Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014 round1/Wikimedia Argentina/Staff proposal assessment

Wikimedia Argentina received a funds allocation in the amount of US$175,000 in 2013-2014 Round 1. This funds allocation was recommended by the Funds Dissemination Committee on 15 November 2013 and approved by the WMF Board of Trustees on 31 December 2013.

Applicants should read this document to familiarise themselves with the assessment criteria; however, it should be edited only by FDC-related staff. The staff will use the document to set out their objective assessment of each funding request from eligible entities – specifically, to determine the extent to which plans align with the mission goals of the Wikimedia movement, and the extent to which the entity is well-placed to execute those plans effectively. The staff will base this report on proposals from entities and input from the community and other stakeholders (including, where required, deeper due-diligence on the entity's previous track record within the Wikimedia movement). The staff will provide completed reports to the FDC, which will then make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees on funding allocations. See a note from FDC staff explaining the process is more detail here: FDC portal/Note on staff proposal assessments 2013-14 Round 1.

Methodology behind the 2013-2014 Round 1 FDC staff assessments

The FDC staff assessments provide a snapshot of the staff review of Annual Plan Grant (FDC) proposals, and identify both strengths and concerns with the work proposed.

We did this through both portfolio analysis - looking across proposals and calibrating across different organizations - as well as assessing the context of each individual organization and its proposal. We did our best to be as nuanced as possible. For example, we understand that an organization that is beginning to formalize structures and bring on staff may have far fewer resources for learning and evaluation processes than an organization with a longer history and full-time staff. At the same time, a larger organization is also likely to have complex program structures and processes, that reflect in its use of metrics and measures.
We significantly increased the inputs to the staff assessment process from last year. They include:
- The proposals themselves, with the attached documents (strategic plans, annual plans, detailed budgets etc)
- Past and current reports (FDC quarterly progress reports, grant reports etc)
- A portfolio view of financials across proposals: FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Financial_overview.
- Internal financial, evaluation and compliance inputs from the WMF Finance, Programs, Legal and Grantmaking teams.
We used a few key principles for the assessment, across all proposals. These are not new, and are detailed in the narrative and scoring sections of the assessment. They include:
- Impact on Wikimedia projects and the global movement. We looked for the rationale behind the work organizations do, aligning them to the Wikimedia strategic priorities and goals. We looked particularly for direct and indirect impact of this work on Wikimedia projects; for example, growth in contributors and content donation. Most importantly, we looked at whether the funds requested were justified in the context of current and potential impact of the proposed work.
- Organizational strategy, leadership and governance. We looked for evidence that an organization had a good understanding of its own context, and the needs, opportunities and challenges of the communities it seeks to serve or partner with. We looked for board, staff and volunteer leadership that is committed, effective and engaged with these communities and practising movement values of openness and transparency.
- Rates of growth and financial management. In this round, only two returning applicants asked for funds within the recommended maximum growth rate in movement resources (annual plan grants/FDC allocations) of 20%, which is itself a significant rate in many contexts. In addition, many organizations are underspending on previous grant allocations and/or have extensive reserves, which makes overall growth rates even higher. We appreciated organizations that were not spending for spending’s sake, and being careful and prudent about resources; we hope this continues. However, significant underspends (particularly on programs) across a number of organizations flag the challenges of budgeting, planning and program design. It may be that the most effective and impactful programs do not always need significant resources. We specifically looked at the nature of long-time underspends in the context of organizations with a history of overbudgetting and underspending.
- Program design, learning and evaluation. We recognize that the Wikimedia movement at large is still developing a more nuanced understanding of how we measure our impact, as volunteers and as organizations. We looked at each organization’s self-defined metrics and measures for success, both qualitative and quantitative. We searched for indicators that went beyond process (or outputs) and looked at intended outcomes and specific goals or targets. We recognized, however, that many organizations are in the process of establishing baselines for their work, and incorporating learning into program design and re-design. We appreciated organizations that were open about these challenges and were honest and reflective about their own capacities and systems.

Note: We shared our nearly final draft assessments with all FDC applicants a day ahead of publishing them, so that organizations had some lead time for sharing these with their Board and staff. We then took all responses into consideration where possible, making factual changes and clarifying our statements where necessary. We encouraged organizations to note all substantive comments and concerns on the Discussion pages of these assessments.

