Investment Summary for the Wikimedia Foundation - Treasurers

Pine W

10 Aug 10 Aug

8:57 p.m.

Garfield, Thanks for providing this. Brief question: I thought that the WMF investment policy was that it would hold CDs and treasuries only. Did that change? I'm particularly interested in the stock reserves, because I thought that WMF previously said that always rapidly it divests itself of stocks and corporate bonds that it receives as donations and converts them to CDs and treasuries. Did that statement apply only to individual stocks and not to indices, ETFs, mutual funds, etc? My very brief review of the Investment Report is pretty reassuring in the sense that the IR shows WMF holding a generally conservative mix of funds that seems to be primarily aimed at preserving capital. Thanks, Pine Pine On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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The Investment Report <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:US_Trust_Short_Term_and_Long_Term_WMF_Investments_Performance_June_2015.pdf> for the Wikimedia Foundation, as of June 30, 2015 is posted. Please contact me with any questions. Regards, Garfield -- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

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Pine W

9:23 p.m.

Hi Garfield. OK, to clarify, the new Investment Policy states that in the long term fund, investments in securities may include "Stocks issued by domestic corporations and/or foreign corporations are eligible for investment, including instruments enumerated below". The list of instruments includes (lightly reformattted): "Convertible notes and bonds; Preferred stocks; American Depository Receipts of non-US companies (ADRs); and Global Depository Receipts of US and non-US companies (GDR)". I'm unclear on whether individual common stocks and funds consisting of those stocks (some ETFs, mutual funds, etc) are allowed to be held in the long term fund. Can you clarify that point? Thanks, Pine On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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Hi Pine, This our current Investment Policy <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Investment_Policy>. It was approved on April 25, 2014. Our current policy is that all gifts of stock and bonds are sold and then held as cash or reinvested in the Short Term fund as appropriate. We do not hold gifts of stocks or bonds. Regards, Garfield On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Garfield, Thanks for providing this. Brief question: I thought that the WMF investment policy was that it would hold CDs and treasuries only. Did that change? I'm particularly interested in the stock reserves, because I thought that WMF previously said that always rapidly it divests itself of stocks and corporate bonds that it receives as donations and converts them to CDs and treasuries. Did that statement apply only to individual stocks and not to indices, ETFs, mutual funds, etc? My very brief review of the Investment Report is pretty reassuring in the sense that the IR shows WMF holding a generally conservative mix of funds that seems to be primarily aimed at preserving capital. Thanks, Pine Pine On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

The Investment Report <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:US_Trust_Short_Term_and_Long_Term_WMF_Investments_Performance_June_2015.pdf> for the Wikimedia Foundation, as of June 30, 2015 is posted. Please contact me with any questions. Regards, Garfield -- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

_______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

-- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

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Pine W

9:50 p.m.

OK, thank you. Thanks again for making the investment summary public. Pine On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 2:43 PM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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Hi Pine, The Wikimedia Foundation does not hold individual stocks as a stand alone purchase, we hold them as part of a fund with a professional fund manager. For example, we would not buy a 1000 shares of Apple stock, but we may have 1000 shares of Apple stock as part of a fund that is managed on our behalf. Regards, Garfield On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 2:23 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Garfield. OK, to clarify, the new Investment Policy states that in the long term fund, investments in securities may include "Stocks issued by domestic corporations and/or foreign corporations are eligible for investment, including instruments enumerated below". The list of instruments includes (lightly reformattted): "Convertible notes and bonds; Preferred stocks; American Depository Receipts of non-US companies (ADRs); and Global Depository Receipts of US and non-US companies (GDR)". I'm unclear on whether individual common stocks and funds consisting of those stocks (some ETFs, mutual funds, etc) are allowed to be held in the long term fund. Can you clarify that point? Thanks, Pine On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hi Pine, This our current Investment Policy <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Investment_Policy>. It was approved on April 25, 2014. Our current policy is that all gifts of stock and bonds are sold and then held as cash or reinvested in the Short Term fund as appropriate. We do not hold gifts of stocks or bonds. Regards, Garfield On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Garfield, Thanks for providing this. Brief question: I thought that the WMF investment policy was that it would hold CDs and treasuries only. Did that change? I'm particularly interested in the stock reserves, because I thought that WMF previously said that always rapidly it divests itself of stocks and corporate bonds that it receives as donations and converts them to CDs and treasuries. Did that statement apply only to individual stocks and not to indices, ETFs, mutual funds, etc? My very brief review of the Investment Report is pretty reassuring in the sense that the IR shows WMF holding a generally conservative mix of funds that seems to be primarily aimed at preserving capital. Thanks, Pine Pine On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > The Investment Report > <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:US_Trust_Short_Term_and_Long_Term_WMF_Investments_Performance_June_2015.pdf> for > the Wikimedia Foundation, as of June 30, 2015 is posted. Please contact me > with any questions. > > Regards, > > Garfield > > -- > Garfield Byrd > Chief of Finance and Administration > Wikimedia Foundation > 415.839.6885 ext 6787 > 415.882.0495 (fax) > www.wikimediafoundation.org > > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in > the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! > > *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* > > _______________________________________________ > Treasurers mailing list > Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers > > _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

-- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

_______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

-- Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext 6787 415.882.0495 (fax) www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* _______________________________________________ Treasurers mailing list Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers

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