Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia New York City strategic implementation

Support

I am a long-time member of Wikimedia New York City even though I moved away in 2018. Now I live in Virginia, but I still get administrative support for my Wikimedia projects here, as do many people throughout the United States. Developing the administrative structure for WM NYC is bigger than just NYC as this group has consistently participated in national and global programs, collaborating with many wiki community efforts in many places.

This group needs the administrative support it is requesting to achieve the lowest-cost, highest impact Wikimedia community programs which have been the norm for Wikimedia NYC as compared to anything else in the Wikimedia Movement. Books could be written about the accomplishments of this organization. I hope that brief support is enough, as many hundreds of people who used this group's services would sign additional support if needed. Bluerasberry (talk) 23:10, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Questions

Thanks for this well thought-through proposal. I'm excited to see that your organization is in a position to consider these steps. At this point, I have some clarifying questions, and I may have some more questions later on.

• Can you describe a bit more how you arrived as an organization at this strategic plan? Feel free to link to a relevant page if it was described already somewhere.
• The budget spells out two scenarios, a thinking process I can appreciate. Could you give some more insight in the thinking behind these scenarios? What would the effect be on the type of ED that you would expect to be able to attract? Does this affect the scope of the role that you expect the ED to take up?
• When you mention "Develop dashboard", are you talking about a technological development, or more a (re)focus of governance?
• In your proposal, you make a brief mention of a 'hub' for North America. Just to clarify: is this a central part of your plan (e.g. would this Executive Director be expected to play a central role in it), or is this something you're independently pursuing?

Thanks! Effeietsanders (talk) 05:50, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

@Pharos: just a friendly ping to make sure these questions are on the radar. Effeietsanders (talk) 03:28, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Partial answer, from individual member, on strategic plan

Extended content
@Effeietsanders: Pharos has COVID right now and also Wikimedia NYC has been occupied with other things lately. I am a long-term member of Wiki NYC and do not speak for the organization, but I can give an individual response to your question "how you arrived as an organization at this strategic plan". Here are several answers: One answer is that as the documentation says, Wiki NYC hired Barretto Consulting as an expert organization to guide Wiki NYC into developing a strategic plan aligned with the local norms in NYC. This consultancy organized multiple group discussions and individual interviews which sought to get comment from anyone with interest in Wiki NYC strategy. They followed a mainstream professional process, as strategic planning is a skill set. Another answer is that the choice of strategic focus on "Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Diversity" follows Wiki NYC member interest and crowdsourcing history. Wiki NYC has hundreds of documented programs with schools, cultural institutions, and organizations which advocate for underrepresented groups. The focus in this direction should surprise no one because there is no city in the world which has done this many wiki events, and especially almost entirely volunteer-organized. You may be asking about the administrative strategy. In my opinion, the entire Wikimedia Movement has underdeveloped infrastructure for transitioning volunteer organizations like Wiki NYC into organizations which use paid staff, so discussing strategic planning for this is difficult. I am trying to coordinate some strategy for Wikimedia LGBT+ which is similarly transitioning to get some staff. Something that Wiki NYC and Wiki LGBT+ have in common, and which many wiki organizations do not have, are pools of willing individual volunteers and partner organizations who would organize wiki activities if they had administrative support. I do not think there is a brief way to explain administration except to say that Wiki NYC has discussed it; and the consultant helped Wiki NYC sync its plans with what is normal in the NYC management world; and that the situation is complex enough that the global wiki community in general has difficulty documenting this. I will also add that Wiki LGBT+ is taking advice from Wiki NYC on administration. Pharos may speak to other issues. I just wanted to get some response to you till then. Bluerasberry (talk) 21:30, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Thanks for letting us know about the circumstances. Pharos, I'm very sorry to hear you're not well, and I hope you are recovering.

@Bluerasberry: while I think parts of this response provide helpful context, and appreciate your note that you are not speaking on behalf of the organization, please refrain from responding to committee questions unless the applicants have asked you to do so. As a general practice, responses to committee questions should be addressed by the applicants directly, not by other community members. Broader feedback on the talk page from community members is always welcome (such as your statement of support above), and it was helpful to understand that some time was needed to prepare a response due to these circumstances. But it is confusing when there are multiple parties in different organizational roles directly answering committee questions, and it makes the work of the Regional Committee more challenging if responses are not consistent or somewhat different. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:17, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Collapsed it. It is against wiki custom for me to delete it, but for anyone here - I wish that I could retract it. Bluerasberry (talk) 16:51, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Thanks for this change, and I think a collapse is a fair approach in this case. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:58, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Answer to Effeietsanders questions

@Effeietsanders and Bluerasberry: Thanks for your questions, and for the initial responses. Our 3-year Strategic Plan is itself the product of three years of work, from 2020 when we secured WMF funding and selected Barretto Consulting as our professional consultants, 2021 when we launched the process with a committee of 5 board members, and 2022 when we concluded it, published the result, and designated Rajene as our board's ongoing Chief Strategy Officer. "Develop dashboard" refers not to a technological development, but to the refinement of metrics, which we can more fully address in the Regional Committee feedback below.

In the Abbreviated Budget scenario, we would have some difficulty in recruiting a high quality candidate for Executive Director, for the practical reasons that it is expensive to live in New York City and most people want/need a full time job, and board members would have to pick up some of the remaining admin work that would be better focused on chapter wiki activity. In the Full Budget scenario, as well as the likely improvement in candidate quality as we can draw from a larger more diverse pool of applicants, we will have the particular capacity to assign some of the ED's additional hours to supporting the North American Hub and other regional affiliates.--Pharos (talk) 15:04, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Regional Committee feedback and questions

Hello Pharos and Wikimedia NYC team, and thanks for your proposal supporting your affiliate activities and projects. The US/Canada Regional Committee has initially reviewed the proposal, and wanted to offer some initial feedback and questions for your review.

