[Chapter-delegates] On funding dedicated to chapters

[Franca Palazzo]

Apologies if this was addressed already but I can't keep up with all the emails.

I believe I already brought this up once and it wasn't addressed.  I would like to point out two issues the Canada Chapter has with the whole process:

  1.  The issues eligible for grants rarely include the issues we are working on and the "other" category is a nightmare to proceed with.
  2.  The entire process is very onerous especially for a $5k grant.

The Canada Chapter has been doing amazing work here and we struggle to fund projects.  Things worked much better when there was a Regional Director who understood the region, issues and needs of a Chapter and had the authority to provide funding.


________________________________
From: Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Sent: September 30, 2021 5:54 PM
To: Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] On funding dedicated to chapters

Hi,

I have the impression that the information I posted was not helpful to you, and I regret that I have not been as helpful as you would wish.

On Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 11:22:55PM +0200, Alexander Blom wrote:

>With 90% of the money going to other external parties

That is, as I tried to point out in this message, not an accurate portrayal of the situation.  There is nothing whatever preventing chapters from applying (or _also_ applying) for grants outside the BtN program.  But BtN is reserved _only_ to this community.  Some chapters have applied to the other progams and been successful, and there is no reason why that can't be true for other chapters as well.  (Some chapters, of course, are not eligible for these grants because those chapters are not the equivalent of US 501(c)(3)s.  That is a structural problem related to US not for profit law.  The Internet Society can't currently act as an intermediary on the larger grant programs.)

>grant-making activities." On the contrary, I think that Nazar is right: why
>does the foundation and in fact all of ISOC does not concentrate on its
>core constituency, the chapters, and its core cause, the internet?

It is certainly the case that there are people doing work on Internet issues who are not and who do not wish to be or cannot be chapter members, so I don't think it would serve the Internet to insist that a chapter be involved in everything.  For instance, there are countries where anything resembling a chapter would be illegal, but we can work with individuals there.

I admit that I don't understand the concern that we're not concentrating on the core cause of the Internet.  The board that hired me and every board since has been crystal clear that they do not want us to be the everything society, and it has been a consistent hallmark of my time here that topics that are vaguely related to technology but are not really Internet topics are not things that we pursue.  Yes, the Foundation will fund things that have to do with the application of the Internet to particular problems, but unless the Internet is at the core of each application the application won't get far.

> If
>Afrinic is truly going through a rough time, why is ISOC not jumping in?

Given that there are active law suits going on, if the Internet Society were helping do you think it would be wise for us to post about it on a list that could be shared very widely?  This is a hypothetical question, of course.

>And why is only 30% of project applications successful?

Well, that is the rate so far this year, but as I said we are working to improve the problematic applications so that this rate can get better.  I don't think I was suggesting that this is a good result, and I believe it will improve as we continue to work with applicants.

Best regards,

A

--
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan at isoc.org
+1 416 731 1261
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