Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/January 17, 2020
Agenda
[edit]9:00 – 9:10 am Welcome and Introductions (Lisa Gruwell)
- Approve July 16, 2019 meeting minutes
9:10 – 9:25 am Foundation Update (Katherine Maher)
9:25 –10:00 am Foundation Rebrand Update (Caitlin Virtue; Martin Gran, Snøhetta) + Q&A
10:00 –10:25 am General Counsel Governance Update (Amanda Keton)
10:25 – 10:40 am Investment Update (Lisa Gruwell)
10:40 - 10:50 am Break
10:50 - 11:10 am Fundraising Update (Kaitlin Thaney)
11:10 - 11:20 am Q&A
11:20 -11:30 am Next Meeting Date & Topic Confirmation (Lisa Gruwell)
Adjourn
Minutes
[edit]Location
[edit]San Francisco
Meeting Attendees
[edit]Endowment Advisory Board Members: Annette Campbell-White, Peter Baldwin, Jimmy Wales and Niels Christian Nielsen
Regrets: Michael Kim
Wikimedia Foundation Staff: Katherine Maher, Lisa Gruwell, Amanda Keton, Kaitlin Thaney, Caitlin Virtue, Megan Hernandez, and Guillaume Paumier
Presenter: Martin Gran, Snøhetta
Summary of Action Items
[edit]1. Approved minutes from July 2019 meeting
- Voting in Favor: Niels moved to approve, Annette seconded
- Voting Against: None
2. Foundation Update (Katherine Maher)
- Update on Movement Strategy Process: reaching completion with the summary of 13 recommendations, coming out of 9 working groups.
- Next steps will be a consultation on the final recommendations and pending acceptance, implementation of the recommendations
3. Foundation rebrand update (Martin Gran)
- The Wikimedia Foundation has hired Snøhetta to partner in re-imagining the Wikimedia brand
- The history and background of Snøhetta, their values, and a few of their signature projects
- The goal of this work is to create a new visual identity for the Foundation and the movement. The first phase of the work will be completed in June.
4. General Counsel Governance Update (Amanda Keton)
- An update on the current status of the governance of the Endowment fund at Tides.
- Proposed investigation into options for new governance structure
- Discussion: The data in support of a change and the ramifications of a change
- Approval given for moving forward on these items
- Q1 (2020): Renegotiate our fees with Tides
- Q1 (2020): Assess corporate structure
- Q2 (2020): Plan for a community consultation
5. Investment and Governance Update (Lisa Gruwell)
- Financial
- Lisa shares financials as of Dec 31, 2019; noting that most of our fundraising activity was in December, and those funds have not yet been transferred to Tides.
- Annette notes a lack of diversification of funds, due to being at Tides. This is a risk if the stock market gets choppy.
- Governance
- Lisa proposes 2 minor changes to the investment policy.
- First, the current policy states that we will review the policy when the fund reaches a balance of $33 million. We have hit that milestone. Proposal: Revise policy to state that we will review annually.
- Second, a proposal to move 5% more into the real estate investment trust asset class from the equity class.
- Motion to adopt: Niels motioned, Peter seconded, Ayes have it
6. Fundraising Update (Kaitlin Thaney)
- $58 million raised to date towards our initial $100 million goal.
- $12.2.M raised over first 6 months of FY19-20, exceeding the annual fundraising goal
7. Next Meeting Topic Confirmation (Lisa Gruwell)
- Next Meeting Topic Brainstorm:
- Governance and structure update from Amanda