• The committee is grateful to see your organization has interest in building stability in your organization as well as supporting growth in certain areas, such as in your active partnerships. These are good priorities to focus attention on.

• Please review the earlier comments from committee member Effeietsanders above, as this feedback coincides with general feedback from the committee as well.

• Elaborating on one of those earlier points, the committee suggested adding a learning question and 1-2 additional metrics that more directly evaluate the work that the Executive Director will do. This is because their expected impact to WMNYC is significant across several areas, including communications, membership retention, partnerships, and various program improvements. For example, one of the initiatives in the proposal is to revitalize your members and volunteers, and there are several activities associated with this this work (e.g. Develop and launch a membership structure). However, evaluation of this work to revitalize members is not clearly indicated in your learning questions or metrics.

• The committee agreed it would be beneficial for us to meet with you to discuss some topics related to the proposal. In particular, the committee wanted to understand more about your staffing plan, the role of WMNYC in terms of a Regional Hub for North America, and proposal for multiyear funding. Chris will be reaching out soon via e-mail to schedule a meeting between your team and some members of the Regional Committee.

• WMNYC has not received general operating support from the Wikimedia Foundation since 2020 due to a lapse in its nonprofit status, which has since been restored. What practices has WMNYC already implemented that will help your organization maintain its nonprofit status in the future? Thinking ahead, are there other internal changes or investments that would help with reporting or other needs around maintaining your nonprofit status?

In terms of the schedule for our review process, please complete your review and responses to committee feedback by May 8th. After this time, the Regional Committee will begin a final review of the proposal to make a formal decision. Thanks again for your work on the proposal and supporting our review.

On behalf of the Regional Committee, -Matthewvetter (talk) 20:23, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, I think we addressed most of these topics in our call last week. I will add tonight the additional metrics, as we discussed during our meeting. Pharos (talk) 19:12, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

Additional metrics

These are the metrics we previously specified:

• Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability: 20
• Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors: 100
• Number of activities developed: 40
• Number of organizers: 30

These are our additional metrics, reflecting more directly the administrative work of the Executive Director:

• Number of chapter members: 100
• Number of signed strategic partnership agreements: 10

And this is our bonus metric in the Full Budget scenario, reflecting the more regional capacity of the Executive Director:

• Number of North American affiliates and informal groups supported: 10

Pharos (talk) 00:22, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Excellent! Thank you @Pharos for this update, which certainly helps concretize the goals of/for the ED. ~ Matthewvetter (talk) 17:09, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 309,000 USD

@Pharos: Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 309,000 USD for a two-year period with a grant term starting 1 July 2023 and ending 30 June 2025. This amount reflects a partial funding decision, and represents an approximate average between primary and reduced budgets submitted in the proposal. The award is expected to be disbursed in the following manner:

• Amount for Year 1 (starting 1 July 2023): 132,000 USD
• Amount for Year 2 (starting 1 July 2024): 177,000 USD

The Regional Committee supported the proposal from Wikimedia New York City. We are happy to see that previous issues related to the lapse in the organization’s nonprofit status have been resolved. We understand that WMNYC has hired an accounting firm to handle reporting and filing work required to maintain your status, and the committee supports this investment in your organization’s capacity. If your chapter would need support to help maintain your nonprofit status in the future, please reach out to let us know.

The committee expressed several areas of strength in your proposal, including:

• robust community feedback on the proposal and general outreach practices,
• sensible connections between your strategic plan, proposed activities, and your evaluation plan, and
• good planning for the organization’s future sustainability, such as volunteer development, planning for board transitions, and general recruitment efforts.

The committee also supports WMNYC’s plan to hire an ED this year, and agree the role will benefit your organization’s programmatic and operational growth. Please be sure to prioritize this work, so that these benefits can be achieved early on during this funding period. The committee also recommends that WMNYC search for an ED with some experience in seeking other revenue sources (fundraising, grants, major donors). This will be important because the Regional Committee is not certain about the extent to which we can support substantial financial growth for affiliates in the future through the General Support Fund.

The committee also appreciates that Wikimedia NYC is willing to incorporate additional metrics to evaluate the work of the ED in terms of chapter members, and partnership agreements.

While the Regional Committee did support mulityear funding, the committee did not support full funding as requested. The primary reason for this was due to limitations on the flexibility of our overall budget this round. We understand that because the full funding could not be provided, it may not be possible to support regional affiliates in the next year to the extent as proposed. If it is still possible to report on your support for regional affiliates, we would be interested in learning what kinds of support WMNYC can be provide during this multiyear period.

Finally, concerning your chapter’s involvement with the proposed Regional Hub for North America, the committee is glad to hear that your chapter will be working together with DC in exploring possibilities for this new movement structure. Importantly, if Wikimedia NYC is considering initiatives or projects related to this Regional Hub that are independent from Wikimedia DC’s work, please contact your program officer before starting this work.

One important change in the General Support Fund is that a written midpoint report is no longer required. We will continue to have a midpoint conversation to meet and generally reflect on your progress, needs, and updates on your ongoing and future movement work.

In terms of next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement.
2. If you want to discuss the funding decision or have questions during the funding period, you are welcome to contact your regional program officer.
3. Please review the FAQ for multiyear funding. Your program officer will reach out about meeting a few months before the start of your second year to confirm your budget and any changes in your plans.

Thanks again for your hard work preparing the proposal and supporting our review process for the General Support Fund. We look forward to your work this year!

On behalf of the Regional Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 06:01, 29 May 2023 (UTC)