Greetings,
Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia
Foundation's Form 990.
Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling US$1.7M) which
were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our global reach has grown over time,
we felt it was important to strengthen the trademark portfolio and solidify the protection
of Wikimedia’s marks globally. In December 2013, we began working with Jones Day on our
global trademark filings, registrations, and oppositions. During the 2014-2015 fiscal year
we filed 1,500+ new trademark applications for 35 different trademarks in 100+ countries.
A significant portion of the legal services expenses in 2014-2015 went toward the
mandatory government trademark application filing fees.
These new trademark applications contained expanded coverage and revised descriptions to
ensure better protection of Wikimedia's marks and projects, including countries where
readership was growing through targeted programs or distribution (such as Wikipedia Zero
and mobile readership). Going forward, we anticipate (and are beginning to realize) a
decrease in trademark expenses year over year, now that we have this initial foundation is
in place. This investment immediately benefits Wikimedia and its communities by ensuring
that our trademark portfolio reflects the maturity and breadth of the Wikimedia movement,
and protects us against certain forms of infringement or misuse.
Regarding Lodewijk's question about compensation to the 'ED team': The
Foundation regularly discloses compensation information for Foundation leadership through
our Form 990 filings. The 990 disclosure is an approach widely relied on by many different
stakeholders: it is clear, transparent, consistent with other charitable entities, and a
matter of public record. As such, we have chosen to use it as our primary means of
disclosure.
The Signpost recently also reached out with a similar question about the special advisor
role. Here is the response Patricio shared:
"In May 2014, Jan-Bart announced that Sue would stay on as a special advisor,[1]
which he confirmed again in June that year.[2]
The Board felt that Sue Gardner's knowledge and experience in our movement was
valuable to support the Foundation as it went through that ED transition. In general, it
is good practice to make sure that there is the ability to draw on the expertise of an
experienced former executive - in this case, someone who grew the organization from a few
people to more than 200.
We felt this was an important leadership change, perhaps one of the bigger ones in the
Foundation’s history. This was a practical means of ensuring the handover went as smoothly
as possible, and key institutional knowledge was preserved during an important period of
transition."
As for the question about why the Wikimedia Foundation spent $317,490 fighting
"cybersquatters" that offered to donate the domain in dispute: We’re not sure
where this question comes from, as we haven’t dealt with a case that fits this
description. We do not fight cybersquatters who offer to donate their domains (especially
if they are community members), and, to date, we have not spent anything approaching that
much money on this type of case.
In answer to a question that was asked on Facebook:
"i'm curious about the investment of cash in corporate and municipal bonds. is
there an investment policy? no sign of working capital needs and how to manage cash. no
sign of endowment preparation."
Our investment policy, which is the guidance being used today, is available on Foundation
wiki.[3] The investment policy for the endowment will be set by the Wikimedia Endowment
Advisory Board that we are forming right now. We are recruiting Advisory Board Trustees
with significant investment expertise, from a diverse set of backgrounds. We announced the
appointment of Annette Campbell-White last week as one of the founding board members. You
can read more about her here.[4]
Again, thanks for your questions and feedback both on this list and elsewhere.
-Gregory Varnum
Wikimedia Foundation
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-May/071458.html
[2]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-June/072372.html
[3]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Investment_Policy
[4]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/05/11/annette-campbell-white-endowment/
On May 24, 2016, at 11:17 AM, Lodewijk
<lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> wrote:
I do hope btw that the unfortunate derailing doesn't mean the questions
won't get an answer... I hoped those would be fairly obvious and easily
clarified.
Lodewijk
2016-05-20 0:52 GMT+02:00 Neil P. Quinn <mail(a)neilpquinn.com>om>:
I totally second this. I apologize for engaging
with him earlier; I didn't
realize at the time that he was such a pathetic troll.
*Neil P. Quinn*
+1 (202) 656 3457
On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 3:18 PM, Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Seconding Lodewijk here. I can already count at
least 5 phrases or
statements that David Emrany has said which made me cringe and wonder why
hasn't this been blocked/moderated already?
Hostile, accusatory, and vulgar behavior degrades this entire forum
(beyond
its already damaged capacity for inclusion of
multiple voices).
Please do something.
Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi)
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