Communications Associate, Wiki Education Foundation, San Francisco

[LiAnna Davis]

About the Wiki Education Foundation

Founded in 2013, the Wiki Education Foundation supports innovative uses of Wikipedia and related projects in communities of teaching, learning, and inquiry in the United States and Canada. The Wiki Education Foundation aims to improve the breadth, scope, and quality of content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects; enhance student information fluency; and increase the number and diversity of contributors to the free knowledge movement by engaging educators, researchers, and students.

We are a small group of highly enthusiastic individuals who embarked on a mission to bring education and Wikipedia closer together. Our organization is well funded and will expand from currently six staff members to nine by the end of the year. Our Executive Director is a former member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s (the organization that operates Wikipedia) executive management team, and we bring more than four years' experience in running a program that brings Wikipedia into the classroom.

Read more about our staff here: http://wikiedu.org/about-us/

About the Communications Associate position

The premise of the Wikipedia Education Program is simple: Instructors assign their students to write Wikipedia articles instead of a traditional throwaway assignment. Since 2010, our team has been running and supporting 450 classroom assignments in the United States and Canada. The Communications Associate will be part of a small team of self-starters who work hard but have fun doing it. We're a close-knit group who believe the ultimate outcome is most important, and we're not afraid to pitch in on any task large or small when a coworker needs help. We celebrate our successes and learn from our failures, always trying to make the program better. We share a deep belief that Wikipedia belongs in education, and our commitment is to make this happen at universities across the United States and Canada.

The Wiki Education Foundation is a programs-focused organization, and thus the Communications Associate will spend the majority of his or her time creating communications material such as blog posts and help literature for program participants in support of our programmatic activities. The Communications Associate will also be a point of contact for news media, the Wikipedia editing community, and others interested in our programs and organization. The position is within the programs department, and the Communications Associate will work closely with program managers to ensure the programmatic activities are well communicated.

Duties and responsibilities

Programmatic communications

• Manage organization blog, including writing, editing, and publishing 2–3 posts each week about the programmatic activities.
• Develop literature, including printed and online, that helps program participants learn how to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
• Work with design and print contractors to get well-designed print publications about and in support of our programmatic activities.
• Support program managers with communications needs for their programs, including drafting emails, one-pagers, media relations content, and more.
• Work closely with the Product Manager, Digital Services, to ensure communications aspects of our web platform meet our organizational and programmatic goals.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret statistics about programmatic activities.
• Plan events, including negotiating space and hotel rates, developing agendas, and creating facilitator guides.
• Prepare staff to represent the Wiki Education Foundation at conferences and other speaking opportunities.
• Manage social media.
• Respond to inquiries via email and on-wiki.
• Serve as first point of contact for media.

Organizational communications

• Write, edit, and publish monthly reports.
• Create and publish press releases.
• Maintain organization style guide.
• Update communications plan as needed.
• Support fundraising as needed with grant reports, annual plans, annual report, etc.

Requirements

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• Knowledge of the U.S. or Canada higher education system.
• 2–3 years' experience in a communications role, including blogging, feature writing, news writing, presentations, and media relations.
• Demonstrated excellence in writing, copy editing, and presentations.

Desired qualifications

• Experience in a programs-focused communications role, ideally at a non-profit organization.
• Event planning experience.
• Deep understanding of statistics and how to interpret numbers for a general audience.
• Knowledge of higher education communications and media.
• Experience editing Wikipedia.
• Knowledge of WordPress and HTML.
• Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite or Inkscape/GIMP.

Personal characteristics

• A mission-driven individual with an understanding of, belief in and commitment to the benefits of freely available information.
• A strong believer in the value of using Wikipedia in the classroom who can powerfully embody the vision of the Wiki Education Foundation.
• Intellectually curious and flexible: enjoys tackling difficult, ambiguous problems; loves learning from others and expanding intellectual horizons.
• An outstanding listener and explainer.
• Able to build strong and positive relationships with people in education and Wikipedia.
• Comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion, open to input and feedback; proactive candid communicator who wants people to know what she/he is doing and isn’t afraid to bring others in when things are off-track or when you need help; can handle criticism in a mature fashion.
• Emotionally mature and self-reliant; someone who will thrive working in a small but growing team; an ability to tolerate a high degree of ambiguity, and to negotiate with people having sharply defined opinions while maintaining positive, respectful relationships.

Compensation and workplace

We offer a competitive salary (depending on prior experience) and an excellent benefits package. This position is based in our San Francisco office.

To apply

Application packets must include the following:

• A cover letter
• Your resume
• Three professional writing samples (links to your published work or PDFs)

Send these to jobs@wikiedu.org with "Communications Associate application" in the subject line. Incomplete applications will not be considered.