Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia South Africa/2018

Eligibility

WMZA is eligible to apply for a 12-month grant starting 1 January 2018, for a grant up to 300,000 South African Rand, and with no staff. Eligibility is pending the resolution of any past due requirements listed on this page, which must be resolved before this grant is officially approved. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:22, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Simple Annual Plan Grant Committee Recommendation

Committee recommendations

Funding recommendations: We recommend that Wikimedia South Africa receive full funding in the amount of 238,900 ZAR + 25,000 ZAR contingency fee, or 263,900 ZAR including the contingency fee. This will be granted in ZAR, but this amount is equal to about $18,500 US dollars at this time. We are providing the following rationale: We believe this funding is necessary if the chapter is to sustain its activities through this Wikimania year. We believe that directing funds toward infrastructure rather than programs is a decision that makes sense for Wikimedia South Africa in this context. Getting and staying on track with things like accounting and reporting need to be top priorities for the chapter right now. Wikimedia South Africa may be able to continue some useful activities with their communities in 2018.

Comments on the next year's plan: This plan is intentionally focused on providing the chapter’s basic infrastructure rather than achieving excellent program results. Programs consist of hosting some regular meetups, and a small scale collaboration with SANBI. This limited scope is in line with the recommendations of Wikimedia Foundation-Annual Plan Grants staff, given the organization’s limited capacity at this time.

Comments on the current year's focus and achievements: This is a first-time applicant to the Simple Annual Plan Grants process.

Other considerations: Wikimedia South Africa is a first-time applicant to the Simple Annual Plan Grants program. They made an application through the FDC process several years ago that was not successful. This chapter has been active in one form or another for many years, but has struggled to expand their activity beyond doing a few projects. This chapter has challenges operating across a large geographic area with a limited number of volunteers. For example, it is a challenge for volunteers in Cape Town and Johannesburg to communicate effectively. Wikimedia South Africa is also dependent on a few active volunteers, and there is a high risk of burnout for these people. Given everything the chapter is taking on for Wikimania in 2018, they may not have the capacity to address this problem. Yet, it does present significant risks. At the same time, not funding the grant is not likely to help mitigate this. On the other hand, Wikimania may also be a good opportunity for the chapter to engage community members as volunteers in different ways, which could lead to more capacity and engagement in years to come.

Comments on the next year's focus: Wikimedia South Africa will be hosting Wikimania in 2018, which will be a major undertaking for the chapter and the volunteers that support it. The principle behind this Annual Plan Grant is to provide the chapter a backbone of some administrative support (in the form of paid accounting, and some basic administrative expenses), and enable them to continue their basic activities (such as meetups and board meetings) during this time period. In particular, the chapter is lacking in accounting and reporting capacity. For their recent project grants, there were some serious issues accounting for funds at the end of their grants. They have also frequently submitted reports well after the requested deadlines. This means that reporting will have to be a major focus of our work with the chapter in the coming year.

On behalf of the Simple Annual Plan Grants Committee. --Kai (talk) 11:26, 1 December 2017 (Pacific)

Decision from WMF

Funding decision: This grant is approved in the amount of 263,900 ZAR, to be used for the annual budget submitted with this grant request and for the remainder of the Jobourgpedia digitization costs, which are to be folded into this grant in place of the contingency fee. The grant term will begin on 1 January 2018, and will end on 31 December 2018. A midpoint report covering the first 6 months of the grant term should be submitted by 15 July 2018, and a final report covering the entire 12 months should be submitted by 30 January 2019. We can't emphasize enough how important it will be to make sure you are submitting timely reports of good quality for this grant. During this year we have the opportunity to establish some stability in the chapter's operations and also reporting practices. Performing well in this area (reporting) is going to be a prerequisite to future funding requests of this sort. Congratulations and best of luck in 2018! It's going to be a huge year for Wikimedia South Africa, and we're excited to be a part of it. Best, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:39, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Request spending extension

Hi Wolliff (WMF), Wikimedia ZA would like to quest a funding extension to spend the following funds in 2019 of unspent 2018 funds. Namely:

• R30,000 for our accounting line item budget.
• R5,313 (= R1771 + R3,542) for the book keepers
• R4,000 for catering for events
• R2,000 ($140) for the Afrikaans writing competition
• R10,000 for the Cape Town TV Datacast Hackathon

There might be some additional expenses that I am missing but those are the ones I currently have on my list of expenses. I will update any requests for additional spending the talk page here to request permission. --Discott (talk) 19:14, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

Hi Wolliff (WMF), there is one additional amount I forgot to request US$140 (R2040) for prizes for the Wiki Loves Africa 2019 South Africa photographic competition. We will need to know if we can spend this money from unspent 2018 grant funds?--Discott (talk) 09:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

We would also like to know if we could use R2,000 2,500 to pay for a Wikimedia ZA board member to get a visa to attend WikiCon 2019 in Berlin? Wikimedia DE have assured us that they will reimburse the chapter for this amount but we would like to know if we could use grant funds as float for this important expense so we can send a representative to this important strategy event? --Discott (talk) 09:20, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

One additional spending request is R10,000 for WMZA to do a followup Wikipedia Road trip to Kwa-Zulu Natal in May 2019. This is a followup event to the Durban activation we conducted in 2018. We would like to know if we could release unspent 2018 grant fund for this trip in addition to the aforementioned requests?--Discott (talk) 15:53, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Here is a table breaking down our requested expenses from the unspent 2018 grant budget to be spent in the first half of 2019. It largely covers previously requested expense requests. If approved there will be R21,345.35 left over. WMZA requests that R5,000 of the 21,345.35 be budgeted for the chapter to put into the chapter account so there are funds aviable to pay bank fees to keep the chapter account active.

Accounting	R30,000
Bookkeepers	R5,313
Catering and miscellaneous expenses	R4,000
Afrikaans Writing competition	R2,000
Cape Town TV Hackathon	R10,000
Wiki Loves Africa 2019 ZA	R2,040
Kwa-Zulu Natal activation	R10,000
Total	R63,353
Amount left over from 2018	R84,698.35
Remaining amount left over	R21,345.35

Hi Wolliff (WMF),I am going to ask if we can get permission to spend an additional R1,992.38 from our 2018 grant for our bookkeepers? --Discott (talk) 15:06, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Hi Wolliff (WMF), Wikimedia ZA has just been given a R1,500 tax bill from our national revenue service (SARS). I would like to know if we could take that money from the unspent money from the 2018 grant? --Discott (talk) 10:23, 16 April 2019 (UTC)