Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

> > Was the investment in pound sterling? > The pound has been going down steadily over the last year. > And now we have a steep drop due to Brexit. Am not speaking from a position of particular knowledge on this, but the way I read original the email was simply that income was held in some kind

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

This site http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Chief_Executive_Officer_(CEO)/Salary States that a US American CEO salary would be from 70k up to 420k a year, for Ngo 83k less. You are asking where and why the wmf executive director is in this range Lodewijk? Rupert On May 31, 2016 10:21,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 10:09 AM, John Mark Vandenberg wrote: > On 5 Jun 2016 05:19, "Greg Varnum" wrote: >> >> >> John asked about filing and other fees paid by Jones Day, and if the fees >> were separate from consulting costs. Unfortunately, we don’t

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Thanks Pete. I also think that Risker and I have different expectations for financial disclosure and transparency. My view is influenced by my experiences with Washington Stare government as well as my experience with WMF grantmaking, where transparency is prioritized over privacy. Among other

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Risker, perhaps you missed this part of Patricio's message; I'm pretty sure this is what Pine was referring to: > In re-reading Jan-Bart’s original email [1] where he stated that Sue was staying on as an advisor, it isn’t explicit that this was a paid position. We should have been more clear on

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

I think Patricio would be surprised that you have interpreted his email that way, Pine. There's nothing in his email that says anything about proactive disclosure of the salaries of individual employees or contractors. It would probably be appropriate to extend your thanks to Sue, who has agreed

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Thank you for pointing that out, Risker. The emails indeed cross paths and I did not see it. The point remains: the standard is proactive disclosure, not minimum and delayed disclosure. The latter happened, and it is not ok. It is a relief that Sue was not getting $300k per year as an advisor,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

I consider the systematic omission of proactive disclosure of this expenditure of at least $300,000 in donor funds to be financial misconduct and a breach of trust. It's profoundly contrary to the values that this organization claims to uphold. Pine On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 1:00 PM, Brion Vibber

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 9:17 PM, Pine W wrote: > I've been following this discussion with some interest. Can someone point > us to where Sue's compensation, after she left the Executive Director role, > was budgeted in the WMF annual plans? That money cannot have come out of

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Hi Greg, Just to expand a little on what John is saying here, I find it a little odd that the information to separate out the cost of actually making trademark applications, and the cost of legal consultants, has not been separated out. I confess I'm not that familiar with the rules of Form 990,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On 5 June 2016 at 02:28, Liam Wyatt wrote: > Not to put too fine a point on it... But are you saying that Sue remained > the most highly paid contractor to the WMF, and at a significantly higher > rate than when she was the actual ED, until FIVE DAYS ago? That is, well >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

With regard to Sue, adding to the list of concerns about the sheer amount of money is that she wasn't the executive anymore, so why was she being paid like one? Pine On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 9:27 PM, Fæ wrote: > Thanks Gnangarra. > > I'm familiar with Bridgespan, and when I

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Thanks Gnangarra. I'm familiar with Bridgespan, and when I worked as a strategy consultant, I used the "starvation cycle" myself. It's a way of framing the need for improvement differently from simply insisting that 5% is saved each year, and instead using more meaningful strategic goals. This

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

I've been following this discussion with some interest. Can someone point us to where Sue's compensation, after she left the Executive Director role, was budgeted in the WMF annual plans? That money cannot have come out of nowhere. Which line item, or line items, in the 2015-2016 Annual Plan were

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

this is worth reading http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060455/future-of-philanthropy/demanding-that-nonprofits-not-pay-for-overhead-is-preventing-them-fro On 5 June 2016 at 16:23, Fæ wrote: > On 5 June 2016 at 02:28, Liam Wyatt wrote: > > On Sunday, 5 June

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On 5 June 2016 at 02:28, Liam Wyatt wrote: > On Sunday, 5 June 2016, Greg Varnum wrote: ... > Not to put too fine a point on it... But are you saying that Sue remained > the most highly paid contractor to the WMF, and at a significantly higher > rate

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

(anonymous) wrote: > […] > This remains contradictory, and that is why I'm trying to get some clarity > on the role Sue played in the past two years. The tasks described by > Patricio in his response to the Signpost sound to me (but I might be naive > in this) to be mostly relevant to the

