User talk:Jimbo Wales

Important subjects

I sometimes reflect on comments by you and others that most of the important subjects have been covered on Wikipedia. I thought about that sentiment recently as I was digging into the history of the Huntsville Democrat and its proprietor John Withers Clay. Also his daughters who took over his paper and property after he became incapacitated and ran it and a boarding school in Huntsville. I also reflected on those ideas as I looked into the extant home on what was once their property near downtown Huntsville.

What are the important subjects? Can we understand the history of Huntsville or the U.S. or the world if we don't cover more of these subjects? It continues to be a struggle to add entries on so many subjects including the newspapers, people, buildings, and communities that shaped who we were and who we've become. I thought these subjects were interesting so I thought I'd share them here with you and others. Take care. (I started Draft:The Weekly Democrat) FloridaArmy (talk) 15:16, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Huntsville Female Seminary was next door to their property. That institution is noted here. FloridaArmy (talk) 15:30, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

I love that draft of The Weekly Democrat. I'm traveling in New York at the moment and won't have time to chip in and help for a week or two, but if I can, I will!--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:02, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the encouragement, enthusiasm, and for your interest Jimbo. FloridaArmy (talk) 20:45, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

Question regarding Wikimedia Endowment 2023-24 Plan

Jimbo, could you please give us more details about page 11 of the Wikimedia Endowment 2023-24 Plan?

I would like to know who the $2,300,946 ($874,546 + $1,426,400) in personnel expenses, $584,541 ($407,541 + $177,00) in professional services, etc. were paid to, and who the "interns, contractors and fellows" are. Are they on the Tides payroll? Foundation payroll?(Answered. See below.) What, exactly, is a "fellow" and what do these fellows do? --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 22:20, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

OK, anyone who knows my history knows that I've had my pretty legendary scuffles with the WMF (and was vindicated after 7 years), but even I can tell this could be an example in the article loaded question. I'm wondering, what answer would satisfy you? The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 00:56, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Any substantive discussion would satisfy me. An honest "fuck off. I am never going to answer your questions" would satisfy me. Pretty much anything other than a stonewall silence whenever someone asks a reasonable question would satisfy me.

Sure, I would prefer engaging in a polite back and forth discussion as one would hope for among people who are working towards the same goal, but at this point pretty much any response, no matter how rude or evasive, would be a step forward from not responding at all.

I am not the only person asking these sort of questions. See User talk:BilledMammal/2023 Wikimedia RfC#Wikimedia Endowment. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 03:07, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

This is a straightforward question. This is a serious question. As a Wikipedian of over 15 years, I want a serious answer. Pecopteris (talk) 03:12, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Another source answered part of the above question. See [1] Still waiting for any response other than silence here. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 03:02, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

The other question that I see up above is about fellows. The WMF accountants have a budget category for "interns, contractors, and fellows". We do not have any fellows on the endowment. The fellows that I know of are on the legal team (of the WMF), usually law school students who do research for them as needed. There is one hourly employee, who manages the endowment's donor database.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 14:40, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! Very clear answer. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 19:13, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	hello!! I hope you have a good day Babysharkboss2 was here!! 16:03, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Endowment financial information

Just as an FYI, there's a discussion going on right now to finalize some details and new information will be released very soon (I think before the week is out, barring anything unforeseen). Jimbo Wales (talk) 10:54, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Financials have been published for the Wikimedia Endowment for the years 2016-2023. Wikimedia Endowment Financial Statements--Jimbo Wales (talk) 17:24, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much for this!

Comparison to S&P 500

Wikimedia Foundation Endowment Financial Statement comparison to Standard & Poor's 500 stock index performance Fiscal year ending date June 2016 June 2017 June 2018 June 2019 June 2020 June 2021 June 2022 June 2023 Support and revenue: US Dollars Total Contributions 6,607,435 11,590,795 11,737,537 12,000,238 21,194,726 24,093,050 11,549,007 6,547,663 105,320,451 Interest and dividends — 434,002 591,087 991,500 1,041,846 1,052,879 1,484,920 651,991 6,248,224 Realized gains — -6,895 937,287 1,077,257 303,116 4,535,027 -225,081 0 6,620,711 Change in unrealized gains — 536,615 -3,361,489 4,650,940 5,644,620 7,571,504 -21,995,265 9,109,544 2,156,469 Total support and revenue 6,607,435 12,554,518 9,904,422 18,719,935 28,184,308 37,252,460 -9,186,420 16,309,197 120,345,855 Expenses: Grants and awards — — — — — — — 4,527,086 4,527,086 Internal fees 31,425 79,971 145,598 186,364 239,954 329,416 354,192 181,368 1,548,288 Other expenses — 3,168 11,605 13,376 19,863 32,935 33,751 17,533 132,232 Total expenses 31,425 83,139 157,202 199,741 259,816 362,352 387,943 4,725,987 6,207,605 Increase in net assets 6,576,011 12,471,379 9,747,220 18,520,194 27,924,492 36,890,109 -9,574,363 11,583,210 114,138,250 Cumulative net assets before grants and awards 6,576,011 19,047,390 28,794,610 47,314,804 75,239,296 112,129,405 102,555,042 114,138,252 Investment income less fees and expenses 880,583 -1,990,318 6,519,957 6,729,765 12,797,059 -21,123,369 9,562,634 Return on investment 7.12% -7.99% 18.74% 11.62% 14.66% -17.92% 9.44% mean: 5.10% Note well: those percentage returns assume that half of all contributions are realized on the first day of the fiscal year, and the other half on the last day. Median NACUBO endowment returns 12.5% 8.0% 5.1% 1.8% 30.1% -8.7% mean: 8.13% (source) S&P 500 net total return 3,590 4,206 4,783 5,249 5,610 7,861 6,996 8,324 (source) S&P 500 percentage change 17.16% 13.71% 9.75% 6.87% 40.14% -11.01% 18.98% mean: 13.66% Return on investment over S&P 500 -10.04% -21.70% 8.99% 4.75% -25.48% -6.91% -9.54% mean: -8.56%

What are our chances of seeing the historical investment holdings? That spreadsheet table is flawed because it assumes half the year's contributions come in at the beginning of the year and half come in at the end, but if we had historical investment transactions it wouldn't be necessary to make such absurd assumptions. Sandizer (talk) 03:55, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Interesting. Thanks @Sandizer for posting the chart.

I would also be interested in the historical investment holdings. One might guess that Tides/WMF holds, say, treasury bills, treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and so on, generally adopting a more risk-averse investment strategy than 100% investment in the S&P, but in the S&P's worst year (June 2021-22), the WMF's investments did significantly worse than the S&P. I'd like to know what accounts for that. Pecopteris (talk) 05:05, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

I can't answer you, today, as to whether or not we can release that information, because I don't know. I also note that since it's really only at this point a matter of historical interest, I don't think it's worth a huge amount of staff time. I'll check whether it's something easy but I really don't want anyone mucking around with huge spreadsheets to try to answer the question. Leave it with me. It might well be that the balanced answer will be just to get some "color" on the question: "we were invested more heavily in X sector, which performed worse during Y year" or that sort of thing.

However, I can say that going forward, now that we have our own 501(c)(3) I will advocate for regular and clear transparency much greater than we have been able to provide in the past.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:37, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

No problem. Here are some typical endowment asset allocations and returns for nonprofit endowments from NACUBO (the National Association of College and University Business Officers)[2] which you might want to join, if they can do such reports at less cost than in-house. Sandizer (talk) 09:16, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

This should also answer the question pretty well: Wikimedia Endowment Investment Guidelines.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 17:19, 3 October 2023 (UTC)