[Grants] The Privacy Project - grant application decision

[Jonathan Woithe]

The Privacy Project - Kelsie Ng

This grant application was considered by the Linux Australia Council at its
meeting on 27 August 2019.  After discussing the details of the proposal it
was decided to decline the application in its current form.  However,
Council recognise the importance of educating people about online privacy and
are pleased that groups are forming to facilitate this.  To this end Council 
encourages the submission of a revised application which addresses the
concerns raised, and would welcome further interaction with The Privacy
Project towards this goal.

The concerns held by Council are summarised below, in no particular order.

 1. As touched on during the mailing list discussion, it was agreed that
    the 12 month funding option was not feasible.  A more realistic level
    an initial funding round for a project such as The Privacy Project would
    be around $3000.

 2. When considering any level of funding it was not clear how
    precisely the funding might be used by the project.  To address this,
    perhaps develop budgetary costings for some specific activities you need
    to carry out.  This will make it clear where the money would be going to
    and provide a natural approach to evaluation of success.

    Council acknowledges that the level of funding support available from
    Linux Australia was perhaps not completely clear to you, which has
    possibly lead to a chicken-and-the-egg problem.  Council would welcome a
    direct discussion with you to clarify this, which would then make it
    easier to identify activities to target for Linux Australia funding.    

 3. While the proposal and subsequent mailing list discussion included a
    very high level description of the aims of The Privacy Project and
    the actions it might do, the actions themselves were not developed.
    It was therefore difficult to determine where Linux Australia funding
    might have been directed, and how the effectiveness could be evaluated.
    This situation could be remedied as outlined in item 2: focus on a small
    number of specific sub-projects which Linux Australia could consider
    funding.

 4. Concern was raised about the number of groups already working in the
    same broad area that The Privacy Project appears to be targetting (for
    example, Electronic Frontiers Australia, Digital Rights Watch).  That
    said, it was acknowledged that none of these had exactly the same focus
    on privacy education.  There was also the stated aim of The Privacy
    Project to obtain tax deductible status for donations.  That said,
    Council felt that it would be worth considering the merits of conducting
    The Privacy Project with the support of an existing organisation.  This
    approach has the potential to free up funding from administrative tasks
    and allow it to be directed to the specific actions The Privacy Project
    wishes to pursue.  If such cooperation is not possible, it would be
    beneficial to outline the reasons why in the grant application since
    this will provide justification for the establishment of another
    organisation.

 5. While the grant application mentioned monthly costs, there was little
    detail provided as to how the figures were derived.  For example,
    hosting was costed at $200, although suitable hosting appears to be
    readily available for one tenth of this.  Having information about how
    the monetary figures were derived would help Council properly evaluate
    the amounts being requested, and perhaps suggest options to make more
    efficient use of funding.

    It was also noted that catering costs for events can be reduced
    considerably by seeking out sponsorship specifically for catering.

The Linux Australia Council would like to emphasise that the broad aims of
The Privacy Project are important.  Council is very interested in discussing
the project with you so a revised, more targetted grant application might be
submitted.  Please feel free to follow up to me directly or through
council at linux.org.au.

Regards

Jonathan
(on behalf of Linux Australia)