Grants talk:TPS/marielavzla/Offline Internet Resources for Rural Schools in Peru

Move to Rapid Grants

Dear marielavzla,

Thank you for submitting this report. This sounds like a very interesting project! However, although your expenses are all related to travel, this project is not actually eligible for the TPS grant program. TPS funds people to represent Wikimedia at non-Wikimedia events (conferences, conventions or similar organized events). Since you are planning to a travel tour to a variety of schools to conduct outreach and train people about offline Wikipedia, we consider this a project. Consequently, I am pinging WJifar_(WMF), who is the Program Officer for Rapid Grants to ask that she review this proposal in that program, rather than this one.

WJifar_(WMF), could you follow up with marielavzla if additional information is needed about this proposal?

Thank you, both!

Warm regards,

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 17:37, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, I am standing by. I work with Wiki NYC and talk with other people at other Wikimedia chapters. If you can assist me in coming to understand how I should advise others to make grant applications then I would appreciate the help and communicate out the distinction. I can assist with adapting the information in this form in the format of the other form if that suits your bureaucratic process. Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:44, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

• @WJifar (WMF) and Mjohnson (WMF): Hello. Can you give me a rejection if the WMF cannot fund this? The process is not clear to me. Getting some closure would be useful. Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:53, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Hi there, as indicated in my previous message, TPS can _only_ fund requests to attend conferences or similar large events and conduct outreach about Wikimedia. We do not fund people to attend meetings, or to run projects. Since this request is not eligible, that means that it will neither be declined or accepted. I'll mark this proposal--and the other on for Wikipedia in Greece as "not eligible" now, so that is clearer.

This project may be eligible through Rapid Grants. You can find the eligibility requirements for Rapid Grants at this link to learn more. Woubzena, the Program Officer for Rapid Grants, will return from her vacation on Tuesday, so you can ask her more specific questions at that time.

Let me know if you have additional questions for me about TPS.

Thanks! --Marti (WMF) (talk) 17:32, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

@Mjohnson (WMF): Thanks for your reply. I do find it challenging to navigate the bureaucracy and I regret the time lost. I moved the application to Grants:Project/Rapid/marielavzla/Offline Internet Resources for Rural Schools in Peru where I hope that it can get speedy evaluation. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:57, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Blue Rasberry , I understand that it can be confusing. The reason for the seemingly pointless distinctions has to do with legal requirements we have to meet for grantmaking. TPS is our only funding program that is actually _not_ technically a grantmaking program. It is simply meant to be a travel reimbursement program through which we can cover travel costs for our volunteers to participate in conferences. If the purpose of the travel is for work that looks like conducting a project, rather than just going to attend a public event, we start to get into a gray area in which we become concerned about not complying with the full requirements of our formal grant programs. Rapid Grants are--as the name suggests--real grants, and consequently we have to collect more information from the participants in that program than we do in TPS, which is just a reimbursement program. As you say, this can seem bureaucratic. But the TPS structure allows us to turn around funding more quickly, which is valuable when we are dealing with outside events with a set date. Hope this offers additional clarity. --Marti (WMF) (talk) 19:52, 17 January 2018 (UTC)