Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedians of Arusha Annual Program 2023-24

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello , Wikimedians of Arusha community,

Thank you for submitting your application ; we appreciate you taking time to organize the proposal against your goals and strategic focus. We also recognize the deliberate focus on underrepresented communities including ensuring female participation on projects, addressing gender knowledge gaps and language.

To support us in the second stage of the review process, please have a look comments and questions for your consideration;

• We noticed no partnerships were mentioned, yet, we know, this is a key part of supporting the achievement of the set impact goals and also seeing that this is a continuation of existing projects .
• Would you let us know what partnerships you will be working with and if not, would you help us learn the motivation informing the decision?
• We were curious to learn more about the transportation needs and supporting costs - we see for instance a cost of $270 - and would like to know if it was towards community members' participation or core team members. Additionally, please provide a breakdown of the costs related to the community meeting.
• We noticed that you have planned several activities and most if not all are led by a few same individuals. We are keen to learn how you plan to manage and avoid volunteer/organizer/community burnout. Do you have other leaders and how do you plan to distribute roles and responsibilities?
• Would you also speak to how the project coordinators were selected or appointed? Was there community involvement?

We are keen to learn how the community was involved in the development of this proposal?

• We would like to learn more about the rationale behind the staff expenses and salaries; we note, considerable differences between the allocated resources, and the numbers shared do not match our research on costs related to the roles and responsibilities in Tanzania.
• Lastly, please update your meta page so that we can find the most updated information on the team and your community members.

As always we recommend meeting with the regional program officer to support you in providing any clarity needed with the feedback shared here. The committee is also available to meet and join the call if that would be meaningful for you - just let the program officer know.

Thank you so much and we continue to appreciate your work and role in advancing the mission of the movement.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff, VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 06:46, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Answers

Dear MEA Regional Committee and Staff, VThamaini (WMF)

Thank you for reviewing our application and for your positive feedback on the proposal. We are happy to provide feedback to the comments and questions. Please find our answers below:

Q: We noticed no partnerships were mentioned, yet, we know, this is a key part of supporting the achievement of the set impact goals and also seeing that this is a continuation of existing projects .

• There was mention of our plans to partner with libraries and archives, educational institutions, cultural organizations, community-based organizations, government agencies, and technology companies.We have identified the specific organizations with which we will partner in the following question;

Q: Would you let us know what partnerships you will be working with and if not, would you help us learn the motivation informing the decision?

• As part of our mission to continue our current projects, we understand the role that partners play in achieving our impact goals. As you can see below, we will be partnering with the following partners in the categories mentioned previously:

1. Libraries and archives: Elimu YetuFoundation
2. Educational institutions: Edmund Rice Secondary School, JR Institute
3. Cultural organizations: MAIPAC - Media Aid for Indigenous & Pastoralist Community (MAIPAC), MWEDO
4. Community-based organizations: Dunia Salama Foundation, Builders for Future Africa
5. Government agencies: Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC)
6. Technology companies: Anza Hub, Magotech Tanzania

Q: We were curious to learn more about the transportation needs and supporting costs - we see for instance a cost of $270 - and would like to know if it was towards community members' participation or core team members. Additionally, please provide a breakdown of the costs related to the community meeting.

• Participants in every activity receive a constant amount of reimbursement for their transport.A cost of $270 will cover nearly 35 participants.
• The community meeting is where the community meets to discuss its matters (the good, the bad, improvements, and plans for the future) The community meeting is different compared to the rest of the activities. It is more of a community-building session where the members meet and go to a particular place to have fun but also discuss matters that concern the community to build cohesion. For example, at the past community meeting (gathering) we met at a common place and had a road trip to a national park in Arusha, had fun and later had time to discuss community matters including future projects and the current proposal. The breakdown of costs included transport, food and drinks, and park fees. We try to be very creative with the community meetings so as we can let the community members air out their views and decisions about the community freely.

Q: We noticed that you have planned several activities and most if not all are led by a few same individuals. We are keen to learn how you plan to manage and avoid volunteer/organizer/community burnout. Do you have other leaders and how do you plan to distribute roles and responsibilities?

• We have a program to train trainers who take leadership in facilitating the activities that are held in the community. We have 15 trainers and we have upcoming Training of trainers programs which help in upbringing community leaders who will join the pool of other trainers to help in conducting/facilitating the activities. We have more than 300 current community members, and every activity involves less than 40 participants. In every activity/event we bring in different participants interested in the theme of the particular event where they are led by different facilitators as we have a number of trainers who are willing to lead the activities. The trainers go through an intense training on how to organize and facilitate the community events and they get a chance to participate in our new incubation program that aims to deepening their knowledge in different Wikimedia projects.

