Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Community Ireland/2020

simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that Wikimedia Community Ireland (WCI) receive a grant of 42,412.10 EUR for one year. We especially appreciated learning about the approach for the Irish language education resources. Even though WCI had challenges in executing the program, it was important to see that they had formed new partnerships and were tackling this program anew in this Annual Plan. We were also appreciative of the long standing work WCI has done in regards to Wiki Loves Monuments; however, we were not clear on how WCI plans to engage newcomers beyond the contest period. In regards to your focus on minority groups, we are wondering what kind of ethnically diverse group focus there might be in Ireland. Overall, we are interested in seeing WCI be more strategic over the course of this Annual Plan and perhaps engage in developing a strategic plan. We want to see the group think about sustainability, partnership with local entities and utilizing major events like Celtic Knot to build strong networks.

For the committee, Siarus1074 (talk) 18:48, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Ireland’s grant is approved in the amount of 42,412.10 EUR for 12 months

Congratulations! This grant is approved in the amount of 42,412.10 EUR, with the grant term starting on April 1, 2020 and ending on March 31, 2021.

We appreciate your effort and work over the years. You have shown great improvement consistently rolling out different programs from year to year and making an effort to increase the participation of the Irish community. The plan you’ve presented continues to amplify this work you’ve been doing by shifting from an outreach centered approach to a resource development approach.

Your commitment to expand the use of Wikipedia and Vicipéid in secondary schools and universities has been great to follow. In this plan we see your focus of not just increasing the number of students completing hours of instruction but also creating resources that can be used beyond the immediate participants. This shift to resources will expand the reach of the group beyond this annual plan. We will be looking forward to learning how this shift in your programming is going to have a different impact in your community next year.

On March 12, 2020, the grants team shared a message from Katherine Maher, our Executive Director, regarding grant-funded programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. As you know we’ve asked all grantees to cancel or postpone all offline (in-person) public events funded by WMF. We will reach out in the next few weeks to discuss what adjustments will be necessary to move forward without offline activities. We appreciate your hard work during this time especially and look forward to tackling this challenge together.

Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 23:23, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation of funds request July 2020

This is a request to reallocate of some of our events budget to help us facilitate more virtual events. We have been approached by some groups for such events, but there is a need for us to provide an online platform such as Zoom. As these are for smaller groups, it would be the lower subscription plan at €139.90 for a year's subscription. We are proposing buying a year, as currently it is unclear if any in person events will be feasible in Ireland before 2021 in particular with GLAM and education groups. We intend to use having access to a Zoom subscription to actively offer more virtual workshops and events to new and existing partners and collaborators.

This would be a use for €139.90 out of the €1500 budget we have allocated for catering in-person events (none of which has been spent to date).

Rebecca O'Neill on behalf of Wikimedia Community Ireland Smirkybec (talk) 09:53, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation of funds approved

Hello Smirkybec, I am approving your reallocation request. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 17:09, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation of funds request August 2020

This is a request to reallocate some of the budget directed at in-person events towards encouraging more engagement with Wiki Loves Monuments 2020.

At the moment, guidelines in Ireland mean that we cannot feasibly hold in-person events (indoor or outdoor) for the foreseeable future. With this in mind, we have no need for physical leaflets for WLM/WLE or to provide any refreshments for events in the foreseeable future. We are hoping to further encourage people to take photographs of the more neglected sites for WLM this year, and would like to offer some prizes for those who have gone out of their way to take photographs of the more obscure sites and those with no existing photo on Commons.

To this end, we'd like to offer 5 additional prizes of €25 (in Amazon or book tokens) each:

• A prize for the best photograph of the most challenging, obscure or remote monument
• 4 prizes, one for each Irish province, for the best photo of a monument that is "new" to Commons (ie no photo previously)

The funds would be a reallocation of the unspent WLM/WLE printing budget of €70, and €55 from the event refreshment fund, €125 in total.

Rebecca O'Neill on behalf of Wikimedia Community Ireland Smirkybec (talk) 11:29, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Hello Smirkybec, thanks for posting your request, I am approving it. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 11:40, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation of funds request January 2021

This is a request to reallocate some of the budget directed at in-person events towards encouraging more engagement from Ireland with Wiki Loves Folklore and Folklore and Feminism 2021. This would be a new project for us in Ireland, and we have proposed to Wikimedia UK that it would cover the whole island of Ireland to include Northern Ireland, with a focus on people uploading images they already have, or of places and things which are safe to visit under lockdown restrictions.

Ireland re-entered a national lockdown in early 2021 which means that the possibility of holding in-person events (indoor or outdoor) in the coming months is highly unlikely. Our budget for catering and otherwise supporting in-person events remains largely unspent, with €1,272.97 remaining. We are proposing that we use some of these funds towards local prizes in both of these competitions, with the writing competition taking place on Vicipéid not EN Wikipedia.

For the photography and the writing competition each:

• 1st: €50
• 2nd: €25
• 3rd: €15

Total: €180 and would be awarded in Amazon or book tokens.

Looking at strengthening the skills within our group, we have also investigated becoming a member of an Irish organisation for charities and non-profits called The Wheel. It offers a network, but also training on a variety of topics from becoming a charity, to governance, grant writing, and communication workshops. For our size of group, the annual membership is €75.

We propose that this €255 be reallocated from the events budget to these two new items.

Rebecca O'Neill on behalf of Wikimedia Community Ireland Smirkybec (talk) 11:14, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for your request for the allocation of funds. The request aligns with your annual plan and also supports an opportunity for organizational development. We understand that a lot has changed and continues to change with the pandemic, and therefore see value in applying flexibility to the way our partners organize and engage communities.

This request is therefore approved. We wish you will with the activities and in your continued growth. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 10:38, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Reallocation of funds request March 2021

This is a request to reallocate some of the unspent budget for our office space to run Wiki Loves Earth in May/June 2021.

As our budget year was brought into line with the normal grant window this year, the extension of our grant runs into the part of the year that WLE takes place. We ran the competition for the first time last year, and have been working with some of the staff and government agencies to increase awareness of the competition for the 2021 edition. We are also in discussions with Wikimedia UK about further collaboration on this competition.

We would like to ask for €690 euro reallocation for prizes, as Ireland is still in a lockdown, we do not anticipate any further costs:

• 1st: €250
• 2nd: €125
• 3rd: €75
• Highly Commended (x 6): €40

Rebecca O'Neill on behalf of Wikimedia Community Ireland Smirkybec (talk) 11:21, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

Dear Rebecca and the team at Wikimedia Community Ireland,

Thank you for sharing the request for reallocation; based on the information shared, the request is reasonable, it remains aligned to the objectives set and will allow you to continue with your work while adapting programming to new situations resulting from the pandemic. It is great to see you continuing with the Wiki Loves Earth and finding opportunities to collaborate with other organizations in the movement. Your request to reallocate €690 is approved.

We wish you the very best and appreciate your continued partnership. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 06:55, 6 April 2021 (UTC)