Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Amical Wikimedia/2019

Xavi Dengra (MESSAGES) 12:26, 5 June 2019 (UTC)== Grant approved - 55,000 Euro for 12 months ==

We approve a grant of 55,000 Euro for 12 months. Amical continues to be a high performing organization that is working with an active and highly engaged community. In previous years, they have achieved impressive results in building networks of libraries and GLAM institutions. We hope these ongoing funds for program, staff, and operating expenses, will support Amical during this transition period, both to continue their effective program work and to focus on organizational health.

Amical plans to fill their vacant program manager position during the second half of the grant period, which is why their funding request is lower than the previous year’s (because they do not require funding for their program manager during the first 6 months of the grant period). Losing their long-time program manager was a big change for the organization, and there has also been a transition in board leadership. Effective goal-setting and reporting has been a challenge for Amical in the past, and we hope their new leadership embraces these priorities as they move forward.

We look forward to working with Amical in the upcoming year, as they work through this time of transition for the organization. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 18:52, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the concession of the grant! I have some and really important concerns regarding the funds:

First of all, I would like to appreciate the existence of 5.000 EUR of contingencies. But from Amical we consider that, as we didn't include this amount in our application and during the talks with Delphine (who I cc in this e-mail), and that we also have a reasonably healthy financial reserves in case of emergency, we would like to definitely decline this amount.

Secondly, the final amount that should be transferred to Amical is 46,719.77 EUR, given the fact that in 2018 we had a surplus of 3,280,23 EUR. This is stated in: Grants:APG/Proposals/2017-2018 round 1/Amical Wikimedia/Impact report form. We are a bit disappointed that, almost 3 months after completing the Impact Report form, nobody has provided us any feedback about this report (considering the huge implications that it has for the upcoming grant as well). You said above that we should improve the "effective-goal setting" (in which we might agree), but this statement has not taken into any consideration our last full-year official report. We are extremely concerned about the use of funds from Wikimedia donors, therefore we want to receive exactly the fair amount that corresponds to us.

Finally, as we agreed with the Delphine and it is stated in: Grants:Simple/Applications/Amical Wikimedia/2019, the deadlines for the midpoint report and the final impact report are due on 15 September 2019 and 31 January 2020. Nonetheless, I realise about the fact that Jan 2020 would be extremely narrow, as we normally get ready the audit report on March. Could be possible to keep 15 Sep 2019 as the midpoint deadline, and 31 March 2020 as the final one? This deadline would definitely work better with the historical and financial timelines of Amical.

Xavi Dengra (MESSAGES) 12:26, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

Hello Xavier,

First, regardless of the amount of underspend, your grant amount is still 50,000 EUR. Please note that our grants administration team does not just send money like that, but actually checks whether or not there is an underspend. Thank you.

The contingency funds are something that we routinely offer to organizations and they were set up to make sure that we did not spend time and resources having to wire extra funds to organizations that may need them, so they actually are about us caring how donor's funds are spent, however, it is for Winifred to decide whether or not you should receive them.

You are right, we had agreed on a 6 months grant and the reports were agreed upon accordingly, as the application shows. I didn't catch this in the email and Winifred is out today, we'll have to clear this with her when she returns.

Finally, in the simple APG program you don't need an audit report, and the report is much easier to write, so there should be plenty of time with a deadline on 31 January as stated on the application form.

Delphine (WMF) (talk) 14:37, 5 June 2019 (UTC)