Proposal overview

Name of eligible entity	Wikimedia Argentina
Summary staff assessment [substantial concerns: none/some/many]	Some concerns
Total amount proposed to the FDC for the upcoming year annual plan in currency requested	196,451.36 USD
Estimate of total amount proposed to the FDC for the upcoming year annual plan in US dollars	196,451.36 USD
Exchange rate used to calculate estimate in US dollars and date accessed (mm/dd/yy)	1.00000 US dollar to 1.00000 US dollar
Date of proposal submission	1 October 2013
Adherence to proposal process [yes/no]	Yes
Adherence to legal, regulatory, and policy regulations [yes/no]	Yes
Adherence to US anti-terrorism laws [yes/no]	Yes

Financial summary

A detailed summary of the financial information from all proposals is here: financial overview document. Movement resources are defined as what the entity received through FDC allocations or grants or what the entity retained via payment processing in the prior funding cycle.

	Projected 2013	Proposed 2014	Proposed change (as a +/− %)
Movement resources*	146,854 USD	196,451.36 USD	34%
Overall budget	145,567 USD	196,951 USD	35%
Number of staff	1.5	3.5	133%

Annual plan

Overview of staff assessment

Strengths

What are the top strengths of the plan?

Well-positioned for impact on a global scale
Structured approach to regional collaboration
Metrics clearly aligned with outcomes on Wikimedia projects

Concerns

What are the top concerns with the plan?

High spending on administration and overhead, including increase in administrative staff
Rapid growth beyond the guardrails
Difficulty in tracking impact of some of its programs

Strategic alignment

To what extent does the plan address the strategic goals and priorities of the movement?

WMAR expresses clear alignment between its programs and the strategic priorities and presents clear rationale for this alignment.
Many programs are strongly aligned with the strategic priority Quality. The Contests program is strongly aligned with several movement priorities, including Participation, Quality and Reach.
WMAR’s areas of online focus include Spanish language projects and Commons, which are high potential areas for global impact.
WMAR’s programs focus on diversity, with some innovation: regional collaboration and working with indigenous language communities and women, as well as Wikisource.
WMAR does not have a strategic plan, but is in the process of developing one.

Context of the entity and community

To what extent does the context of the entity (e.g., community participation, fundraising context, sociopolitical environment) enable or inhibit the entity's potential for impact? To what extent does the entity's experience enable or inhibit the entity's potential for impact?

WMAR is well-positioned for impact on Spanish language projects, globally and within Latin America. If successful, WMAR’s programs have good potential to achieve impact on a global scale.
WMAR has moved from being well-positioned for regional impact to taking a structured and intentional approach to regional collaboration with its support of Iberocoop.
WMAR has a history of implementing good programs. It also has a recent history of high spending on administration as it has institutionalised.
WMAR works openly and transparently and shares its work and lessons learned with its local community and the international community, including WMF.

Feasibility and risks for the annual plan

How feasible is the annual plan? Specifically:

To what extent are the budget, staffing, availability of volunteers, and other resources realistic for achieving the anticipated outcomes?
Are the timelines realistic for the proposed initiatives and associated activities?
Are there acknowledged and/or unacknowledged risks in the proposal?

WMAR is proposing a very rapid growth in budget, movement resources and staff. It is proposing a 34% growth in its budget and a corresponding movement resources growth rate of 34%, which is above the maximum increase of 20% recommended in the guardrails.

Feasibility

WMAR has a good track record with respect to previous grants, including responsible reporting and budgeting (see, their 2012 annual grant). It is notable that it is on track for spending on its current FDC grant (see, Table 3 for information on projected spending).
WMAT has stable, committed and effective leadership, including staff and board, that enable the success of its plan. It is transitioning from a working board to a governance board as its staff continues to grow.
A more structured education strategy is being planned based on past work and WMAR plans to develop a strategic plan.

Risks

WMAR is proposing an increase staff from 1.5 current staff to 3.5 proposed staff, including a full-time administrative assistant. It may be a challenge to bring on board and manage two new staff while maintaining a focus on programs.
WMAR has acknowledged challenges tracking the impact of some of its activities in the past, such as presentations and outreach with printed materials.
WMAR has acknowledged that it relies on the FDC for most of its resources and that developing sources of external funding will be challenging.

