Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/2021

APG approved in the amount of 39,000 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 39,000 USD, with a grant term starting 1 January 2021 and ending 31 December 2021.

This year, Wikimedia Ghana User Group’s programmatic work will be aimed at capacity building, policy and advocacy initiatives, content creation and community development. The organization has also developed thoughtful approaches to a policy and advocacy program for empowering Ghanaian languages on Wikipedia while also advocating for Freedom of Panorama in Ghana. We are excited to see your planned work with the Nimble website to help overcome barriers that new editors face in Ghana in learning how to use and contribute to Wikimedia projects. We will also be interested in learning about how your organization plans to retain and encourage active editors through this program.

Wikimedia Ghana User Group’s metrics are projected to increase substantially-- almost 300% for participants and content pages and over 45% from last year for newly registered participants. The Increasing Participation program is set to target 500 new participants alone. These increases are surprisingly high with respect to challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we acknowledge that there are fewer local restrictions on gatherings and movement in Ghana recently. We would like to see how Open Foundation West Africa and Wikimedia User Group Ghana collaborate together to identify their areas in capacity building and outreach.

The new budget for the current proposal of Wikimedia Ghana reflects the organization’s interest in developing organizational capacity in multiple areas. We support increased funding towards these needs, but we are not able to support a 420% increase from last year’s budget. We initially recommend the following changes to your proposed budget, but would like to provide you with discretion over final decisions over how to distribute your funding across your budget:

• In your staffing plan:

• Adjusting the Community Manager position and the associated SSNIT & taxes budget to 0.50 FTE role. Increases in the FTE for this role can be considered in future applications as you grow your programmatic work.

With the requested decrease in activities and metrics, adjusting the Community Manager position is good advice and we will do this.

––Sandiooses (talk) 14:57, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

• Removing the Finance Consultant this round, as there is not a clear rationale for this role in the proposal or staffing plan. The resourcing you are requesting for Financial Review (Non-Profit Audit) to seek external accounting services should provide important organizational support in financial management that will reduce this work for volunteers.

The grant of about USD70000 we requested initially is quite huge. Maybe the title of a 'Finance Consultant' was not appropriate; but we were looking at someone to make sure our books are in order. Even with our current SAPG of about USD14,500, it's not that easy with record keeping with spreadsheets. We want to migrate to software like QuickBooks and we need someone to do this himself/herself or at least supervise or train us to do this. Perhaps we can settle for such a person training us for a one-time fee instead of 12 months of service?

–– Sandiooses (talk) 15:10, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

• Decreasing the number of planned events in your programmatic budgets, particularly in the Content Creation and Public Policy programs, so the Community Manager is able to coordinate an amount of work that matches their capacity. We also encourage you to reduce your targets in the metrics worksheet to reflect changes in your expected outcomes.

We are okay with decreasing planned events around content creation and we will adjust the targets accordingly. For the Public Policy programs, we believe there are fewer of that happening in Ghana right now. Most affiliates are focused on content creation. So we would want that to set us apart and also balance programmatic impact of WMF grants in Ghana.

––– Sandiooses (talk) 15:34, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

• We also would like to recommend seeking out a fiscal sponsor in the future if you are planning to substantially expand your programmatic or operational work in the near future to help reduce the workaround management of finances and some aspects of reporting.

We are looking forward to this. –– Sandiooses (talk) 15:34, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

We also request removing the budget for office space and associated expenses this year, as the specific need for an office is not clearly described in the proposal. We would like to consider supporting this need for next year’s application provided there is clarity on how a physical office will support Wikimedia Ghana’s programming or operational needs.

We can take that out but is it possible for us to get at least space for about two months or three? During the Nimble project we would want all the teams to work from a physical space together. It is a collaborative work involving a web designer, graphic artist, Meta Wiki user, a social media person and a Wikipedia editor who trains editors. All these persons have a role to play in ensuring we build a strong resource.

Additionally we will have to add the cost of rent to our Accra events now. We took out rent because we wanted to hold them in our offices instead.

––– Sandiooses (talk) 15:34, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

We understand that this decision will require you to limit and prioritize your plans for next year, but will still represent significant growth for your organization, and will also be the first year you formally maintain dedicated staff.

We look forward to working with you in 2021.

We look forward to working with you in 2021 too! ––– Sandiooses (talk) 15:34, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

On behalf of the Simple APG Committee and Staff, Islahaddow (talk) 06:17, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Thank you all! ––– Sandiooses (talk) 15:34, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Extension Of Our SAPG Grant Year To The Next Cycle

We are writing to the EMEA grants team to formally ask for an extension of our SAPG grant year to the next cycle which is in June 2022. This decision has become an important one to take considering a myriad of activities we are yet to undertake with our current grant.

There are a number of activities we started which we would love to complete fully before applying for a new grant which would be in 2022. We are still working on a supplementary budget and we would seek guidance on how to go about it and how to present it?

Also if there is any further action we should take regarding this request we would be glad to work on it accordingly.

Thank you Owula kpakpo (talk) 13:54, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, Owula kpakpo for the update and information supporting your request for an extension. We approve your request and understand the circumstances that may have led to this request and hope that with an extension, you will be able to fulfil and implement your annual plan. Please keep us updated and let us know, how we might support you. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 19:23, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi VThamaini (WMF), please find attached our supplementary budget for your perusal which has been added to the initial budget document we submitted on a new sheet titled: Supplementary Total Budget for Extension [1]. We would be on standby to for your feedback and ways in which we can deal with it.

Thank You. --Owula kpakpo (talk) 16:45, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Extension of Report Date to August 15

Hi VThamaini (WMF), Please we request an extension of our reporting date to August 15. We have some little challenges that is delaying the submission of the report. But by August 15 we should have been done with it and get it submitted. Owula kpakpo (talk) 17:41, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Hello, Thank you for sharing the request for extension. The request is approved. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 13:57, 8 August 2022 (UTC)