Wikimedia Endowment

Wikimedia Endowment mission statement:

"Access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. The Wikimedia Endowment is our enduring commitment to a world of freely shared knowledge, now and in perpetuity."

The purpose of the Wikimedia Endowment is to act as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity. The Endowment has been established as a Collective Action Fund at Tides Foundation, a public charity with a 40-year track record of holding and managing charitable funds for nonprofit organizations. The Endowment was launched in January 2016 (on the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia) with the initial goal of raising $100 million to support the Wikimedia projects. The funds may be transferred from Tides either to the Wikimedia Foundation or to other charitable organisations selected by the Wikimedia Foundation to further the Wikimedia mission.

More information about the Wikimedia Endowment can be found at wikimediaendowment.org

Endowment Advisory Board Members

The Wikimedia Endowment Advisory Board consists of dedicated volunteers from a variety of industries including education, technology, and for-profit business, who are committed to the Wikimedia vision: a world in which every single person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. They provide insight and guidance to further the sustainability of Wikimedia through the Endowment.

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, WMF board member, was appointed to the Endowment Board on 14 January 2016.

Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, is founder of the online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia and co-founder of the privately owned Wikia, Inc. including its entertainment media brand, Fandom powered by Wikia. Wales serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organisation he established to operate Wikipedia. In April 2017, Jimmy launched WikiTribune - a news website involving professional journalists working alongside volunteers to curate fact checked and reliable articles. In 2006 Jimmy was named in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for his role in creating Wikipedia.

Annette Campbell-White

Annette Campbell-White was appointed on 11 May 2016.

Annette Campbell-White is a recognized pioneer for women in the world of venture capital investment and a longtime supporter of the Wikimedia Foundation and its mission to make knowledge free and accessible to everyone.

Prior to retiring in 2015, Annette served as Founder and Senior Managing Partner of MedVenture Associates, a biomedical venture capital firm that invests in life-improving medical devices. Before that, Annette was the first biotechnology analyst on Wall Street and the first female partner at Hambrecht & Quist, a leading international banking firm. Annette has received prominent recognition for her business achievements, including being named on Forbes Midas List from 2005-2007.

Annette has also served on the boards of several performing arts associations, including the San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances, a major presenter of the performing arts at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1997, Annette established the Kia Ora Foundation to assist New Zealand students in postgraduate study in the fields of musical performance, science and engineering. In addition to scholarships, the Foundation funds special projects, which support activities involving New Zealand artists.

You can read more about Annette on the blog.

Peter Baldwin

Peter Baldwin was appointed on 9 September 2016.

Peter Baldwin is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University, and co-founder of the philanthropic Arcadia Foundation.

Baldwin has long been dedicated to preserving cultural heritage, the environment, and supporting open access resources. In 2002, he and his wife Lisbet Rausing, both long-time Wikimedia Foundation supporters, founded Arcadia to focus on these missions. Since then, Arcadia has made grant commitments of over $363 million to charities and scholarly institutions globally that preserve cultural heritage and the environment, and promote open access.

Baldwin is also a renowned scholar who is interested in the historical development of the modern state. You can read more about Peter on the blog.

Niels Christian Nielsen

Niels Christian Nielsen was appointed on 13 February 2017.

Niels Christian Nielsen is a noted business leader in technology, research, and education. Niels is the Managing Director of the World Refugee School, a global initiative dedicated to bringing scalable, affordable, and quality education to the world’s refugee children. Prior to World Refugee School, Niels founded and served as the former CEO of Catenas, a venture to create a globally leading professional services corporation. He was part of the team that, through a sequence of mergers, created the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), a technology consultancy and industrial research lab. He has initiated a number of large strategic projects, involving multiple participants and public-private collaboration.

He designed the Danish Network Cooperation program and proposed the creation of the Learning Lab in Denmark, where he served as interim CEO and Board member.

Niels has also been involved in Green Tech initiatives through the Danish Energy Research Council, the Copenhagen Climate Council, the Turkish government’s Sustainable Growth Strategy for South East Anatolia, and large-scale green urban developments.

