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(a)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(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Marc A.
Pelletier <marc(a)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.
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