User:Wolliff (WMF)

Since 2006, I have been working with volunteers to increase access to information worldwide. Originally from Santa Monica, California, I graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in piano performance, and then moved to Albania to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. After that, I worked for several years in nonprofits, with a focus on getting more people connected to the internet. I have been with the Wikimedia Foundation since 2010, and have worked on the administrative, logistical, programmatic, and strategic sides of grantmaking and organizational support in the Wikimedia movement.

I spend my free time volunteering, of course! I am a volunteer docent at a local history museum, which is really just an excuse to talk to a captive audience about history for hours on end in a socially-sanctioned setting. Also, you can find me using a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus to explore the seas, wherever seas and free time exist simultaneously. I do not consider water temperatures above 10 celsius to be cold, so I enjoy diving in California as well as in warmer waters. I admit that we have some very ugly fish here in California, but I find them compelling nonetheless. I am a dedicated touring cyclist, and a passionate advocate for cycling as a safe, affordable, fun, and environmentally-friendly means of transportation. I love reading, I love languages, I love coffee, and I love volunteers.

I work on the Community Resources team that supports grants programs for groups and organizations in the Wikimedia movement. I work broadly across all of the Wikimedia Foundation's funding streams, with a focus on Annual Plan Grants, to make sure organizations doing Wikimedia work have ways to get support from the Wikimedia Foundation. Besides funding, we connect organizations with resources to improve the way groups and organizations work together with volunteers to achieve common goals. This involves meeting regularly with organizations to connect them with new ideas or offer them feedback about their plans, and occasionally conducting in-person visits so that we can gain better knowledge of the different contexts groups and organizations are operating in globally.

At the Wikimedia Foundation, we make decisions about grants in a participatory way. That means that volunteers are deeply involved with decisions about grants. A big part of my work is supporting the Funds Dissemination Committee and the Simple Annual Plan Grants Committee.

We are currently engaged in a movement-wide strategy process, and in this capacity I serve on the strategy working group about Capacity Building, and am also working together with other members of the Community Resources team to understand how to interpret the movement's strategic direction in order to structure our future work.