[Chapter-delegates] On funding dedicated to chapters

[Flávio Rech Wagner]

Hi Andrew

In order that we have a more solid basis for our discussion on the 
grants chapters are receiving, and taking finalfigures from 2020, could 
you please tell us in a very concrete way:

 1. How much money went to “small grants” of the BtN program in total in
    2020? How many projects have been approved? How many chapters
    benefited from “small grants”?
 2. How much money went to “large grants” of the BtN program in total in
    2020? How many projects have been approved? How many chapters
    benefited from “large grants”?
 3. Which was the total budget of the BtN program in 2020?
 4. How much money went to chapters through other programs of the ISOC
    Foundation in 2020?
 5. Which was the total budget awarded by the various programs of the
    ISOC Foundation in 2020, including BtN?

I must say that ISOC Brazil is very happy to receive small and large 
grants from the ISOC Foundation. They have been instrumental for many of 
our activities and have helped us leverage additional funding from other 
sources. I must also say that we have a very good relationship to the 
ISOC Foundation staff, which is always available and very helpful. And I 
agree that things are becoming much easier, for submitting both 
applications and final reports.

So, from my perspective, this discussion is not about the quality of the 
work done. It is about strategic decisions on the distribution of the 
overall budget and about the relative weight of the chapters.

Best,

Flávio


> 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
>
-- 
Prof. Flávio Rech Wagner		

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul      flavio at inf.ufrgs.br
Instituto de Informática                       Fone: +55-51-3308 9494
Porto Alegre, Brasil                           http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~flavio

Presidente da Internet Society Brasil
flavio at inf.ufrgs.br, info at isoc.org.br          Fone: +55-51-3308 9494
https://www.isoc.org.br                        Twitter: @ISOCBrasil
https://www.facebook.com/isocbrasil/           https://www.youtube.com/isocbrasil

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