Grants:Committees/Conflict of interest guidelines
The Community Resources Team (CR) will be working closely with the Regional Fund Committee for distribution of resources across the Wikimedia Movement. Members of the Regional Grants Committee will have the responsibility to discuss the proposals and make decisions regarding the funding. To ensure that there is a transparent and trust based process, CR team will be conducting orientation and learning sessions for the members of the Regional Fund Committees. One of the aspects that will be discussed in these sessions is the general policy around conflict of interest, identification of conflict of interest, expression of conflict of interest, recusal from proposals that involve conflict of interest, review and improvement of conflict of interest policies.
All the members of the Regional Fund Committees are expected to read and familiarise themselves with the following Guidelines on potential conflicts of interest approved by the Board of WMF in 2013. All further policies and recommendations will evolve from the document. This resolution will serve as the minimum mandatory requirement for all the CoI related discussions. Regional Committees can add and improve these guidelines but cannot delete or omit the recommendations made in this resolution.
General policy around Conflict of Interest:
- It is essential that for a process that runs on the principles of participatory decision making that all other policies ensure that there is inclusion and collaboration among the participants. CR team is attempting to develop a trust based philanthropic process which will ensure that flagging of Conflict of Interest (CoI) would not diminish the importance of the views expressed by certain members. In the spirit of trust based philanthropic process we would also want to account for the positive effect of Confluence of Interests and not only worry about the negative impact of Conflict of Interest. It is important that any potential or perceived COIs must be disclosed proactively by the members of the Regional Grants Committee.
Identification of Conflict of Interest:
- You have a personal investment in a proposal for any reason
- You are one of the applicants for a grant or have a leadership role in a grant
- You serve as an advisor for a proposal to the point of becoming a champion
- Prior history (positive or negative) with the applicant(s) that would make you biased
- Being involved or an active participant in an ongoing conflict with a community
Notification/Expression of Conflict of Interest:
- Notify the Regional PO immediately
- Send a note to the Regional Fund Committee mailing list to recuse yourself from reviewing the proposal(s) for which you have a COI. The Committee must be informed of any recusals that take place, but not necessarily of the reasons involving them
- Grantee organisations can mention that they have prior history with current Regional Fund Committee members and concerns if any. The Regional Fund Committee along with PO would discuss the matter and come to a decision.
- Trust and Safety, Affiliate Committee, grantee organizations or WMF Staff can notify the Community Resources Team of an ongoing conflict in which a committee member is involved which involvement has been documented.
Recusal process:
- Recuse yourself from formal committee review of proposals where you have a conflict of interest.
- Recuse yourself from the process of reviewing or giving final approval on that specific proposal.
- Recuse yourself from formal committee review of proposals where you are actively involved in a conflict with a community while the conflict is being resolved.
Improvement and review of the Conflict of Interest policies:
- Annual review about the COI policies and its impact on the performance of the Regional Fund Committees will be organised.