Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/January 17, 2020

9:00 – 9:10 am Welcome and Introductions (Lisa Gruwell)

9:10 – 9:25 am Foundation Update (Katherine Maher)

9:25 –10:00 am Foundation Rebrand Update (Caitlin Virtue; Martin Gran, Snøhetta) + Q&A

10:00 –10:25 am General Counsel Governance Update (Amanda Keton)

10:25 – 10:40 am Investment Update (Lisa Gruwell)

10:40 - 10:50 am Break

10:50 - 11:10 am Fundraising Update (Kaitlin Thaney)

11:10 - 11:20 am Q&A

11:20 -11:30 am Next Meeting Date & Topic Confirmation (Lisa Gruwell)

Adjourn

Minutes

San Francisco

Endowment Advisory Board Members: Annette Campbell-White, Peter Baldwin, Jimmy Wales and Niels Christian Nielsen

Regrets: Michael Kim

Wikimedia Foundation Staff: Katherine Maher, Lisa Gruwell, Amanda Keton, Kaitlin Thaney, Caitlin Virtue, Megan Hernandez, and Guillaume Paumier

Presenter: Martin Gran, Snøhetta

1. Approved minutes from July 2019 meeting

2. Foundation Update (Katherine Maher)

Update on Movement Strategy Process: reaching completion with the summary of 13 recommendations, coming out of 9 working groups.
Next steps will be a consultation on the final recommendations and pending acceptance, implementation of the recommendations

3. Foundation rebrand update (Martin Gran)

The Wikimedia Foundation has hired Snøhetta to partner in re-imagining the Wikimedia brand
The history and background of Snøhetta, their values, and a few of their signature projects
The goal of this work is to create a new visual identity for the Foundation and the movement. The first phase of the work will be completed in June.

4. General Counsel Governance Update (Amanda Keton)

An update on the current status of the governance of the Endowment fund at Tides.
Proposed investigation into options for new governance structure
Discussion: The data in support of a change and the ramifications of a change
Approval given for moving forward on these items
- Q1 (2020): Renegotiate our fees with Tides
- Q1 (2020): Assess corporate structure
- Q2 (2020): Plan for a community consultation

5. Investment and Governance Update (Lisa Gruwell)

Financial
- Lisa shares financials as of Dec 31, 2019; noting that most of our fundraising activity was in December, and those funds have not yet been transferred to Tides.
- Annette notes a lack of diversification of funds, due to being at Tides. This is a risk if the stock market gets choppy.
Governance
- Lisa proposes 2 minor changes to the investment policy.
- First, the current policy states that we will review the policy when the fund reaches a balance of $33 million. We have hit that milestone. Proposal: Revise policy to state that we will review annually.
- Second, a proposal to move 5% more into the real estate investment trust asset class from the equity class.
- Motion to adopt: Niels motioned, Peter seconded, Ayes have it

6. Fundraising Update (Kaitlin Thaney)

$58 million raised to date towards our initial $100 million goal.
$12.2.M raised over first 6 months of FY19-20, exceeding the annual fundraising goal

7. Next Meeting Topic Confirmation (Lisa Gruwell)