Job openings/Chief of Finance and Administration

JOB TITLE

Chief of Finance and Administration [CLOSED]

BASIC FUNCTION

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization headquartered in San Francisco that operates international web properties and interacts with autonomous chapter organizations located in countries throughout the world. The Foundation provides the operating, managerial and legal infrastructure required to sustain Wikimedia’s free knowledge projects, including Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the world's largest and most- popular encyclopedia, containing more than 17 million collaboratively-created articles in 270 languages. It's used by more than 400 million people, which makes it the fifth most popular website in the world according to comScore Media Metrix.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a mission-driven organization which is committed to building a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge. In 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation completed development of a five-year plan which calls for increasing the reach of Wikimedia’s projects to one billion people by 2015. This growth will be enabled by significantly investing in technological and social systems including ambitious technology projects and additional investments designed to recruit new editors, with a particular focus on women and people in the Global South. The current (2010-11) operating budget of the Foundation is $20.4 million, and spending is planned to increase in the coming years.

To support this growth, the Foundation is engaged in a range of fundraising activities. The cornerstone of these activities is an annual winter online fundraising campaign that brings in hundreds of thousands of small donations (averaging $30) from Wikipedia readers around the world. Those donations come from ordinary people: teachers and parents and students. Since its beginnings in 2003, the Wikimedia Foundation’s revenues have increased annually every year, mainly through growth in small donors, and in 2010 the watchdog group Charity Navigator listed the Wikimedia Foundation as the fastest-growing (by revenues) non-profit in the United States. In 2009-10, the Wikimedia Foundation raised approximately $17.9 million dollars, with 89% of that coming in through the annual campaign. The organization is on track to achieve its revenue targets in 2010-11.

The Wikimedia Foundation is unusual in that it operates an extremely popular web property with a very small staff. That’s possible because the bulk of the work of developing and maintaining the Wikimedia web properties is carried out by a decentralized global network of Wikimedia volunteers. They write Wikipedia and manage all its editorial activities, as well as dedicating countless hours to outreach and content improvement activities, technology work, media and reader relations, fundraising and other activities. The majority of Wikimedia Foundation Board members are long-time Wikipedia editors.

Like a start-up, the Wikimedia Foundation is young, growing quickly, and experimenting. As a highly visible and mission-driven organization, it aims to be careful spending donors’ dollars, and to provide a high level of transparency and accountability to supporters. The Board, senior management team, staff and community are global rather than US-centric, and are highly collaborative, non-hierarchical, and unconventional. This is a roll up your sleeves, participatory organization, and teams tend to form flexibly around projects. The position of the Chief of Finance and Administration (CFA) is critical to the continued development of financial and accounting systems and administrative infrastructure in order to create a supportive, functioning and flexible culture for Wikimedia staff. The ideal CFA for the Wikimedia Foundation will be comfortable with ambiguity and risk, highly collaborative, highly communicative and strongly oriented towards transparency. He or she will aspire to help the Wikimedia Foundation grow quickly and intelligently, through the development of lightweight, flexible financial and administrative practices supporting programmatic work.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Basic Function: The Chief of Finance and Administration will lead the organization’s finance functions, enhancing and managing the financial accounting, budgeting, and reporting; and developing the administrative infrastructure to manage support staff, facilities and office technology systems and processes. Reporting to the Executive Director, the CFA will work closely with the C-level team, the finance, administrative and office technology staff, the Board Treasurer and the members of the Audit Committee. It is essential that the CFA gains their trust and confidence of serving as their partner, advisor and implementer for financial and administrative matters.

The Chief of Finance and Administration will have responsibility for the following areas:

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

• Proactively provide leadership and guidance to the organization; specifically, provide expertise in all financial matters, voicing financial and regulatory implications of pending decisions;
• Lead the annual financial planning process, including the development of forecasts and models for various fundraising scenarios, financial analysis and reporting designed to provide insight into the organization’s operations and plans, and development of the framework for budget preparation. Development of the annual plan and accompanying communications (presentations and Q-and-A material);
• Treasury functions, including managing cash, investment management and developing and sustaining banking relationships;
• Provide accurate and timely information on the organization’s financial status to the Executive Director, Board Treasurer and Audit Committee upon request; develop long and short-range financial plans, and prepare accurate and timely financial and operating reports for the Executive Director and the Board.

