Simple/Applications/WikiInAfrica 2020/Staffing and Organisational Dev Plan

Wiki In Africa, as an organisation, runs on a very efficient model of two main leads with the addition of team members (paid via stipend or voluntary) per project and as funding allows. Historically, all the funding for organisational time, project management and communications work have been drawn from project-to-project budgets. It is important to move away from this model to ensure stability within, and the long term growth of, the organisation and the longevity and synergistic scaling of its programmes.

Wiki In Africa Staffing Plan

Prior to and since the organisation’s inception in 2017, the two main principals – User:Anthere and User:Islahaddow – have been collaborating and sharing equally the responsibilities and tasks across their work. It is not possible to continue this way as the budgets available for first-time APG grant applications will not allow the expenditure that is needed to make this happen. For this reason, we have apportioned the tasks and workflow required to instigate the annual plan detailed here into two clear roles: the WIki In Africa Lead and a Communications Lead. The details on expectations can be found below. Please note: Wiki In Africa is a registered NGO in South Africa. As such, its financial structures are based in South Africa and are the responsibility of Isla Haddow-Flood, as the Wiki In Africa Chair.

Wiki In Africa Lead

Who

Florence Devouard (User:Anthere) has been the co-founder, co-creator and co-project lead on all of Wiki In Africa’s projects and several WikiAfrica projects in the past. In addition to her organisational and programme management skills, and her in-depth knowledge and links within the Wikimedia Movement, she also works in both English and French. Florence has been co-managing Wiki In Africa since its inception in 2017 and has, to date, focused on the financial accountability side of the organisation. Among her considerable, diverse and many strengths are in project management, person-to-person mentoring, Wikimedia movement navigation, on-wiki coordination, financial administration and dual-language project implementation.

Considerations

The rate for an association director in France would typically range from 50-55k euros (gross salary). This includes salary + 22% social taxes paid by the employee. This does not include social taxes paid by the company for this staff, which are on average 42% of the gross salary. Accordingly, the average full cost of an Association Director would be around 71-78k euros (77k-85k dollars) as paid by the company hiring her. Note that this does not take into account “environmental expenses”, traditionally paid by the company (computer, office…). Also, it would be complex to have Florence in a formal staff-employee role of Wiki in Africa given that Wiki in Africa is incorporated in South Africa whilst Florence lives in France. Our proposition is that, just as many people working for the Wikimedia Foundation, she be a contractor of Wiki in Africa. Accordingly, the first step will be to craft a formal contractual agreement between Wiki in Africa and herself, defining roles, responsibilities, and benefits for both parties. We plan to inspire ourselves from previous agreements WiA/Florence/Isla have been involved in (such as agreements signed in the past with Goethe Institute on the WLW project, or with Wikimedia Foundation on the ISA project, or with Yorg on the WLA projects). One of the outcomes of staff plan 2020 will be to come up with a standard agreement which might be used in the future with other contractors. Florence has registered an individual company in 2008 and routinely operates by invoicing from this structure. France has some interesting employment requirements that need to be navigated (see below in annexe). We do intend to manage this contractual agreement according to the legal and financial obligations of both South Africa and France. To make things short, the invoice of an individual company must include an amount that will cover:

1. salary (resulting benefit for the individual)
2. taxes expenses (entirely paid by the individual company to the state, those represent 30%)
3. non-taxes operating expenses (typically phone, internet, equipment, insurance, bank services, accounting costs, software packages, post office, travel….)

On average the elements add to the following: 100% invoiced = 30% taxes, 25% “non-tax” expenses, 45% salary. We separated those three lines in the budget with the understanding that some operating expenses would be paid (or reimbursed) by WiA from the WiA budget (typically travel expenses), whilst some of the operating expenses would be actually directly paid by Florence from the proposed salary for the sake of simplicity (typically, on the French side, banking services, accounting costs etc.). Given the weight of Florence’s experience, it is reasonable for her to expect an annual salary of 49k euros per year. She proposes to work at 0.4 FTE for 12 months, which would add up to 19600 euros (salary) + 8400 euros (social taxes) (21500 dollars and 9210 dollars respectively).

Key Responsibilities:

The Wiki In Africa Lead will manage the Wiki In Africa programmes that are listed in the annual plan detailed here. Her work will ensure the success and effectiveness of the programmes that are being implemented and researched over this year cycle.

