A truly amazing achievement!
It must have been 10 or 11 years since I was in the group supporting the
financial person at the board. And we then discussed how much the
potential income could be from donations and we also raise the issue of
an endowment. Income from donations has since been quadrupled, but even
more impressive is the development of the endowment fund. Then just a
dream, now a reality!
Life has its ups and downs and this also goes for organisations and
projects. It is therefor so assuring there are money if and when we are
going into hard times, so that our enormous knowledge repositories in
our projects will not only survive but also be able to go forward
independent of the big tech-dragons (or government agencies).
Anders
Den 2021-03-01 kl. 18:34, skrev Lisa Gruwell:
Hi all -
I have some good news to share. Five years ago, we launched the
Wikimedia Endowment <https://wikimediaendowment.org/> as a permanent
safekeeping fund to enable us to fulfill the part of our mission that
says we will provide support to the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mission_statement>. Our goal was
to raise an initial USD $100 million for the Endowment by 2026, after
which income earned from investing the fund
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment#Endowment_Investment_Policy>would
become a new stream of financial support for Wikimedia projects.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters and the hard
work of the staff and the Endowment Board, the Endowment now holds $90
million. We anticipate that we will surpass the $100 million goal next
fiscal year.
At the outset, the Endowment was established as a Collective Action
Fund at Tides Foundation, with the plan to move it to a permanent
structure as the fund neared critical mass. In preparation for the
approaching $100 million milestone, we are now beginning the work of
taking the Endowment to its next stage of maturity: establishing it as
an independent public charity with the mission of providing financial
support for the Wikimedia projects.
We are grateful to the future-focused community members who began
considering the idea of an endowment years ago, to those who
participated in community conversations on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay> to help us think
through initial decisions regarding its launch, to the WMF Board that
gave the Endowment its full support, and especially to the Endowment
Board <https://wikimediaendowment.org/#undefined>who, among many other
things, introduced us to their friends and opened their homes to host
fundraising events for us.
While we look forward to celebrating the achievement of the $100
million milestone in the next year, the work of growing the Endowment
will not be over. Our direct fundraising efforts will continue, as
will our pursuit of planned gifts (such as gifts in wills and other
legacy gifts). To date, we have over 1,000 members of the Wikimedia
Legacy Society – donors who have agreed to leave a portion of their
estate to the Wikimedia Endowment. Their long-term commitment is a
sign of deep respect for the work of our volunteer communities and of
a desire to help us reach the ambitious 2030 Strategic Direction.
As we move forward in these efforts, you can follow updates on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment>, and we welcome
your questions on the Endowment’s Talk page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment>. We started
this endowment conversation with the community on that page five years
ago and that is the best place to continue it as we move into this
next phase. Thank you to everyone who has helped bring us to this
point in the road.
Best regards,
Lisa Gruwell
Chief Advancement Officer
--
Lisa Seitz Gruwell
Chief Advancement Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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