Working hours: 20-30 hours/week

Contract Duration: 5 months, start of May through the end of August 2025

Travel: Attendance for a site visit week of the May 12, 2025 to Nairobi and for the event August 5th to August 9th is required

CONTRACTOR to provide the following services: Event support, Scholarships support, communication, working with our team and designated agents.

The contractor will be working as part of the wider movement communications team and closely with Wikimedia Foundation teams, The Scholarships Sub committee and Wikimania's (volunteer) Organizing Team. Contractor will report to the Senior Manager, Movement Communications and Event Volunteer Coordinator and work closely with the Core organising team.

Introduction and context

The Wikimedia foundation is the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and our other free knowledge projects. We want to make it easier for everyone to share what they know. To do this, we keep Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites fast, reliable, and available to all. We protect the values and policies that allow free knowledge to thrive. We build new features and tools to make it easy to read, edit, and share from the Wikimedia sites. Above all, we support the communities of volunteers around the world who edit, improve, and add knowledge across Wikimedia projects.

Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by volunteers and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source software, free knowledge and free content, and social and technical aspects related to these topics.

Since 2011, the winner of the Wikimedian of the Year award (known as the "Wikipedian of the Year" until 2017) has been announced at Wikimania.

The first conference was organized by volunteers in 2005 and since then the event has grown in size and scale. Due to the pandemic, the event in 2020 due to happen in Bangkok was canceled. In 2021, the event has its first ever completely virtual edition. This event saw an increase in participation both in numbers of participants, but also more equitable attendance from different regions across the globe. The event is a key point in many Wikipedians calendars and it is a place and time for people to connect, learn and be part of a truly global community. In 2022 Wikimania took place as a Hybrid event - with participants online and also at satellite events across the world.

In 2023, Wikimania returned to being largely in person in Singapore, with some hybrid elements. Last year the event was in Poland and for 2025 the event will be hosted in Nairobi, Kenya by a group of East African volunteer organisers and the Wikimedia Foundation.

We will be offering funded places at the event to people we call 'scholars'. Their travel and accommodation costs will be paid for by the Wikimedia Foundation and this role will be helping to support, communicate with and coordinate with this group of people, from all over the world.

You will be responsible for:

• Supporting the Wikimania 2025 Core Organizing Team with the facilitation and coordination of scholarships awarded to individuals for attending Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi.
• Supporting communication with successful scholars on requirements needed for travel, visas and accommodation
• Communication and coordination with scholars on volunteer role opportunities at Wikimania. Previous experience working with volunteers is expected.
• Attending Scholarship coordinating weekly call on every Tuesday 06:00 pm EAT and Core Organizing Team weekly call on 7 pm EAT.
• Building the FAQ for guidance of answering potential inquiries
• Answering any ad hoc questions with guidance from the Senior manager and the Core Organizing Team
• Collaborating in the making of and sending out a 'Wikimania Guide for Attendees' to give essential and helpful information about when they arrive, Kenya customs and culture and their time at the event.
• Attendance at Wikimania 2025 to support scholars while they are at the event with queries and questions. Dates are August 6th to 9th.
• Post event evaluation, reporting and review of the scholarship process

You will be expected to:

• Attend Core Organising Team or sub committee meetings sometimes at weekend and evening, to work through action items and updates
• Support the Scholarship sub committee with any necessary admin work and coordinating the committee's work and facilitate some of the work including internal and external communications
• Contribute to post event surveys and debriefs
• Working with the event team to help develop the content for and facilitate training and information sessions
• Attend pre event training for all event support that will be on site at the event
• Help manage documents via Google Docs and spreadsheets
• Work with volunteers on keeping information up to date on the Wikimania pages and communication channels regarding Scholarships
• Help to liaise arrival and departure of volunteers with designated local agents.
• Help coordinate scholars volunteering activities during the event including helping to organize the volunteer rotas during Wikimania and being there at the event to help with any last minute changes or trouble shooting

Skills and Experience:

• Strong administration and record keeping skills
• Use of tools such as email campaign platforms and records systems
• Good communicator with the ability to deal with people from all walks of life, good customer or audience facing skills
• Experience of working with a diverse range of people
• Can do attitude to problem solving
• General Conference and Event experience
  • 3-5 years of experience with event coordination
• Experience working directly with a diverse set of volunteers across different regions
• Experience managing using of tools such as email campaign platforms and records systems
• Experience with coordinating a high volume communications

Additionally, we'd love it if you have:

• Global working
• Understanding of the East Africa regions events and conference industry
• Mission Driven: You believe in the power of inclusive communication and movement building to make free knowledge accessible to everyone.
• Openness and Curiosity: We work on new and interesting problems in public and collaborative ways.
• Resilience: Working together for outcomes, willingness to change course when warranted and motivated by high standards.
• Positivity: Sharing a culture of constructive criticism and respect.
• Team-oriented: Natural inclination for team collaboration and for helping colleagues succeed
• Intentionally inclusive: Strong personal values related to participation, equity, and diversity in global movements

About The Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates 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 freely. We host Wikipedia and 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 donations 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.