Learning patterns/Engaging volunteers with the grants process

A learning pattern forproject management

Learning Pattern Library

Engaging volunteers with the grants process

problemMaking the process of applying for grants more appealing and attractive.

solutionAllowing for a grants process to capture information about scalable projects without being overwhelming

creator• Stuart Prior (WMUK)

created on15:52, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

We found that a lot of our community had some reservations about our grant application process. They found it was too complicated and specific and hard to engage with, especially for non-Wikipedians whose markup skills were not strong. Additionally, it seemed too complex for someone applying for a very simple book grant for example.

What is the solution?

We did two things. We changed the language of the page quite a bit, making sure to emphasise that we want applicants to contact us and that the process was a conversation as opposed to just an administrative task. This allows us to expand on ideas and allows applicants to ask questions. Additionally we specified a range of activities one could apply a grant to, making it clear that we were open to small and large ideas.

The other was that we made the application a two stage one, with the second stage optional. The first stage is very simple and collects very basic information, but captures enough to assess any potential for scaling up a simple grant to a more ambitious project. The second stage is more detailed, and we would go through this with an applicant to help develop an idea.

See also