Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Ghana User Group Project Grant 2022-2023
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Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal
editDear User:Owula kpakpo,
Thank you for taking the time to submit your proposal which we found clear and well structured. We also recognise there was a clear indication of community engagement in the development of the proposal. We are also inspired by the innovative approaches and activities in engaging and serving your community; it was visible from our review that you hold great care and concern for their community members. We are keen to what you achieve in your partnership with Twitter Ghana to leverage Twitter Spaces for community engagement and development.
Please see below our comments, questions and thoughts for your input ;
*We found your budget to be super summarized and request you include unit costs and quantities.
*In 2021, the user group was awarded a grant of $ 39000. However, only $13000 of the amount was used and looking at your reports , you are yet to meet all your targets and that you also had an underspend. We also note that the current request is a 104% increase from your previous annual grant. Would you share more on the reasons for the underspend and importantly the decision to increase your budget request, taking into account past absorption of past grants?
*We are of the opinion that the target indicated for improving articles and creating items is low especially for an affiliate and also considering the time frame involved in the project. Is there an opportunity for increasing this target and is there a specific reason you wanted to keep the target as proposed?
*As you continue to grow we are keen to understand your plan on leadership development and nurturing robust structures for healthy governance including financial management systems in your organization. We would like to know what you have put in place so far and where you envision the organization heading towards and the plan to get there.
We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please let them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.
Thank you and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps.
On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 17:25, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
Hi VThamaini (WMF),
Thank you to the MEA Regional Committee and VThamaini (WMF) for your feedback and for asking very important questions. And I will attempt to answer them to the best of our abilities below.
*We have broken the budget down into the one that needs to be broken down, and to some of the programs, too we have added clarity on why the budget is so.
*One of the main reasons that accounted for the underspending of our grant largely has to do with our governance structure as a user group and non-profit. While running our activities, we also talked to Affcom about our governance issues and the way forward for our user group. At one point, one of our board members, I User:Owula kpakpo, was working as the program manager. After the deliberations with Affcom, we had to pause some of the things we were doing then and make sure we fixed them before proceeding, which caused us not to spend that much of the grant given us. This current application has a clear roadmap for hiring staff and volunteers, and staffing is one of the major things that have increased our costs. Our staff plan is here: [1] which we have also added to the Fluxx platform. Also next year we have a number of things to do which we couldn't finish, which has also increased our budget significantly.
*We have taken a cue from your question and have increased our metrics to meet the criteria set for us.
*So, in the coming year, we want to empower more of our members; that is why we have set up the community fund where we would be giving grants a maximum of about $500 to run their small little ideas and also grow them in the community. This will be intentional and in line with the proposed by-laws we are formulating with Affcom. We also would be going out and looking out for members willing to take the initiative and empower them more in our various communities. Also, as we work on our by-laws and it gets confirmed by Affcom, there would be something to guide the board and then that would translate into a leadership development plan.
Thank you, and we hope these answers find you well, but please don't hesitate to ask us any further questions.
Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of 56000 USD
editHello Justice,
Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 56,000 USD, with a grant term starting January 2023-December 2023.
Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and recommended funding in the amount $56,000 for the period of January 2023 - December 2023 .
We continue to appreciate your efforts in breathing innovation to your work through projects such as the Nimble project. We would like to learn more about the progress you have made this far as you continue working on it. We also recognize your great care and concern for the community and your ambition for growing partnerships with organizations such as Twitter. We will be keen to learning more about the impact gained and lessons learned from such partnerships.
We recommend that you put in place strategies to ensure transparency and accountability as part of the mini-granting program. We are excited about the All Africa project and invite you to learn from similar projects in the region. In terms of budget, we realized there was a lot of repeated costs attached to several meetings and invite a review towards efficiency and effectiveness.
We recognize there was delayed implementation of previous annual grant programs, influenced by the availability of capacity to implement the projects , knowing that you had other projects such as the Wiki Data in education project amongst others. We invite the user group to review their team structure and leadership development efforts that support not only project implementation but also promote healthy governance. Organization capacity takes effort and time, and this needs to be included as part of your annual plan. We encourage a balance of programmatic work and organizational development work.
We wish you the very best and look forward to learning more about the impact you achieve.
Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 12:09, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
Extension of Our Current Grant To June 30, 2024
editHi @VThamaini (WMF),
I am writing on behalf of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group to request for a grant extension from 31 December 2023 to 30 June 2024 to accommodate for us moving our grant application to the phase 2 round.
We look forward to to a fruitful discussion around this request of ours.
Thank you. Owula kpakpo (talk) 19:12, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
- Thank you for making the request and sharing in brief the motivation for the extension. We approve the request and wish you the very best with the remaining parts of your annual plan. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 13:17, 29 September 2023 (UTC)