On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 11:44 AM, David Gerard <dger...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1 March 2011 19:35, MZMcBride <z...@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. > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
