Hello everyone, 


The Community Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation is hosting our first ever community call on February 23, 2022 from 15:00 - 16:00  UTC on Zoom


The purpose of the community call is to provide a space for volunteers to meet the Community Development team. The five-person Community Development team is responsible for developing accessible opportunities for volunteers to grow critical capacities and leadership skills for movement sustainability and growth. The community call is also a shared space for all volunteers to hear or speak about projects related to capacity building & leadership development in the Wikimedia community. 


Our first call, Meet the Community Development Team will include a sign up sheet for those who would like to speak for 5-10 minutes about their individual/community capacity building work. 


If you would simply like to attend and listen, join the Zoom link at the scheduled call time, please find the link here.


Although the primary language of the call is English, we are committed to providing simultaneous translation to the best of our ability.  Please use the same sign up sheet to indicate your language preference so that we can best accommodate translation support as needed. 


Some may be asking, what is capacity building and why is the Community Development team supporting this work? 


What is capacity building? Capacity building is any activity aimed at developing a skill or capability in others; it can take many forms, ranging from formal training through online self-study courses to individual mentorship.


The “Invest in Skill and Leadership Development” recommendation of the 2030 Wikimedia Movement Strategy encourages movement-wide capacity building as a necessity to achieve our strategic commitment to Knowledge Equity. Capacity building has the ability to encourage diversity, redistribute and share resources, welcome newcomers and grow communities.  


Community Development is launching this series to ensure we can hear directly from volunteers who are interested in or who already are leading capacity building work in their communities. This is one one way we plan to create a space for direct conversations with volunteers about the different contexts, challenges, and opportunities in capacity building across the movement. 


How do our projects relate to capacity building and leadership development? 

Our team's portfolio is a curation of online and offline learning programs and resources that aim to enable skill development and resilience in the movement.


Some of our recent capacity building projects include the  Wikilearn Online Learning Pilot, Board of Trustees Candidate toolkit and the 2021 Wikimania Speaker Series.


In order for us to continue building relevant curricula and programming, we need to hear from the Wikimedia movement. Please visit the Community Development team page to learn more about our capacity building and leadership development projects. 


Key Dates: 




To participate in the community call: 



We are excited to see and hear from you in our call next month! 


Thank you,


Community Development team





Cassie Casares 
Program Support Associate 
Community Development 
Wikimedia Foundation