User:KOKUYO/Wikimedia Taiwan/Grants

GRANTS

Do you have an idea for a project? Is there a rare book you need for your Wikipedia article research? A location that you need to get to for a vital piece of information, or an organisation you want to work with? An essential piece of equipment that will help your Wikimedia activities? We might be able to help.

Wikimedia Taiwan's volunteer grants support volunteers to complete activities which benefit our strategic goals. We provide small amount of funding for individuals or teams to work on:

• Open knowledge creation (e.g. starting or editing Wikimedia projects)
• Build volunteer community or work with other Open organisations
• Encourage institutions to put information or images online under an open licence.
• Raise awareness of open knowledge
• Technological innovations

You need to be a member of Wikimedia Taiwan to apply for a project grant and scholarship - but if you're not one already, then it's easy to join! We've made some examples of past projects available to give you some ideas.

Please contact us if you want to learn more or talk through an idea with us, or you can submit your application here!

What are project grants for?

Wikimedia Taiwan volunteer Project grants are available to members for sums between NTD200 and NTD3,000. These are ideal for things ranging from a train ticket to help with a Wikimedia related research project, photocopying costs, or an innovative idea you have for improving engagement or access for one of the Wikimedia projects.

Below are some ideas for how you might use a small project grant. This list is not intended to be complete, so if you don't see what you're thinking about here don't let that stop you from putting in an application.

• Supporting Wikimedia-related events: Venue hire for an appropriate venue, where necessary, Internet access costs, tea/coffee, biscuits, sandwiches.

Events should be widely publicised to encourage participation. Wikimedia Taiwan is happy to help publicise events, though there is much you can do to publicise the event yourself.

• Travel funds: We can subsidise travel to conferences, events, museums, archives, libraries, etc. if it's related to Wikimedia outreach, carrying out research for an article, taking photographs which will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons of specific objects, and to investigate partnership possibilities (e.g. between Wikimedia and museums).

The project grant could cover train fares, bus tickets, private car journeys at HMRC rates or lower (45/p mile for the first 150 miles, 25p/mile thereafter), ferry journeys, etc. It may also cover low-cost accommodation and registration fees. It will not, however, cover taxis or travelling in first class.

• Books and other printed sources: Making information in a book available in Wikipedia articles with citations, or digitizing and making the books which are out of copyright available on Wikisource and/or Wikimedia Commons.

Please check whether the book is available from your local libraries. If a copy isn't available locally, some libraries are prepared to arrange inter-library loans.

Wikimedia Taiwan will retain ownership of the books, and you will need to keep them safe to pass on in future.

• Equipment: Microphones for recording audio Wikipedia / Wikinews / etc. articles, Scanners for scanning in books and other documents, cameras for intensive work photographing collections / locations, video recorders for recording events and locations

Applications should also consider insurance and extended warranties to ensure longer useful lifetimes for the objects. Wikimedia Taiwan will retain ownership of the equipment.

What are scholarships for?

Wikimedia Taiwan regularly offers specific scholarships to enable the attendance of international conferences and meetings. These cover the costs of traveling, accommodation, subsistence and registration fees. We offer them in a competitive application process whereby anyone can apply for the scholarships, which will then be judged by an ad-hoc small panel of Wikimedia Taiwan volunteers, board members and staff. We welcome suggestions of additional conferences and meetings that we could offer scholarships for, on the talk page.

Does this idea require more than just equipment or expenses?

As an established non-profit organization in the cultural and education sector, we have good contacts and a track record of building relationships and working in partnership with institutions and applying for external funding to support projects. Does your project idea have any natural partnership institutions? Could it achieve more, reach more people and have greater impact with more funding and staff support? If so, let us know and we could connect this with existing contacts or help start new partnerships.

If your idea relates to delivering part of an existing large programme such as GLAM or Outreach it may be best to email the budget holder directly to check if your idea can be included within an existing budget. For complex projects please consider getting in touch with Wikimedia Taiwan to build the project proposal up, and collaborate on seeking external funding for it.

What is the Process?

Please submit your application via the form here. The form will tell you what information we need from you. Please also email info@wikimedia.tw to let staff know you have submitted an application.

You should only have one application in progress at any one time (although there is no limit to how many applications you can put in over time). If you have not had a project grant before, then you need to go through the complete process before applying for another. Please contact us with any questions.

• Decision making: Applications will be reviewed by the Evaluation Panel. Wherever possible this will be done transparently on the applications page. If clarification of the application is needed, this will be done interactively on the email.

1. If application comes in, programme team member gets in touch with the volunteer to discuss. They help fill in the application further, get more details, discuss any possible scaling up i.e. linking it to another project or making it broader.
2. Programme team together decides whether it's a straightforward grant application that can be approved internally or not.
   1. Option A - If straightforward and the team decides it should go ahead and funds are approved.
   2. Option B - If more complex the application gets sent to the evaluation panel for comments and questions.
3. Volunteer will be updated on the progress of the application.
4. Project page is set up (if not done already).
5. Option B - recommendations from the evaluation panel are gathered and programme team decides if the grant goes forward.
6. Metrics are decided and agreed with the volunteer by person who was leading the initial discussions.
7. Deadlines for the volunteer are confirmed/agreed (start and end, check up point, deadline for the report).
8. Administration and Programme Assistant supports the practicalities of getting the project going (e.g. buying books).

• Using the grant: Once a grant is approved, you can either ask Wikimedia Taiwan to purchase the approved items for you, which can then be posted to you, or you can purchase the approved items yourself and use our expenses form to claim the money back. Administration and Programme Assistant will checks in on progress. If more complex project, evaluation panel may be involved to provide comments on progress.

• Reporting: Once you've achieved the aims of the project grant, then you should make a wrap up, report and comms (blog, learning patterns) on the outcome(s) and disseminate any reports within Wikimedia Taiwan staff team and whole community. The report only needs to be a few sentences long and should provide evidence of the benefits such as a link showing article improvements or whether there were any useful strategic contacts with organisations/individuals. If your project grant activity lasts over a year, then you should report yearly on the progress that has been made.

What is Evaluation Panel?

Wikimedia Taiwan's Evaluation Panel's role is to scrutinise all incoming grant requests, and also other project proposals, and to then to advise the Programmes Team on whether or not they should be accepted. They are to evaluate the impact of proposed projects against our strategic goals, in the light of the resources available to us, and to advise the Programmes Team on which projects should be adopted or supported by the charity.

Small projects and simple grant applications would sometimes be dealt with quickly via a 'fast track' process within the staff team, but with larger projects such as proposed Wikimedians in Residence would always be considered more formally by the whole group. The current panel members are:

Wikimedia Taiwan is a non-profit organization that promotes free knowledge and the Wikimedia projects, Wikipedia being the best known of them. We were founded in 2007 and have been working all these years to improve accessibility, use and participation in Wikipedia and its sister projects, both socially and institutionally.

Office Address A203, 2F-1., No. 293, Sec. 1, Fuxing S. Rd., Daan District, Taipei, Taiwan Telephone / Email +886-2-27846401 / info@wikimedia.tw