Grants:Conference/Example agreements

Purpose and background

These grant agreement examples are provided for information only. They are not intended for use with any specific project or grant, and may not be suitable for the needs of other projects or organizations. These examples do no constitute a grant offer or legal advice. If you receive a grant offer from the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation will contact you at that time to provide an appropriate grant agreement specific to your project and your organization. While these examples are updated regularly, minor changes do sometimes occur. If you have concerns, you may need to contact the WMF Grants Administrator for the most current version of this example.

These documents are used by WMF to make project-specific grants awarded through Conference Grant program. They are intended for international use. These agreements are significantly different from the agreements used by WMF to make general support grants or travel reimbursements. They outline specific project goals and activities in an Appendix, and grantees are required to stick to their budgets and report or request permission for any significant changes to their budgets. Reporting and payment schedules are defined more generally in these agreements in order to allow for more flexibility in the grantmaking process. Therefore, your program officer or grants administrator will work with you to define these details more specifically at the time your grant is processed.

Grants awarded through the Conference Grant program generally have these requirements:

They all require grants to be awarded to groups or organizations. Individuals seeking a Conference grant must work with a fiscal sponsor, who will manage the grant funds on their behalf.
They all require grantees to use funds for charitable and educational activities, and they all prohibit using funds for lobbying, support of political candidates or campaigns, voter registration drives, or other propaganda.
They all name a grantee, a grant amount, a grant term and an effective date and they all outline the specific purposes of the grant in an appendix. Grantees need to use grant funds for the purposes described and are required to report financial variances of 20% or greater (or any other threshold defined by WMF) to WMF.
They all require you to submit a final report to WMF 60 days after the conclusion of the grant term, to submit interim reports as requested by WMF, and to maintain accurate and detailed records about your use of the grant money (for 4 years after the conclusion of the grants term).
They all require a check-in call their WMF program officer on or around 6 months after their event's end date (which may be different from your grant end date).
They all require return of excess funds within 60 days of the conclusion of the grant term.
They all give WMF and the grantee flexibility to set a payment schedule in one or more installments.

At the same time, groups, organizations, and fiscal sponsors may need to use different types of grant agreements even if they are awarded grants through the same program or process. Responsibilities may be different for groups and organizations. Here is a table outlining the key differences between the three types of Conference grants: grants to groups, grants to organizations, and fiscal sponsorships.

Types of Conference grant agreements

This summary is not a legal document, and you will need to consult the terms of your own grant agreement to understand the requirements with your grant.

Key difference	Conference grants to groups	Conference grants to organizations	Fiscal sponsorships
Re-granting permitted with WMF approval	Yes	Yes	Only to the grantee
Separate bookkeeping account required	No	Yes	Yes
Joint account required	Yes	No	No
No commingling of Grantee agents' personal funds with the Grant funds required	Yes	N/A	N/A
Bank account statement required	As instructed by WMF	No	No
Changes to individuals with access to grant funds	Yes	Yes	Yes
Changes to leadership (board, staff, key personnel)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Potential or actual legal or regulatory actions related to the grant	Yes	Yes	Yes
Potential or actual legal or regulatory actions related to the grantee	Yes	Yes	Yes

Links to example agreements for Conference grants