[Foundation-l] Omidyar Network Commits $2 Million Grant to Wikimedia Foundation

[Michael Snow]

Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Steven Walling<steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> I think everyone needs to calm down a little.
>> Remember that we just got 2 million dollars to further our mission, and that
>> the board seat appointment (which isn't an unusual practice, at least in my
>> experience) does nothing to impede our work and the positive impact we can
>> have. It's the exact opposite, in fact.
>>     
> Indeed. Per the FAQ — it's a $2m unrestricted grant paid out in four chunks.
>
> Grants that big without specific targeted goals are somewhat unusual.
> Arguably the imposition of goals has a lot more influence on the
> operation of an origination than a simple board seat, even if it's a
> voting seat.
As Gregory points out, it's fairly unusual for foundations to make 
grants of unrestricted money, and we've been quite fortunate to have 
those as we develop our capacity to carry out the sorts of projects that 
they will provide restricted grants for (like the usability initiative). 
The Omidyar Network, in addition to making grants, likes to make itself 
available as a resource for grantees, rather than simply handing out 
money and then disappearing. For one example, their human resources 
executive, also someone with experience as an eBay executive in that 
area, could be a big help for us as we tackle hiring key positions such 
as a CTO. And in a similar fashion we feel that Matt can be a resource 
for us as a board member. He has extensive experience in strategic 
planning processes, at eBay and previously in his consulting work, and 
also has important nonprofit experience, serving on the boards of 
organizations like DonorsChoose.org and the Sunlight Foundation.

As I mentioned earlier, Jay was going to publish the press releases and 
Q&A, but as Erik explained we had some internet problems, so that's why 
some of this was passed through via the external version of the press 
release. I had also intended to write an additional note to the list 
about the grant, but lost my internet connection immediately after I 
sent the first one. The information is all posted on the foundation 
website now that we have connectivity again:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009QA
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Board_Announcements_August_2009

--Michael Snow