Senior Program Officer, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Senior Program Officer, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Location: Remote and must be based in a country within our current hiring locations in the Sub-Saharan Africa region

Summary The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The Foundation operates one of the world’s top five websites and has global reach and impact. At the core of the projects are volunteers who curate the knowledge that the world has come to rely on.

The Community Resources team is the primary funding function of the Wikimedia Foundation ensuring that we support the Affiliates and volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Movement by offering institutional and individual funding to help achieve the Movement’s goals. To support the movement’s commitment to Knowledge Equity, the team prioritizes proactive outreach to communities that structures of power and privilege have left out.

The Senior Program Officer will implement the regional funding programs serving Wikimedian communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Roles and Responsibilities

Funding Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Implement the Community Resources grantmaking strategy while taking into consideration community needs, opportunities, movement trends, and the regional geopolitical and cultural context.

• Analyze regional and global patterns to shape funding rationales and priorities.

• Design program activities with colleagues to achieve significant, scalable impact.

• Manage, implement and monitor the regional grant portfolio to ensure alignment with strategy, criteria, and impact goals.

• Lead annual grant planning: identify and support prospective and returning grantees, review proposals, co-develop funding rationales with the regional funding committee. This also includes conducting organizational assessments (financial and narrative) to inform funding rationales.

• Work collaboratively across Foundation teams to support implementation of funding program and team objectives.

• Represent the Foundation internally and externally as an ambassador for regional knowledge, priorities and insights.

Committee Development

• Build, onboard, and develop regional funding committees aligned with regional needs and opportunities to enable transparent decision-making as part of participatory grantmaking approaches.

• Set agendas for committee discussions (priorities, financial analysis, partner and regional insights) and facilitate inclusive funding deliberations.

• Provide context, analysis, and synthesis of committee feedback into funding recommendations and decisions.

• Provide constructive feedback to applicants and grantees on outcomes and expectations linked to funding decisions.

Community & Funding Partner Management

• Build and sustain trust-based relationships with communities, grantees, and applicants across the region; act as primary liaison between WMF and partners.

• Understand community needs, dynamics, and challenges; support conflict resolution or sensitive discussions when required.

• Support community, organizational/institutional strengthening of grantee partners; connect them with relevant and needed best practices and resources.

• Design and support convenings, collaborations, and knowledge sharing to enable learning amongst partners within the portfolio, with the community and ecosystem.

• Engage regional philanthropic spaces and leaders to strengthen grantee support and advance meaningful and mission-aligned philanthropy practices.

Evaluation and Learning

• Review grantee progress through conversations, reports, and site visits, and share insight reports.

• Reviews and approves grant reports, following up when necessary to ensure completeness, discussing concerns, and offering appropriate guidance and support.

• Identify trends, gaps, and opportunities from grantmaking data to inform the grant strategy, regional priorities,...