Hi Garfield,
This might be a good discussion to have on Meta. Would the investment team be willing to set up a page for discussion? The guidance developed there could optionally be used by thematic organizations as well, and could be used for the WMF endowment. WMF Fundraising might want to be involved in the discussion in case donors ask questions or want to submit input.
Thanks,
Pine On Oct 16, 2014 12:42 PM, "Garfield Byrd" gbyrd@wikimedia.org wrote:
I and the investment management team that has been selected to manage the short term and long term reserves of the Foundation are open to any consensus guidance on what "socially responsible" investing looks like in our context.
Regards,
Garfield
On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 5:24 PM, Richard Symonds < richard.symonds@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
Hmm. I'm not sure that everyone will agree on all of those values you espouse, Pine - they are laudable goals but as an organisation that also aims to be "neutral", moving in a left-of-centre direction might be
frowned
on by some.
Limiting investment options would also limit the returns on those investments - which would impact our mission (might be good, might be
bad)
- and limiting returns on investments would also in turn impact a lot of
other things, for example, the recommended figures that the WMF and Chapters hold in reserve.
A complicated issue.
Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A
4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
On 15 October 2014 15:52, Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Marc A. Pelletier marc@uberbox.org wrote:
On 10/15/2014 04:52 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
I suggest that you need a stricter definition to start with.
It's also highly disputable that the Foundation would be justified in reducing the fiduciary care it must employ in its investment strategy for a set of ill-defined objectives that fall entirely outside its mission - no matter how agreeable those objectives may be to many of
the
volunteers.
-- Marc
I'm not a natural fan of "divestment ethics", but I don't know that
there
is much dispute these days that it is possible to fulfill fiduciary
duties
*and* invest using values / ethics oriented strategy. Twenty years ago perhaps it was uncommon, but today ethical (or social responsibility) investment strategy is common among non-profits and there are many dedicated funds for the purpose. _______________________________________________ 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-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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