Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Black Lunch Table/2020

simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that Black Lunch Table receives a grant for 89,303 USD for one year. Black Lunch Table has acknowledged their challenges clearly and what they are doing towards them, working on the structure and staffing, as well as thinking about fundraising strategies to decrease their dependence on the Wikimedia Foundation grants. Their work in communities is solid and impactful. Their work in the Caribbean is to be commended, as it highlights a rich culture in a region Wikimedia is only starting to explore. Their plan is detailed and carefully laid out and they have given thought to alternative sources of funding. Black Lunch Table might have to choose which way they expand, either by strengthening and running their successful programs, or maybe by cutting back a bit on programs or the coder to explore the longer term and put the emphasis on raising their capacity for fundraising.

For the committee, Islahaddow (talk) 11:27, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Black Lunch Table sAPG approved in the amount of 80,000 USD

Your grant is approved in the amount of 80,000 USD, with a grant term starting 1 January 2020 and ending 31 December 2020.

While the committee has recommended full funding, we are approving this grant in the amount of 80,000 USD. We believe in the value of Black Lunch Table’s programs and the rationale presented for growth. However, in working with a limited budget we cannot fund all requests fully even if you have a sound strategy with impactful projects. While we are prioritizing support for emerging communities to support organizational stability with annual plan funding, we are not able to meet the full funding requests of all applicants at this time.

Black Lunch Table has shown a strong track record of impact in relation to its mission to ensure that Wikimedia projects represent the contributions and impact of Black visual artists. This has been demonstrated through the organization’s long history of collaborative work in workshops, collaborations with other Wikimedia affiliates, partnerships with major cultural institutions, and commitment to introducing communities in the African diaspora to your mission and supporting their participation, such as in Trinidad and Tobago.

We agree with the committee’s assessment that Black Lunch Table has laid out an annual plan that combines thoughtful programming initiatives with needs for organizational stability and strategic direction. We also appreciate your efforts to seek out additional sources of funding to support your programming and organizational needs. However, we do recommend focusing attention on organizational needs in this coming year, and request the following changes in your budget:

• Related to staffing, we request funding the NFP Strategist position as it will serve important long-term and strategic needs for Black Lunch Table, and that the Coder and Project Assistant positions should be deprioritized at this time. We would like to consider funding these roles in a future grant.
• We request reducing your travel budget to Wikimania and WikiConference North America from three (3) to two (2) representatives, as this is consistent with how we fund other affiliates for travel to regional and movement-wide events.
• We appreciate your effort to apply for grant funding to cover these expenses, but would like to emphasize that you are welcome to use these funds for your budgeted childcare expenses. We agree these expenses are necessary as they allow you to run and support broader participation in your programmatic work.

We understand that this reduction in funding may affect some of your activities. However, you are best placed to propose the most appropriate prioritization of these funds. As you finalize planning given this funding decision, please update your plan, budget, and metrics accordingly.

We welcome Black Lunch Table to the Simple Annual Plan Grants program, and look forward to working with you in 2020.

With thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 19:35, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

Black Lunch Table sAPG 2020 Covid-19 Budget adjustments

Due to the global pandemic caused by Covid-19 Black Lunch Table requests the following budget adjustments to our sAPG 2020. These changes are reflected as a revised sheet titled March 31st and an amended link in the budget section.

Funds that were allotted to Wikimania 2020, BLT Wiki Retreat, personnel, remaining in-person and proxy events have been retooled to account for the following changes:

• Regional Proxies, A revision to the total number of proxy engagements, we will engage one new proxy and three legacy proxies.

• An additional Project manager to support the administration for new programming as we are now differently directing our team to host events and edit-a-thons.

• In lieu of in-person edit-a-thons we have created four types of online programming to engage and maintain community and editorship. They include the following and maintain many of our original APG goals with necessary amendments to the situation. The schedule for these events are available on our Meta and meetup page.

1. BLT: Bacon + Lettuce + Tomato: BLT has always sought to provide a space for communion, affirmation, and discourse and has been the reason for our roundtable series’. We recognize the extraordinary need for community spaces and see value in conversation as a space for catharsis and movement, of communication and resource. Meet virtual neighbors! Bring a bag brunch to your computer, take that short commute to your couch.
2. Sunday Artist Series on IG Live: Artists are central to all facets of BLT. As exhibitions and freelance work are canceled due to the virus, what we can do to support the continuation of the archive we depend on is ask and compensate artists as they share and commune with us through a series of online “talks”. Find them on IG Live @blacklunchtable.
3. Topic Focus and Online Edit-a-thons: Join us for online Wikipedia editing and assistance. Help record history as it unfolds by updating related Wikipedia articles, editing know-how is not necessary. In addition to regular editing together, Topic Focus sessions we will feature experts on WikiEDU, editing on mobile devices, Wikidata, and Spanish language editing. All skill levels are welcome!
4. Play BLT BINGO: BLT BINGO is a contest series that celebrates the work of artists by working to increase information about them on Wikimedia platforms and increasing editors' fluency with all the Wiki platforms. New cards and prizes are released each month.

For the duration of our year we hope that these changes will allow us to reach towards slightly amended goals and metrics.