Q: Would you also speak to how the project coordinators were selected or appointed? Was there community involvement?

• Project Coordinators were selected by the community. The community came together within a meeting to discuss who they are confident to be the coordinators of the community. Members had to vote for the members who showed interest and the ones with the highest number of votes became the coordinators.
• Now that we are registered as an organization we have the constitution that identifies how the coordinators will be attained and how long they will serve before new coordinators are elected. This is documented in our NGO constitution which will soon be available to the public via our upcoming website. The constitution documents all the necessary actions and exceptions if any on the NGO staffing. As an NGO we will have the Annual General Meeting. The General meeting is a supreme organ of the organization composed of all members of the organization. The decision in this meeting is from the majority vote of members in the meeting. The general meeting has the following powers: Discuss new members for admission and discipline and expel members; Discuss and approve annual budgets, plans, physical and financial implementation reports; Amend the Constitution; Electing office bearers of the Organisation; Approve issues originated from the Board of Directors; and To appoint Board of Directors. The General meeting is held once a year and members will be notified about it 60 days before the meeting. The Annual Meeting quorum must be grater or equal to two thirds of members.

Q: We are keen to learn how the community was involved in the development of this proposal?

• The community has taken part fully in the development of the proposal. As mentioned in one of the questions answered above, we had our community meeting where members got a chance to play a part in proposing the plan and activities mentioned in this proposal. The community realized that we are still growing, so they chose to focus on deeper engagement rather than scaling activities.

Q: We would like to learn more about the rationale behind the staff expenses and salaries; we note, considerable differences between the allocated resources, and the numbers shared do not match our research on costs related to the roles and responsibilities in Tanzania.

• The staff expenses and salaries differences are based on the roles, responsibilities, and time commitment of the staff members. We are currently registered as an NGO in Tanzania and therefore we have well defined roles for the staff. These roles are Executive director, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Communications Officer, and Accountant. The salary scales mentioned in the proposal are in the median range as seen in this website for reference [[1]] We have the staff costs on the median range because the staff members are not benefiting from benefits such as medical insurance as how it is with other NGOs in the country. We believe that with the median range, the staff will be able to compensate for the benefits that are not provided.

Q: Lastly, please update your meta page so that we can find the most updated information on the team and your community members

• We have updated our meta page to match the details requested.

Best regards, CaliBen (talk) 22:13, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund Approved in the amount of 50,068 USD+ fiscal sponsor fee

Dear Wikimedians of Arusha,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and approved funding in the amount of $50,068 + fiscal sponsor fee for the period of July 2023 - June 2024.

As shared in the email - After a thorough review and discussion on your proposal and based off the information you shared with us as part of responding to feedback and questions, we make the following notes and recommendations;

We find your work to be sufficiently scoped and having the necessary team structure including roles to implement the proposal. We however and based on current funds, are of the opinion that there are areas where the budget needs to be reviewed as the associated costs are not commensurate with the scope as is . Some of the cost categories we see an opportunity to review include ; Office space, Sub-Grant, Furniture Equipment and staff costs. Within the staff costs for instance we recommend having one that supports the work on a need basis / non-periodic instead of having them on full time basis. We believe the other role-costs can be reviewed as well. We also advice that the community focuses on consolidating the progress made in programmatic and operational efforts. We strongly recommend soliciting support from partners such as libraries, educational institutions etc. including on items such as co-working space and event space etc. We have noted that there is a change in the title of the roles mentioned in the discussion page. Kindly reflect that on the proposal if that is the roles you would be working with. Please take into consideration the type and size of organization you are currently working as and where possible engage the community in the establishment of the roles. We are also unclear about the organizational capacity to implement a mini-grants program at this stage. We believe that there are other ways you can support your community apart from the mini-grants. We are of the opinion that it is still early for you to have established the need or opportunity for mini-grants yet. Lastly, we recommend establishing a volunteer led advisory board to support in ensuring healthy governance. We would hope to see more volunteers taking lead including on matters related to the governance of the community.

We hope this feedback and recommendations are useful in guiding your work now and in the future. Thank you for your contribution to the movement ; we value you as a community and partner in the movement and remain committed to ensuring you are supported in your work.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and staff , --Aristidek5maya (talk) 14:13, 29 May 2023 (UTC)