Caroline Woolard moves from Open Collective to Art.coop

Caroline Woolard has announced that she is stepping down from the Executive team at Open Collective Inc. (OC) to focus on her work with Art.coop.

Prior to her Executive role, Caroline was the Director of Research and Partnerships at the nonprofit fiscal host Open Collective Foundation (OCF). Her persistence and vision have shaped Open Collective Inc. and Open Collective Foundation over the last three years.

At the Foundation in 2021 and 2022, Woolard connected cultural work to the Solidarity Economy movement for community control of resources by:

• working with Mike Strode on the Solidarity School,
• recruiting and building out an aligned Comms team, 
• creating the unrestricted Artist-Organizer Fellowship, 
• serving as the research lead for the Chrysalis project, 
• leading the creative direction and launch of the new OCF website,
• creating documentaries featured on PBS, and
• recruiting and supporting Board members and interim leadership.

In 2022, Woolard joined the Executive team at the technology platform for transparent money management called Open Collective Inc. (OC). In her role, she: 

• led recruitment and shaped the team onboarding, 
• shaped the arc of the 2022 retreat, 
• built out the brand and Comms team,
• directed the Discover feature, 
• facilitated the 2023 Strategy, 
• and produced multiple documentaries about the team,
• shaped the Exit to Community feature and landing page.

Since 2021, Caroline Woolard has worked tirelessly to build bridges between the open source community and the Solidarity Economy movement which exists to center community-control of resources.

While Caroline will return to the arts and culture sector to focus on her work at Art.coop, she will remain in our constellation as a contractor as we restructure. 

Members of the Open Collective team reflected on their time with Caroline.

“It's been such a pleasure to learn from you and see you work and care so much about our mission. I can't wait for us to keep building for this beautiful constellation from a new space! Your energy will be missed.”

- Open Collective CEO, Pia Mancini 

“You are always an inspiring and passionate visionary not afraid to share your ideas with the world on how we can do things in a better way. Selfishly, I hope I can continue to find ways to orbit around your brain. Thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do for your communities.”

- Open Source Collective Executive Director, Lauren Gardner

Here is a goodbye video from Caroline.

https://www.loom.com/share/dccf1b555eb940acb5e8d8de9a86e20e 

You can keep up with her on her website or on social media.