Broadly agreeing with Gergő — our central challenge in this arena is that the Foundation's total investment in things outside of staffing its own growing org has historically been quite small — even though we recognize that WP itself needed well under $1M to take off, and that we need a wide range of innovative ideas - and recognition for the most creative community efforts - to have a chance of repeating that in other arenas. The amount we invest in new outside projects and regional affiliates was modest a decade ago, and since then has grown more slowly the internal budget.
So I was glad to see these funds earmarked last year, and the results seem healthy; at the same time the Foundation seems to be increasing community-overseen grantmaking, which is essential. The two are not mutually exclusive. S. 🌍🌏🌎🌑 On Sat., Sep. 11, 2021, 3:14 p.m. Gergő Tisza, <[email protected]> wrote: > One can argue about whether it was a good idea to give 15% of the > Foundation's annual grant budget to largely-unrelated charities as a snap > reaction to a wave of US political protests. But assuming it was - this > happened in the middle of the pandemic, with the WMF operating on extremely > restricted resources (with many staff working half-time, see [1]), and was > trying to react to an unexpected event quickly, so I doubt it could have > been done in a significantly more transparent or participatory manner. And > the community was also stretched pretty thin, there were constant > complaints of being consulted about too many things at the same time, with > the movement strategy discussions, board election discussions, code of > conduct discussions, branding discussions etc. going on, while people's > personal lives were in disarray due to the lockdowns and other > virus-related disruptions; some consultations had to be delayed, even the > board elections had to be delayed. So I doubt the community would have had > the capacity to practice oversight, had it been invited to. > > That's not to say those we shouldn't ask for more transparency and > participation *going forward*, as those circumstances are now largely > behind us (at least in the Global North; not sure about community capacity > in the countries which would be the most logical beneficiaries of an equity > fund). But we should acknowledge the severe constraints the WMF was under a > year ago. > > (disclaimer: I work at the WMF, in a non-grantmaking-related position. All > of the above is my personal opinion as a long-time community member.) > > [1]: > https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/wikimedia-coronavirus-response-people-first-8bd99ea6214b > > On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 10:21 PM Yair Rand <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I haven't yet had time to look over the grantee organizations, and the >> general issue of funding non-Wikimedia efforts has been fairly well-covered >> by statements from all four recently-elected trustees, so I'm just going to >> take a moment to bring up some points about the specific process used here: >> * This was not participatory. Neither the community nor any >> community-elected group were invited to look these over even to give >> advance feedback, much less make a decision. >> * This was not transparent. Even after the fact, no notes were given on >> what the WMF used to judge the options; no metrics, no pros-and-cons >> analysis of each, no general review. Nor was a list of rejected applicants >> made public, as far as I can see. >> * COI concerns: Given the lack of any mentioned standards about this (I >> haven't seen anything resembling the FDC's COI rules, and the WMF's general >> COI policy seems quite lacking for something like this), and given the >> problematic history this Fund in particular has in this area, I must ask: >> Did any staff, trustees, or committee members involved in this process have >> any personal associations to any of the grantee organizations, and if so, >> were they (/would they have been) required to recuse themselves from the >> relevant decisions? >> * The Committee appears to have committed to sharing "terms of each grant >> and updates on their progress" on Meta, per the FAQ. I don't see any links >> to the grant terms. Should we still expect these things? >> >> (A few excerpts from answers given by the recently elected, at the Q&A on >> the topic of funding non-Wikimedia efforts in general: >> "I don’t think WF has any money to spare for any other causes >> irrespective of their worth. There’s an NGO or 100 for any cause, and WF >> cause is exclusively Wikimedia movement support." - Victoria >> "At this time, I'd be reluctant to start funding projects entirely >> unrelated to Wikimedia projects." - Pundit >> "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to support and empower the >> communities of the Wikimedia projects and the projects themselves. Among >> the many worthy goals that one can set, we choose to pursue this one. [...] >> The Wikimedia Foundation looks relatively big and well-resourced (in terms >> of money, people, etc.), and it is tempting to use some of them for other >> purposes. However, the truth is that the Wikimedia Foundation is not so >> big, and the resources are very limited. If we scatter them in too many >> different places, we will end up achieving nothing - and the Wikimedia >> projects will be the first to pay the price." - Laurentius >> I'm not going to try to clip Rosiestep's answer because I feel like a >> clipped version would risk being misrepresentative of her position. I >> recommend reading the full versions of all four (quite interesting and >> nuanced) answers at >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Candidates/CandidateQ%26A/Question11 >> ) >> >> (There are, of course, more fundamental problems with the Fund, but let's >> leave that for another time.) >> >> Thank you. >> >> -- Yair Rand >> >> בתאריך יום ד׳, 8 בספט׳ 2021 ב-10:09 מאת Lisa Gruwell < >> [email protected]>: >> >>> Hi everyone, >>> >>> We are excited to share that we have chosen the first round of grantees >>> for the Knowledge Equity Fund pilot. The Equity Fund Committee selected six >>> grantees across the Middle East, Africa, and North and South America who >>> focus on issues of access, education and equity within the regions they >>> support. You can read an overview of the six grantees and their work on >>> Diff[1]. We’ve also added information about the grantees and what’s next >>> for this pilot program to our Meta page[2]. >>> >>> We are happy to welcome these new grantees, and look forward to their >>> work as movement partners to support the free knowledge ecosystem. Let us >>> know if you have questions on the Talk Page[3]. >>> >>> Thank you, >>> >>> Lisa Gruwell and the Equity Fund Committee >>> >>> [1] >>> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/08/welcome-to-the-first-grantees-of-the-knowledge-equity-fund/ >>> >>> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund >>> [3] >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Knowledge_Equity_Fund&action=edit&redlink=1 >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Lisa Seitz Gruwell >>> >>> Chief Advancement Officer >>> >>> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/IQOLEVBEAE65IM6TSK3MLYRTMFUSANZE/ >>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/PPRDEGTIDYUOPF32U6SWGROIHETEEDJQ/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/J7M2Q77E56P72LEP46SVWXADOWGDVBVB/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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