Overview

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a collaborative and results-oriented Manager of Community Development to support core volunteer community development initiatives such as mentoring, face-to-face trainings and workshops (e.g. “learning days” and sessions at regional events), and remote learning modules. We are seeking someone who understands how groups and individuals learn and build capacities and skills in different contexts and at different stages. We are seeking someone to lead efforts to assess community capacity and set achievable targets for development. We are seeking a leader for a team that will create a holistic approach to guiding our volunteer communities to learn in order to reach and grow impact towards our movement’s mission. We’re looking for a candidate who is mission motivated, an organized and effective project and people manager, an advocate for open knowledge, and excited to help build our global volunteer movement.

Responsibilities:

  • Determine a coherent vision and strategy to develop Wikimedia’s volunteer communities, at the group and individual level.
  • Create a framework for identifying, supporting, and developing volunteer leaders in the Wikimedia movement.
  • Design an approach to identify volunteer capacity needs and steps to grow potential (training, partnership, and/or funding), weaving together the expertise of your team, other Foundation teams, and community volunteer groups.
  • Consult on your approach with staff and community and review transparently and publicly on an ongoing basis to ensure that work is impactful and effective.
  • Expand your team as needed to support your vision, with an eye towards diversity, equity, inclusion and WMF values.
  • Manage, support, and collaborate with a distributed team of highly motivated staff and contractors, and collaborate regularly with colleagues in and out of the San Francisco office as well as our diverse international multicultural community of volunteers.
  • Communicate the work, goals, and outcomes of community development initiatives to internal and external audiences.
  • Participate as a member of the Community Engagement department’s lead management team in planning and resourcing department-wide objectives.

Requirements:

  • The capacity to teach. Familiarity with instructional design for international and/or adult audiences. Demonstrated ability to support volunteers or non-profit staff to grow as leaders.
  • The ability to collaborate. Demonstrated capacity to work collegially with others with an open and approachable working style.
  • The ability to build networks. Systems-design thinking to develop an infrastructure for coordinating strategy and services through multiple stakeholder groups. Ability to build and manage cohesive networks for collaboration across organization and greater Wikimedia community.
  • The ability to organize and lead. Demonstrated people management experience (3 or more years). Demonstrated program/project management experience with good long-term strategic implementation skills (3 or more years).
  • The ability to adapt. Comfort with innovative, experimental, iterative, bottom-up collaborative teams, especially around crowd-sourced projects which rely on volunteer engagement.
  • Familiarity with community service-focused, volunteer-based, and/or international initiatives. Commitment to inclusion and diversity. Cross-cultural sensitivity and awareness.
  • A proficient level of written and spoken English, including the ability to communicate clearly with non-native English speakers. Non-native English speakers welcome!

Pluses:

  • Experience working with online communities, particularly as part of the free culture movement.
  • Global perspective, with significant experience living or working internationally.
  • Fluency in languages other than English.
  • Nonprofit, NGO or INGO experience
  • Passion for or experience contributing to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.

**COVER LETTER REQUIRED:  Please briefly explain (2-3 paragraphs) why you are interested in WMF, what you will bring to this role, and your approach to community development. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is… 

…the nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge, free of interference. We host the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive financial support from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply

Benefits & Perks *

  • Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their eligible families (yes, fully paid premiums!)
  • The Wellness Program provides reimbursement for mind, body and soul activities such as fitness memberships, baby sitting, continuing education and much more
  • The 401(k) retirement plan offers matched contributions at 4% of annual salary
  • Flexible and generous time off – vacation, sick and volunteer days, plus 19 paid holidays – including the last week of the year.
  • Family friendly! 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy, flexible options to phase back in after leave, fully equipped lactation room.
  • For those emergency moments – long and short term disability, life insurance (2x salary) and an employee assistance program
  • Pre-tax savings plans for health care, child care, elder care, public transportation and parking expenses
  • Telecommuting and flexible work schedules available
  • Appropriate fuel for thinking and coding (aka, a pantry full of treats) and monthly massages to help staff relax
  • Great colleagues – diverse staff and contractors speaking dozens of languages from around the world, fantastic intellectual discourse, mission-driven and intensely passionate people

* for benefits eligible staff, benefits may vary by locationb

More information

WMF

Blog

Annual Report – 2017

Wikimedia 2030