Mailing List Archive

On 27/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well, what if another Foundation was set up. The WMF would focus on the wiki
> project and the second foundation would build an endowment and fulfill the
> mission from a physical perspective.

We're building an awful lot of complexity here to ensure that our
handling of money that doesn't exist would be ideologically sound. I
can't help but feel this is all a little... well, silly.

--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

And please note that my comment was entirely facetious.

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Andrew Gray <shimgray@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 27/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Well, what if another Foundation was set up. The WMF would focus on the
> wiki
> > project and the second foundation would build an endowment and fulfill
> the
> > mission from a physical perspective.
>
> We're building an awful lot of complexity here to ensure that our
> handling of money that doesn't exist would be ideologically sound. I
> can't help but feel this is all a little... well, silly.
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
> andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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

On Thursday 27 March 2008 01:20:00 Ray Saintonge wrote:
> Anthony wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:31 PM, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> >> The Foundation really should start thinking for the future. I noticed
> >> that a couple people were talking about an endowment. For the WMF, what
> >> would a endowment require?
> >
> > The existence of a government which is capable of exercising long-term
> > responsibility over its fiat currency?
>
> So Euro investments would be preferable?

It would probably be the wisest to diversify over several currencies.

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Andrew Gray wrote:
> On 27/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Well, what if another Foundation was set up. The WMF would focus on the wiki
>> project and the second foundation would build an endowment and fulfill the
>> mission from a physical perspective.
>>
> We're building an awful lot of complexity here to ensure that our
> handling of money that doesn't exist would be ideologically sound. I
> can't help but feel this is all a little... well, silly.
>
>
Very much so, and not having the seeds of an endowment fund puts a big
distance between the idea and reality. It's good to have a contingency
plan for the possibility of inheriting a windfall, but having
level-headed people as arms-length trustees would be more important than
slick financial advisers. If we're not competent at managing our own
investments, will we be any more competent at choosing financial
advisors? Advisors advise, but it is still the client who makes the
decisions, and the advisors will not be there to pick up the pieces if
their advice goes south with the latest incarnation of a Enron shares.
High returns on investments go hand-in-hand with high risk.

The Microsoft shares are not a big worry unless its the only thing
available for us to invest in. Otherwise there's enough diversity in
the market to choose other candidates. We can also look at the
experience of ethical investment funds to guide our choices. Their
portfolio contents are usually a matter of public record.


Ec

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Hi all, my first post to Foundation-l:

Yes Mary was hired recently as an accountant, and she reports to Veronique
Kessler, who was hired at the end of January as chief financial and
operating officer.

Have you seen the range of Veronique's experience? Looks like an expert to
me!

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_Releases/Jan2008_Staff_Release

Sfmammamia

Chad wrote

> In this field, the Foundation just hired an accountant a few
> days ago. As far as a financial adviser, I can't speak on Mary's
> qualifications, as I do not know her personally or professionally.
> However, before such a decision on this would be made, the
> Foundation would need to seek out the advice of a trained
> financial adviser who specializes in long-term investments for
> non-profits.
>
> If Mary has anything she'd like to add, I'd love to hear it :-)
> (Also, I encourage all the new staff members to join foundation-l,
> if no other reason than to keep abreast of all the goings-on)
>
> -Chad
_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Sfmammamia wrote:
> Hi all, my first post to Foundation-l:
>
> Yes Mary was hired recently as an accountant, and she reports to Veronique
> Kessler, who was hired at the end of January as chief financial and
> operating officer.
>
> Have you seen the range of Veronique's experience? Looks like an expert to
> me!
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_Releases/Jan2008_Staff_Release
>
> Sfmammamia
>
> Chad wrote
>
>> In this field, the Foundation just hired an accountant a few
>> days ago. As far as a financial adviser, I can't speak on Mary's
>> qualifications, as I do not know her personally or professionally.
>> However, before such a decision on this would be made, the
>> Foundation would need to seek out the advice of a trained
>> financial adviser who specializes in long-term investments for
>> non-profits.
>>
>> If Mary has anything she'd like to add, I'd love to hear it :-)
>> (Also, I encourage all the new staff members to join foundation-l,
>> if no other reason than to keep abreast of all the goings-on)
>>
>> -Chad


Hello Sfammmamia

Welcome to the list :-)
Which project are you the most active with ?

cheers

Ant


_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Florence wrote:



> Hello Sfammmamia
>
> Welcome to the list :-)
> Which project are you the most active with ?
>
> cheers
>
> Ant



Thank you for the welcome!

Sorry if my replies are not threading correctly, I'm responding from archive
-- will have to switch my prefs.

For the moment, I'm most active on English Wikipedia. I've been on the
project about a year, and I'm just starting to dip my toes in on the meta
level (an ocean in and of itself!)

Best,

Sfmammamia
_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

In my opinion, it's a little too premature to spend a lot
of time discussing the intricacies of an endowment. Although
we are a "foundation" by name, we don't operate like a typical
foundation, in that, we don't have hundreds of millions to
billions of dollars to fund other causes, projects and
organizations. Even if we built up a reserve fund of say
10 million dollars...it is still just that...a reserve fund.
That would still need to be used in case we need to tap
into it to fund scholarships, pay for infrastructure,
improve fundraising capabilities, expand biz dev initiatives,
improve Wikimania, and the list goes on and on....
Depending on what amounts come into the WMF from various
sources, this discussion is at least a couple years away.


Kul Takanao Wadhwa
Head of Business Development
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
kul@wikimedia.org
(415) 839-6885 ext. 603


_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

On 27/03/2008, Brian <Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu> wrote:
> I'm not sure that we are anti-Microsoft.

I don't think we are, either.

> The Foundation has been open to
> accepting funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We all know
> which corporation's CEO earned that money.

Berkshire Hathaway, right? ;)

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l