The Wiki In Africa Lead’s responsibilities include:

• Manage all of the administrative tasks of the organization.
• Manage the organization's data and metrics management platforms: MailChimp, Dashboard, etc..
• Update and maintain the accounts and repositories of information of the organization: email accounts, Google Drive.
• Work with the Wiki In Africa Chair to analyze and improve operations and workflows.
• Collaborate with the Communications lead (& Wiki In Africa Chair) to strategise, plan and implement each aspect of the Wiki In Africa programmes over 2020.
• Represent the organization (presentations at conferences, media interviews etc.)

Programmatic management

• Manage the back-end, and the on-wiki work required for Wiki Loves Africa program to run smoothly
• Collaborate with the Communications lead (& Wiki In Africa Chair) to create and implement the Wiki Loves Women small grants fund
• Research, approach and establish a WLW funds committee to oversee applications
• Work with the implementing teams on the programmes as they are activated
• Co-ordinate with, or facilitate and encourage conversations with, existing and new partners (in particular on WLA, WLW, WikiFundi and WikiChallenge projects)
• Work with the Communications lead (& Wiki In Africa Chair) to develop an internal communication strategy.
• Input into and approve an external communication strategy developed by the Communications lead for each programme and the organisation.
• Document, monitor, evaluate and manage the submission of reports on each of the programmatic areas for the final grant report/s, with the support of the Communication lead.

Finances

• Track programmatic and volunteer remuneration, notification and reimbursement.
• Monitor financial payments and reporting
• Liaise with the accounting firm for year-end financials auditing.

Communications Director

Who

Isla Haddow-Flood (User:Islahaddow) has been the co-founder, co-creator and co-project lead on all of Wiki In Africa’s projects and many of the WikiAfrica movement projects since 2011. In addition to her organisational and programme management, her strengths lie project strategy, grant applications and fundraising, communications and publicity strategy, liaison and implementation. Her responsibilities are detailed below.

Considerations

The rate for a Communications Director in South Africa ranges from R62,000-R100,000/month. The average salary is at around R744k/year (USD49k). It is reasonable for her to expect an annual salary of USD48k per year. However, budgets determine this is not possible. For this reason, she agrees to dedicate a quarter (0.25) of her full-time hours for 8 months in peaks over 8 months. She acknowledges that reality will dictate her working over the ascribed hours, but is willing to do so.

In a similar way to Florence, Isla would be formally contracted to Wiki In Africa for the Communications tasks outlined below.

Key Responsibilities:

General communications and Grants

• Raise Wiki In Africa’s and each project’s profile and brand through the implementation of integrated strategies, and through strategic communications, and public relations efforts;
• Conceptualise and develop the brand of each programme across all public interface deliverables, such as design, website, online, merchandising, social management, animations, video, etc.;
• Consult with the Wiki In Africa Lead to develop both internal and external communication strategies and networking opportunities;
• Donor management support by identifying platforms for and raising the profile of Wiki In Africa’s existing funders through existing and new communications platforms, and PR opportunities;
• Supporting organisational development and funder management through communications.
• Financial management and documentation of all communications elements;
• In consultation with Wiki In Africa Lead, will be responsible to find new donors, hire grant writing services, leading writing grants, etc..
• Writing reports in collaboration with WIA Lead;
• Represent the organization (presentations at conferences, media interviews etc.)

Programs

• Collaborate with the Wiki In Africa Lead to strategise, and plan each aspect of the Wiki In Africa programmes over 2020.
• Open Knowledge Curriculum is a concept being developed by Isla, as a result, she will oversee all programmatic tasks associated with this project
• Financial payments of all programmes and organisational costs.
• Strategise, approach and discuss with potential advisors to attract members to the advisory boards for the programmes WLA and WLW; Coordinate the initial meetings;
• Supervision and management of project-based communications volunteers.
• Manage Winners of WLA (announcements, communication with winners, prizes)
• Facilitating media relations for projects where appropriate through public relations efforts, (e.g. the development of press releases, newsletters, articles, and editorials);
• Monitoring and evaluation of all communication elements across the projects;
• Input into project documentation;
• Work with the Wiki In Africa Lead to analyze and improve operations and workflows to make programmes more efficient; and

Annex 1

The happy world of French Labour Taxes, aka The rationale for the amount set for taxes for France
French Labor Laws are a bit complicated. No money can be collected without invoices issued by a company. There are two types of legal business structure in France. One is to be a sole trader (entreprise individuelle, EI), and the other is to be a company (société). Florence has registered an EI in 2008 and routinely operate by invoicing from this structure.

