Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/January 17, 2020

Agenda

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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

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Location

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San Francisco

Meeting Attendees

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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

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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