Omidyar Network is a self-styled " philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over $1.5billion to

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

, Omidyar Network's financing for 2019 development increased by 10% to US$58.9 million.

Activism and accomplishments

In February 2021, the network hosted
series on whistleblowing
and has provided financial support to Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma.

Structure

Composed of a 501(c)(3) and a

Limited Liability Company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability ...

(LLC), Omidyar Network is structured to work across the social, business, and government sectors. Like a traditional foundation, it makes

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

through its 501(c)(3) entity; through its LLC, it invests in for-profit entities. It is a part of The Omidyar Group. In 2018, Omidyar Network spun off its Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative. The group now operates as Luminate, a global philanthropic organization that invests in Civic Empowerment, Data & Digital Rights, Financial Transparency, and Independent Media. It is led by Stephen King. In 2019, Omidyar Network spun off its Financial Inclusion initiative. The group now operates as Flourish and is led by Tilman Ehrbeck, Arjuna Costa, and Emmalyn Shaw.

People

As of 2022, the CEO of Omidyar Network is Mike Kubzansky. Its board of directors include the managing directors of The Omidyar Group, Jeff Alvord and Pat Christen. The organization has offices in Redwood City, Bengaluru,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, and Washington D.C.

Investees

Omidyar Network invested in the microfinance sector, including

Unitus Inc. Unitus Labs a successor of Unitus Inc., is a non-profit microcredit organization that worked to provide credit lines to aid in development, especially in India. It was heavily involved with SKS Microfinance. It was originally organized in 2001, an ...

, Omidyar Network counts the following organizations as partners: Ashoka, Comat Technologies, Creative Commons,

Digg Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launch ...

DonorsChoose DonorsChoose is a United States-based nonprofit organization that allows individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects. The organization has been given Charity Navigator's highest rating every year since 2005. In January 20 ...

, Endeavor,

Federated Media Publishing John Linwood Battelle (born November 4, 1965) is an entrepreneur, author and journalist. Best known for his work creating media properties, Battelle helped launch ''Wired'' in the 1990s and launched ''The Industry Standard ''during the dot-com bo ...

, GlobalGiving, Goodmail, GuideStar, Linden Lab (developer of

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fr ...

global virtual community), Media Development Investment Fund, Meetup, Metaweb, ModestNeeds, Open Data Institute, Opportunity International, PRBC, Prosper, Rappler, SeaChange Capital Partners, Seesmic, Socialtext,

Sunlight Foundation The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States ...

Virgin Money Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by two independent brand-licensees worldwide from the Virgin Group. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. The brand formerly operated in South A ...

, Wikia, World of Good. From 2012, Omidyar Network has been a partner of

Better Than Cash Alliance The Better Than Cash Alliance is a global partnership of 80 governments, companies, and International Organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to responsible digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ...

. In 2017, Omidyar Network together with AVINA Americas and Avina Foundation founded the Latin American Alliance for Civic Technology (ALTEC) to invest in and support the development in Latin America of civic technology platforms and related scalable technologies. In 2009, the Omidyar Network donated $2 million over two years to the Wikimedia Foundation, and at the same time, Matt Halprin of Omidyar Network was appointed to Wikimedia's board of directors. During the 2020

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Omidyar Network funded 67 projects under the Rapid Response Funding Initiative, investing a total of . These projects were selected from 2000 applications. The projects funded included RightWalk Foundation, Peepul India, and GiveIndia. In 2020, it invested $150,000 in the legal assistance organization Whistleblower Aid.

References

External links

*
The Omidyar Group
{{authority control Foundations based in the United States 2004 establishments in California