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YOU ARE ...
.. a learner and a superb writer with a grasp of the structure, tone, and style appropriate to grant writing. You understand Wikimedia's mission, impact, and the principles that guide its work and fundraising. You share your work and collaborate effectively in the spirit of openness and transparency. You excel at assimilating large amounts of information and data from many sources, drawing out relevant pieces, and presenting them in a straightforward way (verbally and in writing). You are thoughtful, with an open mind, and intellectual curiosity that leads you to research and explore. You are comfortable working autonomously at times but communicate effectively when you need help. You prioritize and schedule your time efficiently when presented with a deadline.
JOB TITLE
Grants and Information Officer [CLOSED]
REPORTS TO
Head of Partnerships and Foundation Relations
JOB SUMMARY
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is a nonprofit charitable organization committed to building a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
The WMF maintains the technical infrastructure to support online volunteer communities and pursues a permanent agenda of technical and programmatic innovation. It is financially supported by hundreds of thousands of donors from around the world who give small donations; and also by a few significant grantmaking foundations that are strongly aligned with the WMF mission. WMF is committed to documenting and sharing information on our activities in a timely manner with these foundation-partners. The WMF will also develop new proposals to pursue additional financial support for its general operations from foundation grantmakers.
The San Francisco-based Grants and Information Officer will translate Wikimedia's mission and objectives into compelling proposals, and Wikimedia's accomplishments into comprehensive reports. This person will become an in-house expert on organizational activities in programs, technology, fundraising, and other areas. They will be responsible for documenting and summarizing organizational activities succinctly for use in grant proposals, reports, and elsewhere. They will interface with staff across the organization to gather information, but will be resourceful in finding information by other means: the Grants and Information Officer will become familiar with the wide array of online resources on the Wikimedia movement, and among the Wikimedia Community at-large, to draw from.
This position reports to the Head of Partnerships and Foundation Relations, and works closely with Community department staff.
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
Grant reporting, writing, and administration
- Prepare timely and thorough reports on foundation grants and deliverables
- Draft and edit grant proposals for financial support from foundation funders
- Communicate with Wikimedia programs and technology staff to obtain the information needed for proposals and reports
- Gather and prepare organizational materials and data to accompany grant proposals
- Collaborate with finance team to develop grant budget and spending reports
- Draft grant and project summaries; write acknowledgment letters for grants received
- Maintain and update grants files (electronic and paper)
- Maintain grants reporting and application schedules and time lines
- Prepare standard grant applications and reports for family foundations and major gifts donors
- Maintain foundation database records and enter grant data into CRM database
- Research and identify institutional funding prospects
Information Gathering and Documentation
- Centralize and maintain on-wiki all general information from grants process
- Stay apprised of activities in the Wikimedia community as they relate to grant projects via various sources
- Draft and/or review general written materials on Wikimedia programs, initiatives, and activities
CANDIDATE SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in grant writing, editorial content creation, or similar
- Superior writing, editing, and communication skills
- Attention to detail and strong organizational skills
- Understanding of grants application processes and how grantmaking works
- Facility with financial data
- Ability to assimilate and synthesize large amounts of information into concise summaries
- Strong computer skills and experience editing with or using wiki-based software (or willingness to learn)
- Comfort with a wide variety of communications tools is a must: for example, mailing lists, IRC, instant messaging
- Must be able to work well with people with a very wide diversity of demographic and cultural characteristics
- Must flourish in an environment that is highly transparent and collaborative
- Ability to commute to Wikimedia offices in downtown San Francisco several days per week
- Understanding of free culture / free software /open source is a plus
- Experience in desktop publishing/document production is a plus
CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS
- Intellectual curiosity and thirst for continuous learning
- Mission-driven, with an understanding of online communities
- Demonstrated commitment to the open source movement and the benefits of the free exchange of information
- Equally strong dealing with qualitative and quantitative knowledge and research
- Self-directed, self-motivated, efficient, optimistic
- Ability to work independently and meet deadlines
- Flexibility and resourcefulness in working effectively on multiple projects
- Emotionally mature and self-reliant; thrives in a small but growing office; tolerates a high degree of ambiguity, maintains positive, respectful relationships
- Professional and patient
- Stickler for details
- A sense of humor
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation got its start in 2003 and is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia. Based in San Francisco, California, we currently employ over 150 staff and contractors globally. The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to creating a world in which every single human being can freely and easily share in the sum of all knowledge. Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive nearly 500 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property worldwide. Wikipedia is available in more than 280 languages, containing more than 25 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of over 100,000 people. In an effort to continue our mission, we are hiring talented and creative individuals to join the team.
