Bid solicitation

Wikimedia Canada Logo

Bid solicitation for an independent consultant in institutional advancement management for Wikimedia Canada

Cut-off date for the reception of offers is July 2nd 2018, 23h59.

The use of masculine in this document has for unique goal to lighten the text and indicates both women and men.

Objective

Through the present bid solicitation, Wikimedia Canada wishes to receive offers from qualified consultants to serve as institutional advancement manager for the organization. The ideal consultant will have experience and expertise in organizational management and strategic planning within a non-profit organization in the field of free knowledge. He will be an excellent communicator and will know how to write with clarity and concision both in English and French.

Timeline

Wikimedia Canada is looking for an independent consultant in institutional advancement management for a period of six (6) months from August 6th 2018 to February 3rd 2019.

Background

Wikimedia Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to the growth, development and distribution of knowledge in a free way in Canada. The mission of Wikimedia Canada is to support and outreach to Canadians in order to collect, develop and distribute knowledge and other pedagogic, cultural and historical contents in all languages of Canada, including indigenous languages, under a free license or in the public domain.

To do so, Wikimedia Canada:

• helps and encourages people to collect, develop and distribute knowledge and other pedagogic, cultural and historical contents in the public domain or under a license that authorizes everybody to freely use, distribute and modify this content without having to pay royalties,
• collaborates with galleries, libraries, archives, museums and universities (GLAMU) in order to make their holdings more largely and freely accessible to those interested in an effort of preservation of the heritage of Canada,
• uses, encourages the use of and educates people on the use of free information resources, either electronic or printed, for the advancement of education, and
• encourages the development of contents in the languages of Canada, including, but not limited to, English, French and Canadian indigenous languages.

Wikimedia Canada is an organization based on members managed by a board of directors and entirely operated by volunteers. Registration as members is open to everybody.

The organization was founded in November 2010 and was approved as an official chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in May 2011. The Wikimedia Foundation is a charity registered in the United States dedicated to encouraging the growth, the development and the distribution of free, multilingual and pedagogic content as well as providing all this content on a wiki base to the public free of charge. It operates the largest projects edited collaboratively in the world, which the most known is Wikipedia, available in more than 300 languages and one of the ten websites the most visited in the world.

Wikimedia Canada is an organization relying entirely on the involvement of volunteers who share the values and support the missions of the organization. For the last year, the organization is in a process of institutional development in order to achieve higher corporative standards and to increase its professionalism level.

Tasks and responsibilities

Wikimedia Canada is looking for a person to support the organization and its volunteers as an institutional advancement manager. The services sought include tasks of counsel, management, administration and leadership. The services must be accomplished in an autonomous and remote fashion. The services provider must show initiative, expertise, flexibility and availability.

The tasks include:

• providing advice and recommendations to the board of directors and its committees on management, governance, administration, capacity building, financing, budget planning, grants, strategic planning and partnerships.
• informing and advising the board of directors on the steps and the requirements necessary to obtain charity status with the government of Canada and coordinating the efforts of Wikimedia Canada to obtain it.
• coordinating the efforts of Wikimedia Canada to obtain new revenue sources.
• reviewing, completing and formatting documents prepared by the board of directors and its committees including budgets, strategic and annual plans, minutes of meetings as well as communications written by the board of directors for the members of the organization.
• participating in the meetings of the board of directors and its committees.
• monitoring the public communication means of the organization including its website, social networks, email and mailing list.
• representing Wikimedia Canada in meetings and conferences.
• put content online on the website of Wikimedia Canada.
• staying informed about major developments and activities within the Wikimedia movement and informing, as needed, the board of directors.

Qualifications

To carry out these tasks, the consultant must have the following qualifications:

• significant experience in management with volunteers communities and non-profit organizations.
• strong competencies in English and French, oral and written.
• strong competencies in organizational management of projects and team management.
• strong document processing skills.
• experience with virtual correspondence and meeting environments.
• skilful ability with G-Suite software, including Google Docs, Sheets, Inbox/Gmail, Calendar and Drive.
• ability to plan and administer multiple concurrent projects.
• ability to work with diverse groups of people.
• ability to work independently and remotely.
• enthusiasm for the Wikimedia movement, free culture and free knowledge.

Furthermore the following are assets:

• familiarity with Wikimedia projects.
• understanding and passion for free culture, free knowledge and open source.
• experience with social medias, MediaWiki and public relations.
• capacity to have a flexible work schedule and availability in evenings and weekends.
• capacity to travel.

Tender

Bids must be sent in a single attachment by email to jfpilonwikimedia.ca no later than July 2nd 2018, 23h59.

The offers must be written in English or French and include the following information and element:

• a presentation letter, including the name of the independent consultant, his address, phone number, email address and relevant experience.
• a detailed description explaining how the consultant is meeting the above requirements, including assets if applicable, and what is making him apt to successfully accomplishing all the above tasks and responsibilities.
• the hourly rate for the services.

All propositions that are not meeting a procedural requirement will be rejected. As part of this present bid solicitation, all requirements indicated by “must” are considered mandatory procedural requirements.

This bid solicitation, as well as any contract arising from it, must be interpreted and governed by the laws in effect in the province of Quebec, Canada and the relationship between the parties will be determined by those laws. The parties are recognizing in an irrevocable way and without conditions the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts and tribunals of Canada.

The offers will be evaluated by a committee of the board of directors of Wikimedia Canada according to the following criteria:

• degree of understanding of the situation of Wikimedia Canada.
• experience of the consultant.
• knowledge of the Wikimedia movement, free culture and free knowledge.

The contract will be awarded according to merit, not necessarily to the lowest bidder, and will be written in French. The chosen bidder will be required to provide all services.

The costs of preparing an offer for this present solicitation will be the entire responsibility of the candidate consultants; no fees will be the responsibility of Wikimedia Canada in any way. It is the same for the costs related to the contract negotiation arising from the present.

All offers can be revoked by its author at any moment preceding the above deadline for the submission; the author must express its revocation in writing. Offers cannot be modified after the above deadline.