• Maintain engagement and expand our editorship
• Provide opportunities for EDU/classroom support
• Provide opportunities for tech/topic share
• Focus on and compensate artists amidst the pandemic when other funding becomes scarce
• Support the BLT Team, project manager 2 will provide administrative assistance to project manager 1 and project co-leads

Black Lunch Table sAPG 2020 Midpoint Report Budget adjustments

At the same time as the submission of our APG 2020 midpoint report, we are also asking for recognition of a change in our annual budget. The larger Black Lunch Table Project was honored to be awarded a two year Warhol Foundation Grant. Some expenses are now shared between BLT's Wikipedia initiatives and the larger project and the 07012020 sheet in our budget reflects that secured funding and our lawyer fee zeroed out and funds moved to spend on our accountant's fee as much of our activity this year still remain with the Wikipedia initiative.

Budget Adjustments Approved

Hello Raggachampiongirl and Black Lunch Table, thank you for updating us on your budget adjustments. It has been approved. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 16:47, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Midpoint Report Accepted

Hello Black Lunch Table, I really appreciated talking to you last week regarding your midpoint report. I have gotten a chance to review your report, metrics and budget and I am marking it as accepted! Please contact the Simple APG team if you need any guidance on your grant moving forward. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 16:47, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Black Lunch Table sAPG 2020 Additional Budget Request

In preparation for the conclusion of our sAPG 2020 Grant, we submit the following changes to our budget and request additional funds totaling $11,102.60. Please see below for explanations. The document is here.

• Full Employment-Our initial budget ask was $120,000 which included our entire team working for 52 weeks, in subsequent revisions and approval to $80,000 we cut back hours of all team members and planned for the entire Wiki project to be furloughed for a month in order to meet the limits of our budget. COVID-19 has significantly changed the scope of programming, as it has for everyone, and it is no longer feasible to furlough staff for a month. As a team, we have adjusted to COVID-19 and continued to be responsive to the ongoing Movement for Black Lives, and find ourselves working more on a variety of fronts than any of us anticipated. We are requesting funds that support our team’s actual labor needs through the end of the grant period. This is of urgent importance because the pay period for furlough begins in September.

• NFP Strategist- The cost of finding and retaining our NFP Strategist, Brooke Richie-Babbage, was significantly higher than expected. Initially, this cost was broken out across the entire Black Lunch Table Project, but the Wikiproject has largely been our focus resulting in the higher cost being carried here.

• Additional money for artists and experts-When WMF directed all user groups and affiliates to cease any in-person Wiki events, we retooled line items previously dedicated to in-person edit-a-thons, photobooths, and proxy events to hosting wiki experts and artists online through August. Optimistically hoping that would be able to gather again by fall. Unfortunately, this is not the case. While we saved a portion of the funds for fall, the scope of remaining online through the end of the year requires an increase of $600 to complete our programming.

• Miscellaneous-We have increased the total number of wire fees and ACH direct bank transfers we anticipate completing as we continue to invite hosts and artists who reside outside of the United States. We have also increased our other miscellaneous costs associated with shipping and contests to reflect the increase in remote activities and contest compensation.

@Raggachampiongirl: Thanks for this request for additional funding. We appreciate your efforts to revise your programs to be responsive both to the pandemic and to dynamics and needs in the Movement for Black Lives, as well as continued strategic work. This request is tentatively approved, and now requires review from our Finance and Legal teams. Once this is complete, we will prepare an amendment for your grant agreement for you to sign and complete, at which point the additional funds can be sent. Normally, this process takes about two weeks' time, and I will let you know if more time is needed for any reason. With thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 21:58, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Black Lunch Table sAPG 2020 Line Change %

BLT has two interrelated total percentage line changes greater than 20% that we would like to request in advance of our final reporting for the sAPG 2020 granting cycle.

At the last budget change request, we integrated a coder/digital specialist who has been dedicated to assisting with Wikidata queries, data visualization, integration into the archive, culling metrics, collaborating with other Wiki coders to implement new technologies. The contract hours for this line are nearly finished with much more work to do. This team member has made great strides in visualizing an integration between WikiData and our Wikimedia work with our outside archiving project, creating a more cohesive existence for our group on Wiki and creating more open and visible access for the public. We would like to increase the funds available for this work. This proposed line will change from $3,840.00 to $5,376.00 representing an increase of 40%.

Our Program Manager 2 line should be reduced by 49% to $5334.68 from $10,500 to compensate for this WikiData work. We were able to procure outside funding for our Program Manager 2 and shift their work a bit to free up funding for the remainder of the year for the WikiCoder.

These line changes are in a simplified budget sheet posted HERE.

We appreciate your consideration and are excited to move forward as soon as possible.

Hi there, Raggachampiongirl. Thanks for this request-- I'm glad to hear that this array of technical work and data gathering have been going well, and that there is good progress being made by your specialist toward sharing BLT's work across Wikimedia projects. This reallocation request to support the completion of this work is approved. I also wanted to ask a little more about the basis of this need— it would come as no surprise to me that the disruption described in your midpoint report would be a significant cause here, and is in itself a good rationale, but wanted to learn if there were any other factors around the work itself (e.g. technical barriers around obtaining metrics, availability of other Wiki coders, etc.) that prompted this need. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 22:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks to the APG team for accommodating our needs consistently through this year. As I understand the work our coder is doing, I JethroBT (WMF), there are no particular difficulties here or challenges, just plenty of work to do that is going well. We are hopeful to connect with WMF about this work more in the new year!--Raggachampiongirl (talk) 06:08, 14 December 2020 (UTC)