[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Endowment, again

[Andreas Kolbe]

Dear Sam,

Money cannot be in two places at the same time. Either it has been moved,
or it has not been moved.

The Rai journalists specifically asked *"Why the Wikimedia Foundation
didn't move it to a separate 501e3 entity?" *

Here is the complete question again:

Q: *The Wikimedia Endowment is today still entrusted to the Tides
Foundation. According to SignPost
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-05-29/Opinion
)
on March 2017 Lisa Seitz-Gruwell said: “The WMF board has already given us
the direction to move it into a separate 501c3 once the endowment reaches
$33 million. [...] WMF's Executive Director is supportive of moving it to a
new 501c3 once it reaches $33 million." The Endowment has reached $33
million and passed them reaching $100 million today. Why the Wikimedia
Foundation didn’t move it to a separate 501e3 entity? Being entrusted into
the Tides Foundation is not available to the public any financial report
about Wikipedia Endowment. Don't you think there is a lack of information
and transparency about a fund that is created through worldwide donations? *

If the picture you paint in your post describes the actual state of affairs
– i.e., the 501c3 has been set up, but it takes time to get the org ready,
so for now the money is still with Tides – then the answer should, I feel,
have looked something like this:

A: *We were planning to move the Endowment to a separate 501c3 entity when
it reached $33 million, but then our board decided to postpone that move
.
We have now revived the plan to move the funds. We have established a new
organisation for that purpose, which received its 501c3 status in 2022. We
are currently getting that organisation ready to manage the Endowment and
expect to move the funds from Tides to the new org in (month/year).*

Instead, Nadee said Rai had it wrong, and made it sound like the money had
already been moved. And that is what the programme communicated to the
Italian audience – that the WMF said the Endowment had been transferred to
a dedicated new entity a few months ago in 2022.

This is contradicted today both by the Endowment website and the Endowment
page on Meta-Wiki, which says that the Endowment is "currently managed by
the Tides Foundation as a Collective Action Fund".

There are really two issues here:

1. Where is the money? There are now contradictory messages about this in
the public domain.
2. How comfortable are we with how the WMF is communicating?

As regards the second point, Nadee also told Rai:

A: *The Wikimedia Endowment was founded on and upholds principles of
transparency common to our movement. Our financials are available for
public review and we ensure our community and benefactors stay informed on
developments related to the endowment by publishing regular information
such as the list of donors, announcements about Endowment Board members on
the Endowment Website. We also publish current updates and new policy
updates on Wikimedia Meta and regular updates on our Diff blog, as well as
on the Wikimedia Foundation website.  *

I disagree with that statement. The most recent info we have had on the
Endowment reflects January 2022 status – figures describing where things
stood a full year ago. And even then, nobody added the updated info to the
Endowment page on Meta. I added it, sourced to board meeting minutes.[1]

And as I have mentioned before, we have not seen a single audited financial
statement for the Endowment showing revenue and expenses etc. in all the
seven years it has existed. To me this falls short of the "principles of
transparency common to our movement" (a point that, incidentally, was also
made in the Italian programme).

I (and others) also asked questions about Tides Advocacy several weeks ago
on Meta.[2] There has been no reply from the WMF to date.

As you may recall, in 2019/2020, Tides Advocacy were given $4.223 million
that were to be used for Annual Plan Grants to Wikimedia affiliates in the
July 2020 – June 2021 financial year.[3] I have looked through the Form 990
disclosures Tides Advocacy has filed for the 2020 and 2021 calendar years
(their 2021 Form 990 only became available a few weeks ago), hoping to find
US and non-US expenditure items corresponding to that 2020/2021 APG amount
over Tides Advocacy's 2020 and 2021 calendar years. I have not been
successful. My sums fall about $400,000 short of the $4.223 million total.

Absent a clarification from the WMF, would you (and anyone else reading in
who feels so inclined) be able to have a look through the forms as well, to
see whether you come to a different result? The forms are linked in the
discussion.[2] It is always possible that you with your WMF board
experience might see an error I made or an item I have missed that happily
resolves the apparent discrepancy.

R

[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Endowment, again

[The Cunctator]

I hope the always-welcome discussion here about non-profit logistics and
online civility doesn't derail an answer to Andreas's question, which is
important and remains unanswered.

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 5:36 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:

> The statements are not mutually exclusive. They are likely both true, and
> what one might expect from governance decisions to date.
>
> WME got its 501c3 status last year, expanded its Board, and is working on
> its structure. It will start emitting 501c3 reports this year.  It will
> need staff to take over any of the investment management Tides currently
> provides; I would expect the current endowment fund (the collective action
> fund) to remain there until an alternative is in place.
>
> The sorts of regular reports we care about (reflections on organizational
> structure, timelines, goals and budgeting, coordination with WMF,
> practicalities of how an endowment functions) are only partly related to
> the mandatory reports of a charity.  Lodewijk, agreed that those sorts of
> clarifications are great, and relevant to how we all plan for the future;
> perhaps we can catalyze a public conversation about such things.
>
> Warmly, SJ
> (still hoping for part of our movement to put out a series of plans for
> maximizing project functionality on a minimal budget)
>
> Dan S writes:
> > Since the answers express mutually exclusive propositions...
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Endowment, again

[Samuel Klein]

The statements are not mutually exclusive. They are likely both true, and
what one might expect from governance decisions to date.

WME got its 501c3 status last year, expanded its Board, and is working on
its structure. It will start emitting 501c3 reports this year.  It will
need staff to take over any of the investment management Tides currently
provides; I would expect the current endowment fund (the collective action
fund) to remain there until an alternative is in place.

