[Foundation-l] Grant agreements

Sun Oct 23 21:59:20 UTC 2011

It's Lisa Gruwell, MZ. Last I heard, she has been waiting to hear back
from a couple of foundations about recent agreements.

Thanks,
Sue

Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation

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415 816 9967 cell

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On 23 October 2011 11:05, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> MZMcBride wrote:
>> Sue Gardner wrote:
>>> Oh. I can speak to this, at least a little. The Wikimedia Foundation has a
>>> policy of publishing our grant applications when the grantmaking institution
>>> is okay with it. We don't do a lot of grant applications, and of the ones we
>>> do, I am guesstimating that two-thirds of the grantmakers have said it's
>>> fine with them for us to publish, and about a third have asked us not to.
>>> Some grantmaking institutions are very happy to publish, because they
>>> believe the sector as a whole benefits from transparency about how things
>>> work. (IIRC Hewlett is an example of that.)
>>>
>>> I do not know where they get published: I'll ask.
>>>
>>> But, some of the grant we receive are unsolicited gifts, in which case there
>>> is no application, and nothing to publish. I think for example that our
>>> recent grant from the Indigo Trust in the UK is an example of that.
>>>
>>> I assume, MZ, that you're mostly interested in the Stanton grant, and I
>>> don't remember their position on this issue. I do know they're not
>>> publicity-seeking, and they don't welcome grant applications that they
>>> haven't solicited. So they might be an example of a foundation that doesn't
>>> want its agreements publicized: I don't remember.
>>>
>>> We can find out :-)
>>
>> That would be great. Thanks. :-)
>>
>> It's mostly the large grants that I'm interested in, the ones that have the
>> power to shape a significant portion of Wikimedia's short-term future.
>> Personally, the applications (assuming there are any) are completely
>> unimportant to me. I can't imagine they're much more than "we'd like X money
>> to fulfill Y portions of our mission", though perhaps I'm wrong. But the
>> grant agreements ("we'll give you X money over Y months to do Z") are the
>> piece that has me curious.
>>
>> Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. There's no rush on this, but I'd
>> most certainly appreciate it if you could take a look or ask someone to.
>
> Bumping this, so I don't forget. I think having public grant agreements
> wherever possible is critically important, particularly with large grants
> that have the potential to drastically (or dramatically) shape the future of
> Wikimedia, at least short-term.
>
> Is there a particular staff member that I can talk to about this? There are
> some grant-specific people, aren't there?
>
> MZMcBride
>
>
>
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