ACCOUNTING AND CONTROLS

• Review, streamline and make as transparent as possible Wikimedia’s financial operations; review the chart of accounts, current accounting systems and control procedures, audit trails, financial documentation and workflows; ensure a strong financial controls infrastructure that allows for the flexibility required for growth;
• Working collaboratively within the organization, review, manage existing and establish new internal systems and controls, operations, processes and financial procedures to ensure the integrity of the financial information and reporting;
• Ensure that actual expenditures are in alignment with budget plans; work with all departments to manage and control spending; forecast and manage cash flow to ensure that cash on hand is adequate to meet obligations and future needs;
• Oversee reporting for contracts; tax matters; coordination of compliance audits; collection of earned fees; monthly and annual general accounting close and financial reporting; administration of financial relationships with partners and vendors that provide services to WMF or for whom WMF provides services;
• Responsible for contract and vendor management including the structuring of direct and indirect costs, and negotiation of contract applications, compliance and reporting;
• Complete quarterly and annual tax filings, as required. Understand and ensure adherence to IRS regulations surrounding nonprofit organizations and income classifications.

ADMINISTRATION

• Oversee and manage the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, ensuring operations are effectively supporting staff and are in sync with strategy, including administrative staff, travel and events support, facilities management and office information technology;
• Recruit finance and administration staff with appropriate skills and knowledge in order to strengthen the Wikimedia Foundation, while paying particular attention to incorporating international and culturally diverse perspectives; manage and coach team to continually develop and enhance their professional roles in the organization;
• Develop and administer intelligent operational and administrative policies, standards and practices that are appropriately flexible and non-burdensome;
• Create policies and procedures for use, training, security and maintenance of office information systems; create policies around open source technology usage;
• Work with General Counsel to review contracts and provide guidance to the Foundation from a financial and operational perspective;
• Partner with General Counsel and others on risk management and compliance issues related to the operations of the Wikimedia Foundation (not Wikipedia’s editorial operations), particularly those associated with international money transfers from and to chapter organizations, grantmaking to volunteers, and the funding and staging of global events such as Wikimania;
• Review and ensure the maintenance of adequate and appropriate general insurance coverage including D&O insurance; ensure compliance with laws and regulations affecting WMF and its facilities;
• Oversee vendor relationships for payroll, facilities and management information systems, negotiating terms and ensuring compliance with applicable regulations and are secure from inappropriate access or use;
• Oversee resolutions to any significant facilities issues, reviewing as required building and facilities maintenance procedures, vendor management, compliance with city regulations, collection of rents and fees, and general facilities oversight.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE

The ideal candidate should have the following experience and qualifications:

• Proven managerial, problem-solving and financial planning capability, preferably in the nonprofit sector and/or rapidly growing, start-up environment; prior experience as a CFO or equivalent is desirable;
• Significant experience of knowledge of nonprofit accounting, including fund and grant accounting and revenue recognition issues; experience with international money transfer is a plus. Please note that only a small proportion of the Wikimedia Foundation’s revenues derives from grants: grant reporting is not a large part of their financial work;
• A strong, hands-on background in managing general accounting, budgeting and planning, procedures and controls, and analysis and reporting. An understanding of the strategies and mechanics of budgeting for funding and managing the expenses of nonprofit organizations and foundations;
• Facility and comfort with the basic technologies used to run a large web operation and also to support a small staff that includes remote workers and frequent travel; willingness to support and advocate on behalf of default use of open source technologies in Office IT work; ability to successfully integrate financial and information systems to support an evolving organization;
• Experience in flexibly creating and fine-tuning operations to support a collaborative, creative, forward-thinking environment;
• Ability to extract meaning from numbers and make that meaning understandable to people with widely varying degrees of financial knowledge; commitment to careful usage of donors’ money; desire to be highly transparent and accountable to donors and other Wikimedia community members;
• Experience in recruiting and managing people with internationally and culturally diverse perspectives and experiences; ability and interest in mentoring and developing the team to strive for professional excellence;
• A high energy level and an ability to solve problems and manage multiple activities and responsibilities; a mature level of judgment and decision-making;
• A Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance, preferably with a CPA and/or MBA.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

The successful candidate should have the following characteristics:

• A commitment to Wikimedia’s mission and goals; a team player who understands and can communicate the financial implications of plans and service strategies and who is able to creatively design and explore systems and procedures that fit current and long-term needs that are consistent with mission and goals;
• The ability to collaborate easily with the executive team and other colleagues, staff, partners, vendors and other stakeholder; the ability to communicate effectively and proactively in writing and orally; ability to engender confidence in others is very important;
• The maturity to focus on effective and practical action; a person with high integrity who is able to deliver both good and bad news and is able to solve problems;
• A thinking, relationship-oriented leader with strong technical skills;
• An independent and open-minded individual who values and appreciates diversity and the unconventional; who proactively seeks input from various constituencies and has a service orientation, but also has the ability to make unpopular decisions when necessary;
• Emotionally mature and self-reliant; someone who will thrive working in a small but growing office; ability to tolerate a high degree of ambiguity, and to negotiate with people having sharply defined opinions while maintaining positive, respectful relationships;
• A sense of humor.