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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jimbo Wales (talk | contribs) at 17:19, 3 October 2023 (→Endowment financial information). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jimbo welcomes your comments and updates – he has an open door policy. He holds the founder's seat on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees. The current trustees occupying "community-selected" seats are Rosiestep, Laurentius, Victoria and Pundit. The Wikimedia Foundation's Lead Manager of Trust and Safety is Jan Eissfeldt.

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Important subjects

I sometimes reflect on comments by you and others that most of the important subjects have been covered on Misplaced Pages. I thought about that sentiment recently as I was digging into the history of the Huntsville Democrat and its proprietor John Withers Clay. Also his daughters who took over his paper and property after he became incapacitated and ran it and a boarding school in Huntsville. I also reflected on those ideas as I looked into the extant home on what was once their property near downtown Huntsville.

What are the important subjects? Can we understand the history of Huntsville or the U.S. or the world if we don't cover more of these subjects? It continues to be a struggle to add entries on so many subjects including the newspapers, people, buildings, and communities that shaped who we were and who we've become. I thought these subjects were interesting so I thought I'd share them here with you and others. Take care. (I started Draft:The Weekly Democrat) FloridaArmy (talk) 15:16, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Huntsville Female Seminary was next door to their property. That institution is noted here. FloridaArmy (talk) 15:30, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

I love that draft of The Weekly Democrat. I'm traveling in New York at the moment and won't have time to chip in and help for a week or two, but if I can, I will!--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:02, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the encouragement, enthusiasm, and for your interest Jimbo. FloridaArmy (talk) 20:45, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

Question regarding Wikimedia Endowment 2023-24 Plan

Jimbo, could you please give us more details about page 11 of the Wikimedia Endowment 2023-24 Plan?

I would like to know who the $2,300,946 ($874,546 + $1,426,400) in personnel expenses, $584,541 ($407,541 + $177,00) in professional services, etc. were paid to, and who the "interns, contractors and fellows" are. Are they on the Tides payroll? Foundation payroll?(Answered. See below.) What, exactly, is a "fellow" and what do these fellows do? --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 22:20, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

OK, anyone who knows my history knows that I've had my pretty legendary scuffles with the WMF (and was vindicated after 7 years), but even I can tell this could be an example in the article loaded question. I'm wondering, what answer would satisfy you? The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 00:56, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Any substantive discussion would satisfy me. An honest "fuck off. I am never going to answer your questions" would satisfy me. Pretty much anything other than a stonewall silence whenever someone asks a reasonable question would satisfy me.

Sure, I would prefer engaging in a polite back and forth discussion as one would hope for among people who are working towards the same goal, but at this point pretty much any response, no matter how rude or evasive, would be a step forward from not responding at all.

I am not the only person asking these sort of questions. See User talk:BilledMammal/2023 Wikimedia RfC#Wikimedia Endowment. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 03:07, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

This is a straightforward question. This is a serious question. As a Wikipedian of over 15 years, I want a serious answer. Pecopteris (talk) 03:12, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Another source answered part of the above question. See Still waiting for any response other than silence here. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 03:02, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

The other question that I see up above is about fellows. The WMF accountants have a budget category for "interns, contractors, and fellows". We do not have any fellows on the endowment. The fellows that I know of are on the legal team (of the WMF), usually law school students who do research for them as needed. There is one hourly employee, who manages the endowment's donor database.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 14:40, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! Very clear answer. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 19:13, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	hello!! I hope you have a good day Babysharkboss2 was here!! 16:03, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Endowment financial information

Just as an FYI, there's a discussion going on right now to finalize some details and new information will be released very soon (I think before the week is out, barring anything unforeseen). Jimbo Wales (talk) 10:54, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Financials have been published for the Wikimedia Endowment for the years 2016-2023. Wikimedia Endowment Financial Statements--Jimbo Wales (talk) 17:24, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much for this!

What are our chances of seeing the historical investment holdings? That spreadsheet table is flawed because it assumes half the year's contributions come in at the beginning of the year and half come in at the end, but if we had historical investment transactions it wouldn't be necessary to make such absurd assumptions. Sandizer (talk) 03:55, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Interesting. Thanks @Sandizer for posting the chart.

I would also be interested in the historical investment holdings. One might guess that Tides/WMF holds, say, treasury bills, treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and so on, generally adopting a more risk-averse investment strategy than 100% investment in the S&P, but in the S&P's worst year (June 2021-22), the WMF's investments did significantly worse than the S&P. I'd like to know what accounts for that. Pecopteris (talk) 05:05, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

I can't answer you, today, as to whether or not we can release that information, because I don't know. I also note that since it's really only at this point a matter of historical interest, I don't think it's worth a huge amount of staff time. I'll check whether it's something easy but I really don't want anyone mucking around with huge spreadsheets to try to answer the question. Leave it with me. It might well be that the balanced answer will be just to get some "color" on the question: "we were invested more heavily in X sector, which performed worse during Y year" or that sort of thing.

However, I can say that going forward, now that we have our own 501(c)(3) I will advocate for regular and clear transparency much greater than we have been able to provide in the past.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:37, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

No problem. Here are some typical endowment asset allocations and returns for nonprofit endowments from NACUBO (the National Association of College and University Business Officers) which you might want to join, if they can do such reports at less cost than in-house. Sandizer (talk) 09:16, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

This should also answer the question pretty well: Wikimedia Endowment Investment Guidelines.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 17:19, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

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