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On 5 Jun 2016 05:19, "Greg Varnum" wrote: > > > John asked about filing and other fees paid by Jones Day, and if the fees were separate from consulting costs. Unfortunately, we don’t have an easy, quick way to divide the Jones Day expenses into registration fees and

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On Sunday, 5 June 2016, Greg Varnum wrote: > Sue served as a special advisor until May 31, 2016. Her pay included > compensation for her extended role during the ED transition, and to match > market rates for a role of this nature in organizations of similar size to > the

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Hi Greg, Thanks for the eventual answer - I can understand that salaries/HR are a complicated issue to comment on. I'm sorry I have to press on a bit more to get an answer to my questions though. I did note the answers Patricio gave to the Signpost

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Greetings, Apologies for our delay in this response. In addition to the holiday weekend, questions related to HR issues require extra care and verification on our part. But again, I do want to apologize for that process taking all week. Regarding Lodewijk's questions about Sue's special

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Greetings, I just wanted to verify that we will be sending out answers to these additional questions. This past weekend was a holiday in the United States, and so we have not yet finished gathering the information to give accurate response. Thank you for your patience, and please let me know

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Hi, Unfortunately I haven't seen an answer to my questions. Could you please acknowledge the receipt of the question if you're investigating? Or could you just say it is a ridiculous question and that you refuse to answer, if you think so? From the more elaborate answer on the Signpost questions,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

19.05.2016, 17:25, "Chris Keating" : > I'd like to second this question - 1.7M is a very significant sum and I am > surprised that WMF has reason to spend this much on legal services (I had > the impression that the WMF legal department handled most things > themselves). I was surprised how

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

but that does make sense in some ways as you'd expect the WMF legal be able to review most written issues and deal with initial contact issues. As an issue deepens then its only logical to have legal hand over the case to a local practitioner who is licensed and has the depth of knowledge specific

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Thanks Greg for the responses. As for the ED team, that answers part of my question. That Sue was appointed as special advisor, was indeed public knowledge - but for what duration was that? And was that a full time position (or anything near full time), given that her compensation was as high as

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 6:31 AM, Gregory Varnum wrote: > Greetings, > > Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia > Foundation's Form 990. > > Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling > US$1.7M) which were

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Gregory - Thanks for the great response! Richard. On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 9:31 AM, Gregory Varnum wrote: > Greetings, > > Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia > Foundation's Form 990.

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Greetings, Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia Foundation's Form 990. Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling US$1.7M) which were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our global reach has grown over time, we

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

I do hope btw that the unfortunate derailing doesn't mean the questions won't get an answer... I hoped those would be fairly obvious and easily clarified. Lodewijk 2016-05-20 0:52 GMT+02:00 Neil P. Quinn : > I totally second this. I apologize for engaging with him earlier;

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

I totally second this. I apologize for engaging with him earlier; I didn't realize at the time that he was such a pathetic troll. *Neil P. Quinn* +1 (202) 656 3457 On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 3:18 PM, Jake Orlowitz wrote: > Seconding Lodewijk here. I can already count at least

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Seconding Lodewijk here. I can already count at least 5 phrases or statements that David Emrany has said which made me cringe and wonder why hasn't this been blocked/moderated already? Hostile, accusatory, and vulgar behavior degrades this entire forum (beyond its already damaged capacity for

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Thanks Lodewikj for your excellent catches. 1. The form-990 covers the period from 01-July 2014 to 30-June 2015. During which the payments of US$ 300,000 to Sue Gardner (SpecialAdvisor) was comparable to Lila Tretikov's (E.D.) 2. The largest contractor was "Jones Day" US$ 1,742,916 (almost 2

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Hoi, > First, there's an overview of 'highest paid contractors' (for reading > along: page 61) and the top one is a law firm for 1.7 Million USD. Which is > quite a big sum of money. I'd like to second this question - 1.7M is a very significant sum and I am surprised that WMF has reason to

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

Hoi, For a bit of background form 990 is probably something everybody knows about as it is financial and important and that is why we mention this.. For all of you who do not know, we have a FAQ where you may find what is relevant about all this. Thanks, GerardM PS sorry Greg for pulling your