You can read more about Niels on the blog.

Michael Kim

Michael Kim was appointed on June 5 2017.

Michael Kim is the founder and Managing Partner of Cendana Capital, an investment firm focused on early stage venture capital, and former trustee of the Asian Art Museum and San Francisco Employee Retirement System.

In addition to his expertise in investment strategy and venture capital, Michael is actively involved in arts and public service in San Francisco, where he and his family reside. In 2004, he was appointed by then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to a five year term as a Trustee of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System, a $20 billion pension fund, and served as the President of the board and the Chairman of the Investment Committee.

For more on Michael, visit our blog.

Funding

• 2014: The first contribution to the endowment came from the estate of Jim Pacha
• 2016: An additional $1 million was donated by Craig Newmark
• 2017: $5 million was donated by Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing, and $5 million of matching funds was provided by the WMF (blog post)
• 2018: Running total - Approximately $19.2 million has been raised for the Wikimedia Endowment to date.
• 2018-04: Between $22 and $23 million

Endowment Investment Policy

The purpose of the Wikimedia Endowment is to serve as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity. This investment policy is meant to guide the Wikimedia Endowment while we are in our initial fundraising period.  This policy will take effect once the fund reaches $10 million in assets and will be revisited once the fund reaches $33 million in assets.

Expected Returns & Risk

During this initial phase, the Wikimedia Endowment seeks to track the performance of a global passive investment market index with the goal of producing returns that match a recognized benchmark for institutional investors. This benchmark will be based on a 65% allocation to global equities, 25% allocation to sovereign and investment-grade US bonds, and 10% allocation to Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”). The Wikimedia Endowment is designed to take principal risk in pursuit of higher returns, but that also may require liquidity.

Liquidity

All investments in the Wikimedia Endowment will be highly liquid. Typical investments will include Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) and mutual funds administered by industry leaders, such as Vanguard. Assets under management, bid-ask spreads, and other liquidity indicators will be considered in selecting appropriate securities. Typically, load funds will be avoided. Cash settlement on these instruments is typically one to three days after trade execution.

Investment Guidelines

The Wikimedia Endowment will target a 75% equity and 25% debt portfolio using low-cost passive index funds, both in mutual fund and ETF format as appropriate to meet liquidity needs.

Benchmark

The Wikimedia Endowment is beginning as a passive investment pool and performance will be measured against the benchmarks of the funds in which it is invested, in proportion to its target weights.

Asset Class	Benchmark	Target Allocation
US Equities	CRSP US Total Market Index	33%
Non-US Developed Equities	FTSE Developed All Cap ex US	26%
Emerging Market Equities	FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap	6%
US Govt & Investment-Grade Debt	Barclays US Aggregate	25%
US Real Estate Investment Trusts	MSCI USREIT	10%

The Wikimedia Endowment will revisit this allocation periodically to make sure it delivers appropriate risk-adjusted returns.

Rebalancing Limits

The Wikimedia Endowment will rebalance as necessary to maintain an asset allocation that stays within 3% of target allocation (i.e. 33% target would stay between 30% and 36%).

-Adopted January 6, 2017

Sustainability ratings of Endowment investments

The Wikimedia Endowment is invested through the Tides Foundation which screens all of their investment options for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Morningstar Sustainability Ratings evaluates funds based on ESG and rates them with one to five stars (globes actually), with five being the best on ESG factors. Here is how the Endowment investments are rated according to this ESG measure:

• 33 percent of the endowment is invested in funds rated a "five"
• 25 percent of the endowment is invested in funds rated a "four"
• 32 percent of the endowment is invested in funds rated a "three"
• 10 percent of the endowment is invested in funds that are not yet rated by Morningstar

Meetings

• Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/January 6, 2017
• Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/June 5, 2017
• Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/January 17, 2018
• Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/July 11, 2018

Background

• Endowment Essay - Written by Lisa Seitz-Gruwell, then Chief Advancement Officer
• Endowment (Community Essay)
• Discussion