Wikimedia Conference 2013/Schedule/Friday/Small grants programs

(click the person logo on the top right to identify yourself, if you like)

People attending

Asaf (WMF)
Dorit (WMIL)
Tomasz (WMPL)
Pierre-Selim (WMFR)
Pranav (WMIN)
Jessie (WMF)
Ivan (WMMX)
Kirill (WMUS-DC)
Dumisane (WMZA)
Michal (Wikimedia Slovakia)
Dennis (WMTW)
Ilario (WMCH)
Andrea (WMIT)
Mile (WMRS)
Ganesh (WMNepal)
Jan (WMSE)
Susanna (WMAM)
antanana (WMUA)
?
Balasz (WMHU)
Delphine (WMDE)
Salvador (WMMX)
Miguel (WMES)
Illia (WMUA)

The moderator identifies the points to be discussed and most interesting for attendees.

Small groups are created to works in these points. The paper with these points are rotate within the groups and the groups may agree or cancel or add comments using a different color marker.

Issues of people who apply
Metrics in assigning and evaluating
How to attract applications
Good ptractices, suggestions, useful stories

Issues of people who apply

Need some suggestions for types of projects
Think big, start small (but don't be shy <- "Shyness" is an issue!!
Allow time for iterations/feedback
Policies should be developed
Guidelines have to be clear and clearly understood -> ask questions
Timeline for processing grant application should be clear
Separate what can be separated -> multiple grant applications for different projects
Avoiding community politics prevents people from applying
Fear of bureaucracy (real or imaginary)
Preconceived ideas
Visibility of grant/funding opportunities
Inappropriate requests (not corresponding with Wiki goals)

Metrics in assigning and evaluating

Some projects have obvious metrics, some don't -> be sure to explain what is the success of projects
Number & quality metrics & timeline
Review of grant after the project is finished and review of metrics (good enough) = measure of success
Previous success can be a good starting point to define metrics and expectations
Don't expect too much from volunteers especially with quality metrics. Give support for those but they need to be understood and delivered
Grant projects should have simple and attainable goals
Value collaboration with external organizations
Outreach metrics: Document the grant
Quantifiable measures of success should be precise and realistic
Need longer term follow-up
Multiple measures (eg. xy article and size of articles)
Need to have measures around outputs, outcome and impact!

How to attract applications

Face-to-face contact
Site notice for logged-in users locally and globally to community members (village pump)
Proactive offers
E-mail list
Advertise on the organization's communication network
Other media (social media, others?)
Have a group of people to help identify interesting people/projects
Easy form of application, make the application process simple
History of answers and delays
Advice/help for application
Keeping privacy for the public part of the request
Success stories and unsuccess stories of funded grants
Contact past unsuccessful applicants and help them to modify
Evaluate process -> adapt, change, good practices
Have a facilitator/reference person within the grant-giving body
Provide "implementation support"

Good practices, suggestions, useful stories

Follow-up with projects during and/or after the project
Make sure proposals fully plan out the project
Budget (itemized)
Goals should be SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time sensitive)
Measures of success
Group of people and leader
Party receiving funds
Timeline
Have criteria for types of things to be funded
Focus on impact: Why is this an important project and how do we know it worked?
Impact means: improving content of Wikimedia projects, attracting more people to contribute, increasing our reach (f.ex. mobile access)
Transparency of the process: Conflict of Interest policy
Regular reports are very important -> continuous reporting (even if just for the applicant)
Learning
Non-financial support
Know when a project has failed or has ended
Global evaluation on the process to make it evolve (see grants program retrospective of WMF on Meta)

Things written on the flipboard

Grant Requests Q&A

Is Wiki Loves Monuments a good idea for a grant?

Yes, WLM is a good idea, it is a common and known project and it is easy to monitorate developing and steps

Which are the most interesting request you seen?

800 $ grant for photo contest on Tamil Wikipedia: great result; grant to Wikimedia Australia for the first GLAM conference: the GLAM project started there!

Can I hire a project manager?

Yes, you can hire a part time employee or a short term contractor

Can an office be funded by a grant?

Office and staff usually are FDC stuff

Other Things

What excited the commitee?

software to improve wiki project use (i.e. Wikipedia adventure game)
discussions into the commitee are profitable because timelines help to keep all ideas and talks closer

some pojects can be replicated in many languages: read former applications!
ask yourself which are he resources you really need. Money are noth everything and can even cause you some troubles! (Budget is not the goal!)
the committee wants to be both proactive and listener
the aim is to cover expenses (time, money) which cannot be covered by volunteers
the results for Wikimediamovement needs to be tangible (best. driving more volunteership)

Report

follow instructions, you can ask questions about it, read past report, send it on time, prepare it during or right after a project (fresh memory

Project manager, staff, office

must be for the project, must be justified (will it be worth it?), tied to the goal

Paid job

not for contributing directly to wikis, can be paid for organizaton, managing etc (off wiki stuff); one paid position should enable more voluntary. Paid position examples: coordinator for logistics, suppliers, lodging, etc.
some kinds of work can (should) be outsourced to non-wikimedians, but it's better to use wikimedians
even if the job itself is good injecting money in a community could be bad
complex projects should value balance between results and workload on volunteers

how do you define impact?

ongoing conversation! Quantifiable and also qualitative ask wmf/community for help with this when writing grants and reports