Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
Garfield Byrd, 26/12/2012 21:30: The annual audit of the Wikimedia Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding FAQ have been posted on the financial reportshttp://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports page of the Wikimedia Foundation web site. Please contact me with any questions. Thank you, Garfield. For the sake of comparison, could you explain where the amounts previously under Special event expense are allocated in the 2012 statement? Also, I found it interesting that donations increased by 52 % and operating expenses for fundraising by 41 %. Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
On Jan 3, 2013 6:47 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: Also, I found it interesting that donations increased by 52 % and operating expenses for fundraising by 41 %. What did you find interesting about that? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
Michael Snow, 28/12/2012 00:12: Donor funds need to be managed wisely, but simply performing a Google search for the best interest rates is not all that useful a tool here. If somebody wants to come to Garfield and tell him, I've had some of my own money in a CD with Bank or Credit Union X for the last 6 months, I've been getting X% and I'm about to renew at a similar rate, and I know they can handle business accounts like yours, I think information like that might have more practical value. In the meantime, I won't try to micromanage the work of our financial professionals without having clear options for improvement ready to suggest. All very true, but even specific suggestions wouldn't be that useful. The WMF bank account is still rather small, but now big enough to be possibly worth a call for bids (or whatever the name in the USA); perhaps one was already done, and that should be enough to eliminate any doubt. The best offer doesn't always come from where one would expect. Usual random example, my university did a very exacting one a few years ago and the best offer was significantly better than the average, but certainly not spectacular: little more than 700 k€/y for cash varying typically in the 70-90 M€ range, 150 at best and 30 at worst. Services/fees are probably more important even though the WMF's needs are rather simple; for instance, requiring scholarships recipients to have PayPal is/was quite dismal. Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
The annual audit of the Wikimedia Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding FAQ have been posted on the financial reports http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports page of the Wikimedia Foundation web site. Please contact me with any questions. Garfield, During your IRC office hours of April 12, 2012, you appeared to accept and speak highly of the suggestion that the Foundation transfer the bulk of its cash reserves from Citibank certificates of deposit to federally insured credit union certificates of deposit, which were then and still paying about four times as much interest. It is unclear from the auditors' statements whether you accomplished this. Did you? Sincerely, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
On 12/27/2012 10:30 AM, James Salsman wrote: The annual audit of the Wikimedia Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding FAQ have been posted on the financial reports http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports page of the Wikimedia Foundation web site. Please contact me with any questions. Garfield, During your IRC office hours of April 12, 2012, you appeared to accept and speak highly of the suggestion that the Foundation transfer the bulk of its cash reserves from Citibank certificates of deposit to federally insured credit union certificates of deposit, which were then and still paying about four times as much interest. It is unclear from the auditors' statements whether you accomplished this. Did you? Reviewing the log from those office hours, it appears Garfield did not accept and speak highly of the suggestion, he merely said he would look into the possibility. I'm also rather skeptical of the underlying claim about the superiority of credit union CDs in this context, and as an audit committee member would want to see a much clearer and better documented case for undertaking such an effort. It appears that your generic information about interest rates was based on either the highest rates available, which also require the longest terms, or on promotional rates that I doubt would fit with the Wikimedia Foundation's circumstances. In practice, investment of cash reserves must balance the return on investment with the need to maintain liquidity, which is after all the primary reason to keep cash on hand. That means shorter-term investment vehicles, and from what I know the rates for CDs of this type do not diverge significantly between banks and credit unions. In the current interest rate environment, basically the rates are pathetically low either way, and even if there is some difference the return would be relatively trivial and unlikely to be worth the effort of switching. Again, the point is not absolute maximization of the possible return, it's more to avoid a return of nothing at all while ensuring the funds can be available if needed. None of this is meant as a statement on the relative merits of banks versus credit unions generally. On a personal level, I transitioned from a bank to a credit union as my primary financial institution long ago. But the logic that may apply for a typical consumer doesn't necessarily translate over to something like institutional management of cash reserves. --Michael Snow ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
On 12/27/2012 1:46 PM, James Salsman wrote: I'm also rather skeptical of the underlying claim about the superiority of credit union CDs in this context So I googled credit union 6 month certificates of deposit best rate and found http://www.gobankingrates.com/cd-rates/6-month-cd/ which shows offers of 1.47% for six month and 1.86% for 12 month CDs from Metropolitan Service Credit Union, all of which are federally guaranteed for up to $250,000, the same amount the government guarantees all Citibank deposits per depositor for any total. Their next four top rates, all over 1.0%, are also from federally guaranteed credit unions. None of those rates are current, from quick investigation they appear to be anywhere from two weeks to two months old. As any published rate sheet will tell you, rates are subject to change without notice. Where the actual websites, as opposed to this aggregator, are more up-to-date, it looks like the rates are often significantly lower. Furthermore, even the outdated published rates have significant limitations that may render them unworkable. For example, while deposits may be guaranteed up to $250,000, the institution may not actually offer certificates up to that amount. In at least one of the examples I found with that link, the credit union is publishing rates for CDs that are not actually available, and it appears the only products actually available are for 17- and 23-month terms. Credit unions also have membership requirements, and while the limitations around those have loosened significantly in recent years, it's not as simple as finding the highest rate and opening an account. Even a consumer would need to figure out which ones they can join first before shopping based on rates. The membership question alone would probably rule out any of the examples found, and for an organization like Wikimedia you'd have the additional issues of whether they support business accounts and what services they offer in that capacity. As Garfield also mentioned in the IRC office hours, part of his mandate is low risk. In finance, that tends to be reflected in wariness of institutions as small as these. They're less accessible, less equipped to provide the level of services needed, and more vulnerable to change (which can mean either failure or acquisition). While consolidation is a bigger factor in the volatile small banking industry, small credit unions are hardly immune themselves. And while it's easy to talk about federal insurance as a backstop in case of outright failure, as a practical matter there may be a lot of time and hoops involved to recover your deposits in such situations, which runs counter to the focus on liquidity for cash reserves. Donor funds need to be managed wisely, but simply performing a Google search for the best interest rates is not all that useful a tool here. If somebody wants to come to Garfield and tell him, I've had some of my own money in a CD with Bank or Credit Union X for the last 6 months, I've been getting X% and I'm about to renew at a similar rate, and I know they can handle business accounts like yours, I think information like that might have more practical value. In the meantime, I won't try to micromanage the work of our financial professionals without having clear options for improvement ready to suggest. --Michael Snow ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Annual Audit of the Wikimedia Foundation
Hello: The annual audit of the Wikimedia Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding FAQ have been posted on the financial reports http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports page of the Wikimedia Foundation web site. Please contact me with any questions. Garfield -- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org* ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