Summary of expert opinions and/or community commentary

Summary of the opinions of subject-matter experts on the plan

None requested.

Summary of community commentary on the plan

For detailed comments from the community, the FDC and FDC staff, as well as responses from the organizations themselves, please visit the proposal form discussion page. The summary offers a brief overview of the questions or comments from community members, and is not an endorsement of the views expressed on the proposal form discussion page.
One member of the community expressed a desire for more focus on technology and engineering.
Two community members asked clarification questions about the expenditure rates and the executive director position.

Scores, comments and feedback

Scores provide only a preliminary assessment for consideration by the FDC. The rubric for scoring is below.

Dimensions	Criteria	Score (1–5)	Comments and feedback
Potential for impact against strategic priorities	(A) The plan addresses the Wikimedia movement strategic priorities of the Wikimedia movement (infrastructure, participation, quality, reach, and innovation)	4.50	Programs in this plan address strategic priorities, including Quality. The rationale for this alignment is clear and strong in most cases.
	(B) TThe initiatives in the plan have the potential to lead to movement strategic priorities, if executed well	4.00	WMAR's work has potential to impact Spanish language projects and in a high priority region. WMAR plays an active role as a regional leader and pursues this role in an intentional and structured way. Programs in the proposal are well-aligned with the strategic priorities.
	(C) The initiatives in the plan have the potential to lead to significant impact, given context and amount of funds proposed	3.50	Initiatives could have impact in the local community and the broader movement, but the rate of growth is too high.
Ability to execute	(D) The entity has the resources, skills, and capacity (staff, volunteer, non-staff) for the plan to succeed	4.00	WMAR has relevant staff and volunteer capacity, including strong commitment from board and staff.
	(E) The entity has a record of success in similar initiatives	4.00	WMAR is building on past successes with similar initiatives rather than experimenting with new programs, learning from past successes and challenges.
	(F) The entity's leadership is effective, committed, and relatively stable	3.50	Current and past leaders are committed and have a plan to develop a strategic plan in the coming year; however, WMAR is still transitioning from an executive board to a governance board. This poses some challenges.
Efficient use of funds	(G) The funding requested is reasonable given the proposed initiatives	3.00	Budget is generally consistent with the initiatives. However, the budget may be overly focused on administration rather than programs, and there are concerns about whether this is sustainable.
Efficient use of funds	(H) The entity has a record of using funds efficiently and staying on budget	4.00	WMAR has a good record of budgetary management; spending is on target with respect to its current funds allocation.
Quality of proposed measures of success	(I) Clear indicators of success are outlined in the plan	3.50	Indicators address impact on Wikimedia projects and have clear outcomes, but are not timebound and lack targets.
	(J) A plan is in place to track the proposed metrics	3.50	Provides list of indicators to be tracked, and notes new Education staff member will track and report metrics.
	(K) The entity has a feasible plan in place to track the proposed metrics	3.00	Some overall capacity to track metrics, but reporting metrics in past reports has not been strong.
Potential to add knowledge and/or other benefits to the movement	(L) The initiatives in the plan, if successful, could be helpful and/or productively adapted elsewhere in the movement	4.00	WMAR is pursuing some innovative programs and approaches such as a regional lens for its work and its focus on indigenous language communities and women.
	(M) The entity is ready to share with the movement the lessons learned from the initiatives	4.50	WMAR is active within the movement and reports regularly in Spanish and English. WMAR learns and shares with other movement groups and is considered a leader in its region and within the Iberocoop community.

