Grants talk:APG/Proposal form v3

Suggested revisions and new questions to Proposal Form

This feedback has been collected from a number of stakeholders, including applicants, FDC members, FDC staff, and community members, over the last two rounds of FDC applications. While it is important to not make the proposal form much longer, it is our hope that these changes to the proposal form will both provide more useful information for those reviewing the proposal as well as eliminate some of the questions that have been taking place on the Discussion page of the proposal.

Organizational questions

• What is entity's rate of growth in budget and in movement resources since last year? [Cite FDC Framework around growth of up to 20% in normal circumstances.] Y
• What funders support your work beyond those in the Wikimedia movement? If the entity receives funding from other donors, please list a contact person. Y
• What is the entity's plan for financial sustainability? Y

Programs

• How will your entity measure and track success of this program? Change to How will your entity document, measure and track success of this program? Y

Finances

• Include last completed fiscal year's financial report. Y
• Eliminate where available from requests for financials. Y
• If the entity's fiscal year and annual plan do not correlate with this proposal cycle, please explain why the entity has applied for this round of funding. N Can be identified and discussed as needed.
• Allow for inclusion of staff costs in the program expenses, but ask for this information separately as well. N Applicants are asked to remove staff costs from program expenditures. Instead include request for estimate of time spent on programs to administration.
• Consider allowing links to a table or spreadsheet; wikitables not preferred for financial information. Wikitables significantly improved between round 1 and round 2, and it is essential to have comparable data to allow for a portfolio analysis.

Learning & communication

• What are the plans/strategies that did not work for your entity in the past? What did your entity learn from that experience / those experiences? What changes were made after learning from these experiences? Y
• How does your entity share its work with your community? With the wider movement?

Strategy

• How does the entity set its strategy? N Likely specific enough to generate useful information.
• Which are the priority programs for your entity? Noted in the program section to identify programmatic priorities. Y
• How does the organization set targets and goals for its programs? N Likely specific enough to generate useful information.

Community engagement

• How was the community you serve involved in the development of your entity's annual plan and this proposal? N Answers likely to be not too specific, focusing instead on next question.
• How do you know what the members of your local community (including chapter members and broader online volunteers) need and want? How does this influence your planning and decision-making? Y

Proposal submission process

• Include a link at the top to the Framework and the previous rounds of recommendations for entities to have as reference material. Y
• Add a request for signature at the bottom. Y
• Add a note that it will be considered "submitted" when the deadline closes. Y
• Request that if any of the documents submitted (e.g. annual plan) are in draft form, the final version be submitted and linked. Y
• Note no changes to proposals can be made following the close of deadline. Y

Changes to existing questions

• Change "Please give at least three examples of successful programs or activities that your entity has completed. If available, provide links to information." to "Please give at least three examples of successful programs or activities that your entity has completed. If available, provide links to information, and explain why these programs or activities were successful." Y
• Change “Which Wikimedia strategic priority (or priorities) does this program address?" to "Which Wikimedia movement strategic priority (or priorities) does this program address and how does it address them?” Y
• Add a total USD grant request in the first question: "In order to support community review, in no more than one paragraph, please provide a brief description of your entity's forthcoming annual plan, with focus areas and key objectives. Please also include the total amount requested in USD." Y
• Add SMART to the goals/objectives; remove from activities. Y
• Clarify local context/interpretation on activities aligning with movement strategic goals. Y Also explained in the program section heading, "If you feel you have a program that fulfills a strategic goal that is not immediately identified with a movement strategic priority ('readership' rather than 'editorship', for instance), please add that in the table and offer us your rationale."
• No suggested change yet, but consider--again--the issues of translation. English-only text will unfortunately exclude many from participating,