That's a good question. Alternatives to private sector equity investments include public-sector bonds, as well as commodities and currencies. While I wouldn't recommend that WMF do either of the latter two, there might be some reasonable choices for WMF in the public sector bond market.
In the private sector, I hope that WMF would be very careful about the ethics of the companies and industries in which it chooses to invest. Pine On Nov 30, 2015 10:01 AM, "Brion Vibber" <bvib...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Thanks! > > I added a section to the talk page asking about how we would actually go > about investing... the purpose of an endowment is to let it grow and just > spend some of the interest, but that growth doesn't happen in a vacuum. > Investment happens by putting money into other peoples' businesses and > letting them pay you back with interest. > > So we'd be asking donors for tens of millions of dollars to invest in > third-party businesses -- a fundamental change in our fundraising > proposition. Thinking about our social responsibility as an investor is > probably worthwhile. > > -- brion > > On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Lisa Gruwell <lgruw...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > > > Hi all- > > > > For several years, the Wikimedia movement has been having discussions > > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment> about whether and when to > > begin > > building an endowment. I put an essay up on meta recently in an attempt > to > > rekindle this conversation with the community. We included launching an > > endowment in the FY 2015-16 annual plan. We also plan to have this > > conversation as a part of the larger strategic planning process because > > building an endowment means prioritizing some future needs over some > > current needs. > > > > Before we can begin to support an endowment, there is strategic > groundwork > > that should be completed to ensure that the effort is both thoughtful and > > successful. To help get the conversation moving, I seeded the discussion > > page with a few questions that we are hoping you will help us answer. > > Please add the questions I didn't think to ask, too. We'd appreciate > > hearing your thoughts on this and your help in thinking through some of > the > > strategic questions. > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay > > Best regards, > > > > Lisa Gruwell > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
