[Chapter-delegates] On funding dedicated to chapters

Tue Oct 5 10:02:44 PDT 2021

Nazar,
Thank you for sharing your concerns and thoughts. We welcome your feedback and will it take into consideration as we continue to expand the Foundation and the vision of an Internet for everyone.
Sarah

Sarah Armstrong, Executive Director, Internet Society Foundation
(O) + 1 571-401-8501 (M) + 1 703-980-3116
https://www.isocfoundation.org/
[signature_1757664453]

From: Nazar K Nicholas <nnicholaski at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 9:31 AM
To: Jessica Dickinson Goodman <jessica.dickinson.goodman at gmail.com>
Cc: Sarah Armstrong <armstrong at isocfoundation.org>, Hank Nussbacher <hank at isoc.org.il>, Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] On funding dedicated to chapters

Dear Sarah,

Thank you very much for the work you and the team do at the foundation. You are correct in saying that the foundation is still on its learning curve. Also thank you for saying that "We will continuously improve this important program responding to what we learn." This is key.

And there has been some concerns in this list on how the foundation can overcome US-centric style of doing things as it goes about serving its global constituencies(chapters) in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia/Middle East. I happen to hold the thinking that ISOC Foundation is different, needs to be different from the regular American foundation and its cup of biases and culture. If its basic architecture is made up of what makes the normal corporate American foundation, then we are in trouble. And that will need to really be redesigned! Why?

Before it was even born, the ISOC foundation was already a global foundation with local partners(the chapters) in more than 100 countries worldwide. It had already had agents globally before it came out of the womb!

Question is in carrying out the mission of ISOC, does ISOC Foundation think and see chapters as partners or grantees? If 1 or 2 what evidence backs that up?

One might ask,is the fondation really committed to invest in the chapters to help it deliver its mandate globally? Are chapters important to ISOC Foundation? If yes how important in the scale of 10?  Is this importance in the scale of 10 reflected in the percentage of total grants budget that the foundation plans to give?

In the spirit of improving how foundation delivers or should deliver its mandate I propose that the foundation calls the online forum with its constituencies one forum per continent or region. The meetings will focus on how better can the foundation deliver its mandate and work with chapters as local partners rather than grantees.

I am available to volunteer to help with the calls.

+1

On Tue, Oct 5, 2021, 2:12 AM Jessica Dickinson Goodman via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
Hi Sarah,

Thank you for all that you do! I've worked with a fair number of foundations and funders in my career, including teaching grant prospecting for the U.S. State Department's TechWomen<https://techwomen.org/> program. I found the Internet Society Foundation's Beyond the Net Grant process relatively painless, nicely transparent, and the staff responsive and knowledgeable. There's always room for improvement, but when I'm recruiting people to my chapter, the funding streams available to chapters who need support in fulfilling our shared mission is an important part of my pitch.

I hope you have a great day.

Best,

Jessica Dickinson Goodman
Chapter President
San Francisco Bay Area Internet Society

On Mon, Oct 4, 2021 at 12:13 PM Sarah Armstrong via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
Hello to all and wishing you all well.

I've met many of you but not all and wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Sarah Armstrong and I am the Executive Director of the Internet Society Foundation.
I've been following the dialogue in this Chapter-delegates list and have been working with Andrew to get you as much information as we have to respond to the issues you've raised.

First let me say we appreciate your interest in the work of the Foundation. We are still new and still learning but are proud of the work we've done as we come towards the close of our second operational year.

Second, I'd like to share that we truly value our relationship with the Chapters. You are a very important part of the community.  We are regularly in touch with many of you through webinars, emails and Zoom calls.  And we recently distributed a survey to get to even better understand - and thus respond to - your needs. We will continuously improve this important program responding to what we learn.

And third, I'd like to respond to the question about the amount of funds provided for Beyond the Net in 2020 (per note below). The figures on the website erroneously included a small number of awards that were made in 2021 for applications received in 2020. We have tightened our processes around updating initiatives based on calendar years, and numbers reported in our AP2021 and Look Back 2020 were correct.

I am happy to take any additional questions if there are others and continue to encourage all of you to apply for more Beyond the Net grants.
All the best,
Sarah

Sarah Armstrong, Executive Director, Internet Society Foundation
(O) + 1 571-401-8501 (M) + 1 703-980-3116
https://www.isocfoundation.org/

On 10/2/21, 1:25 PM, "Chapter-delegates on behalf of Hank Nussbacher via Chapter-delegates" <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:

    On 01/10/2021 20:45, Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates wrote:
    >
    >> 5. Which was the total budget awarded by the various programs of the
    >>   ISOC Foundation in 2020, including BtN?
    >
    > Total Awarded in 2020 across all programs was $3,801,456.
    > Hope this helps.
    >
    > A
    >
    Dear Andrew,
    Can you explain the discrepancy between your number above and:
    https://www.isocfoundation.org/about/our-projects/
    "We currently support grantees in *58 countries* across 6 continents,
    and awarded *$4,476,879* million in funding in 2020."

    Regards,
    Hank Nussbacher
    ISOC-IL
    _______________________________________________
    As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
    to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
    https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login
    View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/

_______________________________________________
As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login
View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
_______________________________________________
As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login
View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
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