Scoring rubric

Dimensions	Evaluation criteria	1 = Weak or no alignment with criterion	3 = Moderate alignment with criterion	5 = Strong alignment with criterion
Potential for impact against strategic priorities	(A) The plan addresses the Wikimedia movement strategic priorities	The plan will not directly address any strategic priorities	The plan will partially address strategic priorities or other goals that are closely related to the strategic priorities	The plan will directly address several strategic priorities
	(B) The initiatives have the potential to lead to the strategic priorities, if executed well	The initiatives have no clear connection to strategic priorities	Some or all of the initiatives have an unclear relationship to strategic priorities	The initiatives have been shown (by the entity or the movement) to lead to strategic priorities
	(C) The initiatives have the potential to lead to significant impact, given context and amount of funds proposed	The initiatives will have marginal impact in the local community and the broader Wikimedia community, given context and amount of funds proposed	The initiatives proposed may have a significant impact in the local community, given context and amount of funds proposed	The initiatives could have significant impact at scale, both in the entity's local community and in the broader movement, given context and amount of funds proposed
Ability to execute	(D) The entity has the resources, skills, and capacity (staff, volunteer, non-staff) for the plan to succeed	The entity has neither the number nor the amount of resources, skills, and capacity needed for success.	The entity has some relevant staff and volunteer capacity, but may be under-resourced for some initiatives	The entity is well-resourced with the relevant skills and capacity for success
	(E) The entity has a record of success in similar initiatives	The entity has had trouble succeeding in similar initiatives	The entity has not engaged in similar initiatives in the past	The entity has conducted similar initiatives in the past and has been successful in achieving desired results
	(F) The entity's leadership is effective, committed, and relatively stable	Leadership has been unstable (e.g., changing on an annual basis)	Current leadership is committed to the entity; some concerns exist around stability or effectiveness of leadership	Current and past leaders have demonstrated the ability to develop and execute on strategic plans; leadership team has been stable and transitions have been smooth
Efficient use of funds	(G) The funding requested is reasonable given the proposed initiatives	Based on FDC experience and relative to other proposals, the plan contains significant over- or under-budgeting, and/or has not thoroughly accounted for costs	Based on FDC experience and relative to other proposals, the budget is generally consistent with the initiatives; some initiatives are likely to be over- or under-budgeted	Based on FDC experience and relative to other proposals, the budget is reasonable, and rigorous cost projections have been presented
Efficient use of funds	(H) The entity has a record of using funds efficiently and staying on budget	The entity has a poor record of budgetary management: e.g., consistently and significantly below budget (such as 50% underspending), and drawing on organizational reserves due to overspending	The entity has a middling record of budgetary management; e.g., generally on-budget for its biggest initiatives and cost items, properly recording any over- and under-spending, and with plans in place for improvements	The entity has consistently strong record of financial management; e.g., consistently staying on or below budget (within ~5% of budget), and putting surplus funds towards the entity's and/or movement's goals
Quality of proposed measures of success	(I) Clear indicators of success are outlined in the plan	Initiatives have no associated indicators of success, or the proposed indicators are unrealistic and/or unmeasurable	Each initiative has indicators of success, but at least some indicators are unrealistic or are not clearly connected to the initiative	Each initiative has a realistic and carefully framed set of indicators of success associated with them, which are rigorous and time-bound
	(J) A system is in place to track the proposed metrics	The plan does not include methodology or timing for tracking and collecting metrics to measure progress against proposed indicators of success	A proposal to track progress against indicators exists, but has flawed methodology or unrealistic timelines and initiatives	The plan includes timing and tracking of proposed metrics, and additional initiatives (e.g., surveys, research) to track indicators
	(K) The entity has a feasible system to track the proposed metrics	No systems are in place to track metrics, or staff or volunteer capacity to manage metrics tracking	There is some overall capacity (e.g., staff, volunteers) to track and monitor metrics, but the entity does not clearly have the relevant skills to do this	High-quality systems, and the necessary skills and capacity to manage these systems, are in place
Potential to add knowledge and/or other benefits to the movement	(L) The initiatives, if successful, could be helpful and/or productively adaptedelsewhere in the movement	The initiatives would not be relevant to other movement groups	Some initiatives may be relevant to other movement groups	Many initiatives proposed are new or have seldom been tried elsewhere in the movement; if successful, other movement entities would benefit from doing similar initiatives
	(M) The entity is ready to share with the movement the lessons learned from the initiatives	The entity is isolated from other movement groups and rarely shares information; the entity's leaders and members seldom participate in movement-wide functions	The entity is somewhat active within the movement, and is developing more relationships with other movement entities with which it could share lessons learned	The entity has regular communication with other movement entities, is a regular participant in Wikimedia events, and has a track record of sharing with others

This form was created by: Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk