[Foundation-l] Wikimedia "Storyteller" job opening

[Zack Exley]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 11:44 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1 March 2011 19:35, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm curious how
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Storyteller
> > fits in with Wikimedia's mission or its strategic plan.
>
>
> It's pretty much directly answered right there on the linked page, for
> anyone else who's wondering.
>
> What bit of the page wasn't clear?
>

Thanks David - I tried to make it as clear as possible.

But there is one important purpose of that job that may be a bit hidden in
between the lines: For this position, I'm looking for someone who can help
free us from dependence on "The Jimmy Letter" in fundraising.

No one -- least of all Jimmy -- thinks it's acceptable that our fundraising
model relies entirely on a letter from the founder. In the 2010 fundraiser,
we found that banners from editors (and Sue) got similar, sometimes slightly
better, click rates as the Jimmy banners.

But the best 15 or 20 major versions Jimmy's letters all performed massively
better than the best-performing editor letters. (BTW: Megan and Ryan
Faulkner are working on a big post-fundraiser report on our testing which
will be released here as soon as it's done.)

Therefore, there's a large chunk of creative work to be done in discovering
letters that can work from editors -- and not only editors, but also
readers, donors, and other figures, such as maybe the Nobel Laureate
Physicist who writes us fan mail.

There's no question that the winning letters have to be written by the
people themselves -- not only for reasons of integrity, but also because
fake letters don't actually work. But letters don't work as fundraisers
simply because they come from the heart. They need to tell a gripping story
(in two paragraphs!), ask for money effectively, and answer several
questions that potential donors have on their minds.

That's a tall order. And that's why I want to hire someone to go spend a ton
of one-on-one time with a whole lot of Wikimedians while working on these
letters.

That is not all this person will do. They will also capture images and
hopefully some video.

And not just for the fundraiser. For the purposes of the fundraiser, we need
this person to amass a mountain of creative material that we can remix, in
collaboration with the original voices behind the material, and test during
the fundraiser.

But shouldn't we use that mountain of material for other purposes too? Yes.
And so this person -- if we are lucky enough to find someone to fill this
role -- will also work closely with Jay & Moka in Communications to use this
material for general purposes too. (Please send recommendations if you know
anyone who can fill this role!)

Max, I hope that helps. If it doesn't, just let me know and I'll provide
more info.

Zack



>
>
> - d.
>
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