The sorts of regular reports we care about (reflections on organizational
structure, timelines, goals and budgeting, coordination with WMF,
practicalities of how an endowment functions) are only partly related to
the mandatory reports of a charity.  Lodewijk, agreed that those sorts of
clarifications are great, and relevant to how we all plan for the future;
perhaps we can catalyze a public conversation about such things.

Warmly, SJ
(still hoping for part of our movement to put out a series of plans for
maximizing project functionality on a minimal budget)

Dan S writes:
> Since the answers express mutually exclusive propositions...
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[Wikimedia-l] [Community call] The Community Development Team

[Cassie Casares]

Hello everyone,

The Community Development team
 at the Wikimedia
Foundation is hosting its first community call
 of
the year on Tuesday, January 31st, 2023 from 18:00-19:30 UTC on Zoom.


What are these calls about?

Our community calls are created to be a shared space for Wikimedians across
the movement to hear and speak about projects related to capacity building
&/or leadership development.

Who is coming?


   -

   WikiAcción Perú
    - a project
   that seeks to make Peru visible in the free encyclopedia Wikipedia in
   Spanish, Wikimedia Commons and other Wikimedia projects, with thematic
   approaches of ecology, gender and culture. WikiAcción Perú
    will be
   sharing their project in Spanish|español with simultaneous translation
   provided, about their Laboratorio de Paseo Fotográfico | Photo Walk
   Laboratory project.
   



   -

   Leadership Development Working Group (LDWG)
   -
   a 16 member group who has been working together since June 2022.  Members
   will be providing an overview of the group's work: leadership definition,
   leadership development plan & guide the implementation of leadership
   development.


Key Dates:

   -

   Tuesday, January 31st, 2023 at 18:00-19:30 UTC on  Zoom.
    [
   https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/89685036085] meeting link



If you are interested in participating in future Community Development
community calls, please contact Cassie Casares ccasa...@wikimedia.org.

We are excited to see and hear from you in our call!

Thank you,

The Community Development team | comdevt...@wikimedia.org


Cassie Casares
Program Support Associate
Community Development
Wikimedia Foundation
ccasa...@wikimedia.org
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Endowment, again

[Dan Szymborski]

Since the answers express mutually exclusive propositions, then by
definition, one of them *has* to be substantially misleading as anyone who
reads it would get the opposite of the true situation. If Andreas had an
intent to be hostile, he could have said lie, which he did not.

Dan



On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 1:21 PM effe iets anders 
wrote:

> Hi Andreas,
>
> I will support the underlying questions of this type (it's helpful to have
> conversations about our organizational structure, and how it works -
> clarifications are great!) but I would really hope that you could leave
> aside insinuations of the type "If it isn't, and the money is still with
> Tides, wasn't the answer given to Rai last November substantially
> misleading?". They are unnecessary and don't actually add any information.
> Could we possibly keep it a bit more constructive?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Lodewijk
>
> On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 5:02 AM Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> The WMF appears to have made contradictory statements about the Wikimedia
>> Endowment. Earlier this week, Rai 3, a channel of the Italian national
>> broadcaster, aired a program about Wikimedia and Wikipedia.[1] On their
>> website, they also link to responses the WMF gave to various questions the
>> programme makers asked.[2]
>>
>> One of these questions concerned the Endowment. I quote:
>>
>> *Q: The Endowment has reached $33 million and passed them reaching $100
>> million today. Why the Wikimedia Foundation didn’t move it to a separate
>> 501e3 entity? Being entrusted into the Tides Foundation is not available to
>> the public any financial report about Wikipedia Endowment. Don't you think
>> there is a lack of information and transparency about a fund that is
>> created through worldwide donations? *
>>
>> *A: Your information is incorrect. The Wikimedia Endowment was
>> established as a separate entity and received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit
>> status in 2022 following a 2021 board resolution. *
>>
>> This answer was given to Rai in November 2022. Now I do recall an October
>> 2022 blog post from the WMF reporting that the WMF's application for a
>> 501(c)(3) non-profit had received approval and that the WMF was "in the
>> process of setting up the Endowment's strategic and operational policies
>> and systems".[3]
>>
>> Has the money actually been moved from the Tides Foundation to this new
>> 501(c)(3)?
>>
>> At the time of writing, the Endowment website continues to tell its
>> readers that the funds are held and administered by the Tides
>> Foundation.[4]
>>
>> Is the information on the Endowment website obsolete?[5] If it isn't, and
>> the money is still with Tides, wasn't the answer given to Rai last November
>> substantially misleading?
>>
>> Andreas
>>
>> [1]
>> https://www.rai.it/programmi/report/inchieste/La-community-8bb003fb-d8cd-42bb-bef0-0063a0e1b1fb.html
>> [2]
>> http://www.rai.it/dl/doc/2023/01/16/1673895524547_RISPOSTE%20WIKI%20MAIL%2024%20NOVEMBRE%202022_EN.pdf
>> and
>> http://www.rai.it/dl/doc/2023/01/16/1673895525034_TRADUZIONE%20RISPOSTE%20WIKI%20MAIL%2010%20GENNAIO%202023_ITA.pdf
>>
>> [3]
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-10-31/News_from_the_WMF
>> [4] https://archive.ph/S8iI0#selection-2949.0-2949.1007
>> [5]
>> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/01/11/adding-expertise-to-the-wikimedia-endowment-board/
>> refers to the "fact that we met – and even surpassed – our expected
>> timeline for the Endowment’s maturation into a 501(c)(3)."
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[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group 2022 Report

[Mehman Ibragimov]

Hello,

I'm happy to provide you with a report on behalf of the Wikimedians of
Turkic Languages User Group[1] for 2022.[2]

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Turkic_Languages_User_Group
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Turkic_Languages_User_Group/Reports/2022

Kindly,
Mehman
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