Hello Woubzena, I would like to remind you that I am waiting for a response to the email that I sent on April 19.
Thank you, Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 6:52 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello Woubzena, > > I am glad to hear that the WMF Rapid Grants program has been so popular > that its original budget for the year is near exhaustion. I trust that > these funds are being spent wisely, and that community members and > affiliates are achieving valuable outcomes with these funds. > > I have some questions about this group of decisions. > > 1. My understanding is that WMF routinely underspends its quarterly > budgets for the organization as a whole. Also, WMF has ample funding in its > reserves. Because Rapid Grants appears to be a popular program and the > budget of this program appears to be relatively small (am I correct in > saying that the program's total budget for FY1718 is $200,000?), why has > WMF chosen to suspend the program instead of transferring a relatively > small amount of other funds, perhaps $50,000, to support this program > through the remainder of FY1718? > > 2. My understanding is that one of the original goals for Rapid Grants is > to support small projects and events in an efficient and timely manner. I > am puzzled by the decision to raise the floor for Rapid Grants to $500, > which seems to eliminate WMF funding for small projects that might not > happen without Rapid Grants support and/or require volunteers to take money > out of their personal funds to support Wikimedia projects and events. The > WMF Annual Plan for 2018-2019 is currently in a draft phase, and it seems > to me that the plan could be revised to support continuing the Rapid Grants > program with no floor, or perhaps a very low floor like $50, for funding > requests. If the FY1819 budget for Rapid Grants and/or the budget for staff > time for Rapid Grants needs to be increased in order to achieve the goal of > supporting small projects and events in a timely manner with minimal or no > floor, then it seems to me that the modest amount of additional funding to > accomplish this would be reasonable. > > 3. Similarly, if additional staff time is necessary to support continuous > processing of Rapid Grant requests instead of limiting requests to the 1st > through 15th of each month, then my inclination is to support the funding > for additional staff time in FY1819. Does that option sound reasonable from > your perspective? I realize that continuous processing might be less > convenient for WMF, but I think that support for the community and > affiliates should be the highest priority here. > > Thank you, > > Pine > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > > On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 1:30 AM, Woubzena Jifar <wji...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > >> Hello all! >> >> Hope this email finds you well. We are sending this message to select >> community mailing lists and all previous recipients of a Wikimedia >> Foundation Rapid Grant. >> >> We have an announcement regarding the closure of the Rapid Grants [1] >> program between May 14 - June 30, 2018. This year we've received a lot of >> interest in the program and this quarter we've almost doubled the amount of >> grants offered to the community compared to last year's quarter. You can >> look at our spending analysis >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_spending_analysis> >> [2] for >> reference. Unfortunately, this means we've expended our funds for this >> fiscal year. The last date we will be receiving an application for a rapid >> grant before the closure will be *Friday, May 11, 2018*. >> >> We encourage *Wiki Loves Earth* participants to apply for a Rapid Grant >> by May 11, 2018 to receive support for their project. >> >> The grant program will be open again to receive grant requests starting *July >> 1, 2018*. At this point we will be implementing the following changes: >> >> 1. There will be a minimum of *$500 USD* for grant requests >> 2. Applications will only be accepted between the *1st - 15th of each >> month*. This is to help with our current workflow and to allow us to be >> more responsive to your requests. >> >> If you have any questions, please email us at rapidgra...@wikimedia.org. >> >> Best regards, >> Woubzena >> >> >> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid >> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Gran >> ts_spending_analysis >> >> >> Woubzena Jifar >> Program Officer >> Rapid Grants >> Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home> >> User: WJifar (WMF) >> >> _______________________________________________ >> GLAM mailing list >> g...@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/glam >> >> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
