EBay’s Founder Expands Giving and Adds New Causes to Support

The Omidyar Network will increase its grant making by more than 50 percent this year and expand the types of charities it supports.

Omidyar Network, the grant-making organization established by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, will make grants worth roughly $55-million this year, up from about $33-million in 2007. The network also is adding several new managers, many of whom are joining the organization from for-profit companies.

Omidyar officials say the organization’s growth is constrained more by its ability to find talented people to fill its ranks than by the financial crisis affecting the world’s economies. Mr. Omidyar, whose net worth is estimated at $8-billion, remains the largest holder of eBay stock, which has lost more than half its value in the past year.

“We do not envision cutting back our investments,” says Matt Halprin, who heads Omidyar’s “media, markets, and transparency” division, one of two primary units through which Omidyar makes grants and for-profit investments. “In fact, it is more likely that we will continue to make increases in the years ahead.”

The Omidyar Network, in Redwood City, Calif., also plans to increase the size of each grant it makes, to an average of $4-million to $7-million. In 2006, the average grant size was under $1-million. “We’re looking at fewer and bigger bets,” says Sarah Steven, an Omidyar spokeswoman.

Emerging Ventures

Mr. Halprin joined Omidyar in June from eBay, where he had been a vice president. His division will invest in and make grants to groups that can help improve openness in government and the news media. Omidyar’s other primary grant-making area, “access to capital,” seeks to create financial opportunities in emerging markets.

Under those broad priorities, the network also has two new programs for grants and investments. One, called “emerging market ventures,” will support entrepreneurs who operate rapidly growing businesses, as a way to demonstrate the power of entrepreneurship to improve the lives of the poor. In July, Omidyar made a $10-million grant to Endeavor, a New York charity that helps entrepreneurs in developing countries.

“Here in Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship has a positive context,” Ms. Steven says. “In other parts of the world, it’s not always seen that way.”

A new program focusing on “trust, reputation, and identity” will make grants to help individuals become more comfortable making donations online. Mr. Halprin says groups like GlobalGiving, an Omidyar grant recipient that connects small donors directly to international projects, must build trust among potential donors to continue to grow at a rapid pace.

“Trust is pretty important,” says Mr. Halprin, whose job at eBay involved rooting out sellers hawking counterfeit merchandise. “You have to have donors feeling comfortable sending money to a charity somewhere else in the world.”

Omidyar has doubled its number of “investment professionals” — from six to 12 — in the past year, including hiring people who formerly worked at BBC World Service Trust and JP Morgan Chase. At Omidyar, investment professionals are responsible for both making for-profit investments and distributing grants.

Meanwhile, Sal Giambanco has been hired to head “human capital” and human resources at Omidyar, after leading similar departments at PayPal and eBay.