Wednesday, September 30, 2015

How can funders effectively support volunteers in movement building? This interactive session was all about how volunteers and organizations can work together as part of a movement. Throughout this webinar, we used a recent collaboration between Wikimedia Foundation and TCC Group as an example, showcasing what we’ve learned about how funders can effectively work as part of a shared-ownership movement. We explored different roles that volunteers play when cooperating with movement organizations and/or when acting independently. We discussed the best ways to leverage staff and organizations for increasing volunteer impact. We also asked participants to share what they’ve learned, or ask questions they still had about how to effectively fund volunteers in a movement.

About the Presenters:

Winifred Olliff, Program Officer, Wikimedia Foundation

Since 2006, I have been working with volunteers to increase access to information worldwide. Originally from Santa Monica, California, I graduated from Northwestern University, and then moved to Albania to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. 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 work to support groups and organizations doing Wikimedia work around the world, including Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups. This means that I work broadly across all of the WMF's funding streams, with a focus on Annual Plan Grants, to make sure organizations doing Wikimedia work have ways to get support from the WMF. Besides funding, we connect organizations with resources to improve the way they work together with volunteers to achieve common goals.

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Wolliff

Marieke Spence, Consultant, TCC Group

Consultant Marieke Spence brings a rich background in strategic philanthropy, program planning, and impact investing to her work at TCC Group. Some of her recent clients include the Ford Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Prior to joining TCC Group, Spence provided strategic counsel, research, analysis, planning, and program design to clients including the Philanthropic Initiative and the Beijing-based Kaifeng Foundation. Spence also served as a fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where her research centered on mission-related and program-related investments. While at Hewlett she contributed to the article “When Can Impact Investing Create Real Impact” published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (Fall 2013).

Spence serves on the board of Exploring the Metropolis (EtM), a New York City nonprofit working to foster a vibrant and prolific performing arts community around shared resources of space and talent, increase stability and growth within the artistic community, and help broaden public access to the performing arts.

In addition to her consulting background, Spence has over seven years of experience in strategic communications, marketing, and media in the private and nonprofit sectors. She was formerly Director of Corporate Communication and Strategy at The Kessler Group, a financial services company; producer of “On Point with Tom Ashbrook,” a nationally-syndicated NPR program; and Assistant Director of Communications at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Spence is a graduate of Brown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her Master’s thesis examined incentives to encourage public-private partnerships in the advancement of U.S. public diplomacy. Her executive education includes the 2013 Impact Investing Programme at Oxford University’s Said Business School.

http://tccgrp.com/media/bios/mspence.php

Deepti Sood, Evaluation Consultant, TCC Group

Deepti Sood is an Evaluation Consultant at TCC Group with deep experience in program evaluation and organizational assessment. During her time with the firm, she has helped organizations become more learning-focused in their outcomes and evaluation work. Sood has also assisted clients in the creation of evaluation plans that dovetail with strategic planning goals and has evaluated several multi-year grantmaking portfolios.

While at TCC, Sood has worked with a large number of nonprofits and philanthropies at the local, national, and international level. Some of her recent clients have included the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Camp Fire USA, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others.

Sood has technical experience with many facets of evaluation, including designing interview tools, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data sets, and presenting findings to internal and external stakeholders. A hallmark of Sood’s work is the communication of evaluation findings in a straightforward and accessible manner.

Before joining the firm, Sood worked extensively with nonprofits in Connecticut, focusing on evaluating programs with an emphasis on learning and improvement.

Sood earned an MA in Psychology and BA in Psychology and Sociology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. She earned distinction as President of Psi Chi society (for honors in Psychology) and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

http://tccgrp.com/media/bios/dsood.php

Rika Gorn, Analyst, TCC Group

Since joining the firm in February 2014, Rika has worked on a variety of strategic planning, evaluation, implementation and capacity-building engagements with community and place-based foundations, health funders, and non-profits including Wikimedia Foundation, Bethel New Life, Interfaith Youth Corp, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, St. David’s Foundation, and A Healthier Wisconsin. 

Prior to joining TCC Group, Rika worked at the Vera Institute of Justice on issues related to policing in immigrant communities, homeland security, and the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. From 2009-2012 she managed grants and projects at 14 different community centers as part of COJECO – a non-profit serving immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. Rika also helped develop the Blueprint Fellowship, a social entrepreneurial fellowship that gives 25 immigrants small grants to create innovative community projects. In its fifth year, the fellowship has graduated over 80 participants and has developed into its own thriving community. Rika received her Masters in Public Administration from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service in 2013.

Recording: 

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