So, the text in the FAQs is as follows: "This year’s report says that the Wikimedia Foundation provided an unconditional grant of $8.723 million to Tides Advocacy for the Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund. What is the Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund?
A portion of our grant to Tides Advocacy will be used to launch the Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund, a new fund that the Wikimedia Foundation is establishing this fiscal year to invest in new grant-making opportunities in support of groups that are advancing equitable, inclusive representation in free knowledge. The remainder will be used to equitably fund the annual operating expenses of other Wikimedia affiliate organizations in service of our mission of free knowledge. The Wikimedia Foundation is still setting up the specifics of the Knowledge Equity Fund and will share more information in late 2020." Which sort of answers "what", but not at all "why" ... we know Wikimedia movement grantmaking is a complex area and the WMF has fairly good experience in doing it. We also know that the WMF's record of outsourcing anything relating to the Wikimedia movement is pretty disastrous, even (especially?) where it's outsourced to an American consultancy, no matter how focused on nonprofits. What exactly will Tides be doing, and why do we think they are going to be any good at doing it? How is the movement going to exercise scrutiny of this $10M? Since the FAQs says more information will be available in "late 2020" maybe this could be answered now? Thanks, Chris / The Land On Sun, Dec 13, 2020 at 1:29 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) <djgw...@gmail.com> wrote: > It seems disingenous to describe it as "secret" given that it was > willingly acknowledged in the the FAQ of the annual financial audit > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_reports/Financial/Audits/2019-2020_-_frequently_asked_questions/id#This_year%E2%80%99s_report_says_that_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_provided_an_unconditional_grant_of_$8.723_million_to_Tides_Advocacy_for_the_Wikimedia_Knowledge_Equity_Fund._What_is_the_Wikimedia_Knowledge_Equity_Fund?>. > The information provided in the FAQ is somewhat lacking, but these are not > the actions of people trying to sweep it under the rug. > > Let us politely ask for more information without being unnecessarily > alarmist. > > Dan > > On Sun, 13 Dec 2020 at 08:54, Yair Rand <yyairr...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> According to the recent Independent Auditors' Report of the WMF [1], at >> some point prior to the end of June 2020, an entity called the "Wikimedia >> Knowledge Equity Fund" was established, and $8.723 million was transferred >> to it by the WMF, in the form of an unconditional grant. The Fund is >> "managed and controlled by Tides Advocacy" (a 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit >> previously led by the WMF's current General Counsel/Board Secretary, who >> served as CEO, Board Secretary, and Treasurer there). Given that a Google >> search for "Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund" yields zero results prior to >> the release of the report, it is clear that the WMF kept this significant >> move completely secret for over five months, perhaps over a year. The >> Report FAQ additionally emphasizes that the WMF "has no right of return to >> the grant funds provided, with the exception of unexpended funds." >> >> The WMF unilaterally and secretly transferred nearly $9 million of >> movement funds to an outside organization not recognized by the >> Affiliations Committee. No mention of the grant was made in any Board >> resolutions or minutes from the relevant time period. The amount was not >> mentioned in the public annual plan, which set out rather less than this >> amount for the entire grantmaking budget for the year. No application was >> made through any of the various Wikimedia grants processes. No further >> information has been provided on the administration of this new Fund, or on >> the text of the grant agreement. >> >> I am appalled. >> >> -- Yair Rand >> >> [1] >> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/f/f7/Wikimedia_Foundation_FY2019-2020_Audit_Report.pdf >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> 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> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > 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> >
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