Wikimedia Endowment/Updates/2023-24 Q1 Update

HI all-

I wanted to share a quick update on the successful biannual Wikimedia Endowment Board meeting last week. The Endowment Board discussed our planned fundraising for the upcoming year and was updated on the operational decisions that the Finance committee had made as we transition from the Tides Foundation to the new charity, including insurance and custodial, banking, tax and audit arrangements. The transition is moving according to plan. Here is the timeline that we have been following:

In official business, the Board moved to hire KPMG as our independent auditor for the new entity, approved a spending policy for the Endowment, approved an operational budget of $2.09 million, and approved a grantmaking budget of $2.91 million for FY 2023-24. We also set the target of $11.5 million in revenue between fundraising and investment income this fiscal year. We ended the last fiscal year with $118 million in the Wikimedia Endowment and are projecting to grow the corpus by approximately $6.5 million depending on market performance and after expenses.

Here are the official minutes from our meeting in January which were also approved. We will post official minutes from this most recent meeting after they are approved at our next biannual meeting in early 2024. Before then, we will be sharing an update on Endowment fundraising in the Fundraising Report this fall.

Best,
Jimmy Wales
Chair of the Wikimedia Endowment