to see that senior citizens are a community that Wikimedia MKD would like to focus on next year. Are there partners or institutions you will be working with to help connect you to older adults in Skopje or other places in North Macedonia?
- The committee would like to better understand the arrangements around working time and volunteer time for staff. The staffing plan notes that one-third of their time is dedicated to volunteer work, whereas the remaining time is for paid work. Typically, we do not see organizations splitting time between paid vs. volunteer time for staff roles. Can you tell us more about why you are taking a different approach? Is the kind of work being done during volunteer time and paid working time different in some way?
- Moving forward, the committee asks that Wikimedia MKD ensure that there are clear, accessible spaces and opportunities for affiliate members to help shape the direction and priorities for your organization, as well as for them to develop skills and advance if they want to step into various affiliate leadership roles in the future.
- The committee was not able to support the requested level of growth in the proposal, which was partially based on the combined budgets of GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge, with some redundant expenses removed, but also with new or increasing expenses. The overall budget for funding in the region has grown only about 8.5% overall since last year, and funding growth next year is expected to be even smaller. The committee stresses the need to 1) prioritize your current budget carefully, 2) prepare for more modest growth in future years from General Support Funding, and 3) to invest time into seeking other funding sources to support additional growth for your organization.
We appreciate your efforts to unify your organizations into a single affiliate to represent and support community members in North Macedonia who want to contribute to the Wikimedia movement and the goals of your organization. Welcome, Wikimedia MKD!
On behalf of the Regional Committee MikyM (talk) 15:23, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
Answers edit
MikyM thank you for the update and kind words. Let me answer your questions:
- Yes, it is fortunate that the Education program has expanded to include both engagement with students both in higher education.
- About senior citizens and their involvement, we already established a collaboration with the Association of Retired Intellectuals. For the next year we plan to have training on editing Wikipedia articles in the Macedonian language first in Skopje, and latter in other cities.
- 6 hours per day, including 4 paid hours and 2 volunteer hours = we included this part in the agreements of our employees. I have to say that the working day is 4 hours, and those extra 2 volunteer hours are not required every day. But there are times when we want employees to join at the editing day with the volunteers, or to join to some other kind of volunteer activities, to do some editing on Wikipedia which is not part of their jobs, for examples. That looks for us like a good idea for staff and volunteers to come together and work more closely together. If you think that this part in the agreement with the employees is not necessary, we could skip it next time.
- Of course, there is an opportunity for everyone to prove themselves and take various affiliate leadership roles in the future.
- I am sorry to hear that about the funds. We will try to implement one of three proposals about the funds.
Thank you again, - Виолетова (talk) 16:41, 1 December 2023 (UTC)