In this legal framework, the worker and the business are treated as one legal entity. The entire professional activity is run through the EI (that is... money coming from invoice is added to the business, any expenses are deducted from the business). At the end of the year, the benefits resulting from the activity (revenues - expenses) are said to be the "personal income" of the individual worker (if the expenses are higher than the revenues, then there are no benefits and thus no personal income, there is a negative salary). The amount of income taxes to pay by the independent worker is then similar to any other French worker.

But this is not all needs to be paid. Everyone working in France must pay social charges. Those will give the person access to the French welfare system (health benefits, retirement benefits, family benefits, CSG-CRDS). Those are not optional, but mandatory. The percentage of mandatory social taxes is the highest in all OCDE countries. On average, the rate in France is 33.6% of a salary, for an average of 22.3% in Europe [1].
For regular staff members of big companies, the social charges are shared, about 2/3 of them being paid by the employer, and about 1/3 being supported by the staff member. In an individual company, those social charges are supported entirely by the company. When one is running a business one has to pay French social security contributions in advance. One has to pay the charges at specific times and there are penalties for missing the deadlines. The amount to pay is quite complicated to foresee, as the amount to pay during the current year is based on company benefits in the two previous years, an estimate of the current year activity and equilibrium of real versus estimated amounts paid the previous years. When the final estimated amount is incorrect, compensation will be implemented the two following years. A company with no benefits will have to pay a certain amount in all cases.
An additional tax is called the Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises (CFE), and is based on the rateable value of the business property (running a business in one living room at home does require to pay the CFE...). And yet another tax is the Contribution pour la Formation Professionnelle (CFP).

How much the company pays for mandatory social taxes is complex, depending on the company structure, depending on fiscal choices attached to it, and depending on the level of revenues of the company. An overview of mandatory taxes percentage may be found on this page: [2] and there [3]. Generally, for an independant worker, it is around 30% of the benefits. When the other expenses of the company stay very low (typically when the person is a contractor and most of her operating expenses are reimbursed), one may consider the number of expenses including social taxes would represent around 35% of what is invoiced. In most cases though, an independent is paying the other operating expenses (telephone, internet, equipment, insurance, bank services, accounting costs, software packages, post office costs, travel costs, or even rent). On average, the benefits of a freelancer working from home with some travel typically will be 45-50% of the total amount invoiced. Florence has operated with an EI for 11 years and confirms that these figures are a good estimate in her case.
Some more info: https://www.expatica.com/fr/finance/taxes/corporate-taxes-in-france-and-french-corporate-tax-rates-445980/

Wiki In Africa Organisational Development Plan

As mentioned in the project plan, the strategic plan for 2020 is to ensure that Wiki In Africa organisation and its projects are stabilised beyond the insecurity of project funding cycles. Much has been achieved by a small team with additional support by the Wikimedia Movement across Africa, and beyond. While the projects themselves are well known, used and loved among the community, the mechanisms that drive these projects are under constant threat. Funding streams are insecure and potential funders cannot understand why additional funding is required away from WMF structures. This application for simple APG is to ensure year-round funding for both organisational stability and development that will have the required positive, proactive effect towards long-term planning and necessary scaling for all WIA programmes.

Advisory panels and community feedback

With regards to the Organisation development, the plan is to establish advisory panels for 3 of the programmes: Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Women and the Open Knowledge Curriculum. Organisational time will be spent researching, developing the panels and on-boarding the advisors.

Visibility and advocacy

Visibility and advocacy are necessary roles of the team to establish strategic and aligned partnerships across the continent and beyond. Local meetings with aligned and thematically-specific organisations are essential to the success of continuing work. Consultative and collaborative events are additional ways to provide vital feedback to ensure the ongoing relevance and need for programmes. It is also necessary to attend and, where possible, present Wiki In Africa programmes at global conferences, such as UNESCO Mobility Week, UNESCO JEP, CC Summit, AFEMS 2020, etc.. As there are several thematic overlaps (WikiFundi with Education programmes, Wiki Loves Women and Wiki Loves Africa, etc.) travel costs (local and regional for meetings, and global non-Wiki events) cannot be assigned to individual programmatic areas.

Activities

Activities include:

• Annual General Meeting (AGM)

• a necessary, analysis and strategic planning event for both for the development of the organisation, and the scaling and future plans for the programmatic areas and projects.