Hey Pine, The Wikimedia Endowment is specifically set up to
*"act as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity". [1]* The Endowment acts as the online projects safety net. It will be independent of the Wikimedia Foundation board and importantly It's not there to support the WMF in perpetuity, it's the Wikimedia projects. Even if the WMF is likely to be the main benefactor from the fund; should, in the eyes of the Endowment Advisory Board, the WMF be no longer a fit and appropriate body to support the Wikimedia projects (as a result of legal, fiduciary or other issues), it has the ability to provide fund to an alternative organisation to fulfill that work. Regards Seddon [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Establishment_of_Endowment > * WMF remains a single point of failure in the Wikimedia network of > affiliates. I am hoping that mitigating the community and affiliate > dependencies on WMF will be addressed in the strategic plan, so that if we > have another mess like we had prior to Katherine, the affiliates and > community will have a plan that can be executed that ensures the viability > of the Wikimedia sites and affiliates without WMF. WMF can fail in many > ways; besides governance meltdowns, lawsuits and hostile political > environments are also risks. The sites and affiliates need to endure even > if WMF weakens, loses its way, or dissolves. I hope that we never again > have a repeat of last year and that WMF is healthy in the future, but it > would be prudent to have a strategty for the affiliates and community to > continue whether or not WMF is with us. > > Thanks again for your post. > > Regards, > > Pine > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Seddon *Advancement Associate (Community Engagement)* *Wikimedia Foundation* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
