Omidyar Network

OVERVIEW: The Omidyar Network is a hybrid foundation and LLC, making grants and investments in the areas of global development, journalism, racial justice and equity, civic engagement and work and opportunity.

IP TAKE: The Omidyar Network — considered a major progressive social justice force — focuses on media, technology, civic engagement and equity for disadvantaged peoples. Areas of focus and grantmaking decisions are sourced from the network’s Exploration and Future Sensing Team, which posts information about its current research on its webpage. All grantmaking occurs through an equity lens.

This funder mainly supports large, well-established organizations that operate nationally or globally rather than grassroots and smaller outfits. While this is not an accessible funder, grantseekers should consult Omidyar’s News and Insights page to keep up with its latest funding priorities. It will be difficult to get on this funder’s radar by networking through its officers. The network accepts contact, but note that it does not accept unsolicited applications.

PROFILE: The California-based Omidyar Network is the brainchild of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam, who is a geneticist by training. Established in 1998 as the Omidyar Foundation, its original goal was to help nonprofits empower people to create lasting change in their own lives. In 2004, Omidyar broadened its approach, acknowledging the important role the private sector could play in effecting social change, and became the Omidyar Network, investing in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures that aim to “build more inclusive and equitable societies.”

The network, which operates as a hybrid foundation and LLC (limited liability company), maintains three focus areas: Responsible Technology, Reimagining Capitalism and Building Cultures of Belonging. Its grantmaking supports initiatives in the areas of global development, journalism, racial justice and equity, arts and culture, and work and opportunity. In addition to the U.S., the network prioritizes the U.K., India and Kenya, where it maintains satellite offices.

Grants for Global Development and Technology

The Omidyar Network’s Responsible Technology seeks to “build a global technological ecosystem that reaches and works for everyone.” Through this program, the network makes investments in both global development and journalism. This combined work invests in generative AI for a more equitable future; curbing the harmful effects of Big Tech; ensuring digital safety and trust; and building alternative tech ecosystems. Grantmaking related to these areas of interest has networked with several organizations to promote practices associated with what Omidyar has termed “Good ID”—an inclusive and egalitarian digital ecosystem that “empowers individuals with privacy, security and control.”

One past grantee, the Mojaloop Foundation, provides open source software for digital and financial inclusion. In Africa, the network has given to Kenya’s Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, which works to apply principles of behavioral economics to emerging markets with the goal of eliminating poverty.
Other grantee partners include the International Institute for Information Technology in Bangalore, IT for Change, the Mozilla Foundation, Smart Africa and the University College of London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Grants for Journalism

Omidyar supports journalism via its Reporters in Residence program, which supports independent journalism and journalists to research and to report on critical new stories about big-picture economic issues. Much of the network’s grants for journalism also occur through it’s focus on Reimaging Capitalism.

Most journalism grants intersect with a focus on economic development and just economies.
Related journalism work across other realms of the network’s giving includes fighting disinformation and conspiracy theories, as well as toward developing policies that support freedom of expression, an open internet and affordable media technology.
Past journalism grantees and partners include the Free Press Action Fund, Vox Media, Consumer Reports and Public Knowledge, a nonprofit that develops policy that supports freedom
It is unclear what the network’s plans are for journalism in 2024, but check back often for new developments.

Grants for Racial Equity, Culture and Refugees

Building Cultures of Belonging is Omidyar’s newest initiative and was established to “strengthen civic and cultural infrastructure for inspiring Americans to build belonging, practice repair, and pursue healing into the 21st century.” Beyond this dedicated program, the Omidyar Network conducts all grantmaking through an equity lens across all giving areas.

The program has focused on “Seeding a New Belonging Paradigm,” which the network means to support “U.S. initiatives that connect musicians, rural communities, immigrants and refugees, faith leaders, entrepreneurs, students, TV writers, suburban women, policymakers, and global networks as part of a bigger current moving Americans to build belonging.”
The other subinitiative under this program, “Cultivating a Healthy Ecosystem for Repair and Healing,” supports a growing network that spans advocacy and the arts, to “heal past and present-day harms stemming from the legacy of colonialism and slavery” in the U.S.
This program has evolved from Omidyar’s previous “Pluralism” program, which committed $500,000 to racial justice organizations in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Early grantees of the program are a diverse group and include Pop Culture Collaborative, Repairers of the Breach, Mia Birdsong, Building Belonging, New Pluralists, Welcoming America, Liberation Ventures and Liberated Capital.

Grants for Economic Development

Believing that “capitalism can still be a force for good,” the Omidyar Network’s Reimagining Capitalism program is working toward building an “economic system that is more equitable, sustainable and inclusive.”

Subinitiatives include: Seeding a New Economic Paradigm, Expanding the Power of Working People, Driving Corporations and Capital Markets toward the Common Good, Curbing Monopoly Power, and Catalyzing a Just Economic Transition.

Grantees in this area include the Coworker Solidarity Fund, the Open Markets Institute and the Paradigm Initiative, which works globally to empower underserved youth with digital rights, business skills and career opportunities.
The BuildUS Fund, for which Omidyar partnered with several major funders, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Skoll Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, works to “support the implementation of four landmark pieces of federal legislation — the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — and will help ensure that the broadest swath of Americans see and feel the investments made possible by this legislation.”

Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy

The Omidyar Network supports civic engagement and democracy in the U.S. across each of its funding initiatives.

One recent grantee is the National Conference on Citizenship, which works nationally to “strengthen civic life in America.” Another grantee, Public Citizen, has advocated for nationwide voting rights and vote-by-mail accommodations in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Important Grant Details:

The Omidyar Network has made between $80 and $90 million in grants in recent years and makes about $100 million in social change investments each year. According to its website, its average grant size is about $250,000, but grants can range widely.

For additional information on past grantees and partners, see the network’s partners page.
The Omidyar Network does not accept unsolicited applications or proposals for funding.
Omidyar’s contact page also provides phone numbers for its main and satellite offices around the world.

Decisions about funding are made by the organization’s Exploration and Future Sensing Team, which maintains its own web page and posts information about its current interests and research. General inquiries may be made to info@omidyar.com or (650)482-2500

PEOPLE:

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).

LINKS: