We’re highly adaptable. We take risks. We experiment. We listen.
We try to look around corners. We make mistakes and we learn from them.
We work with our partners to propose new policies, and we support new narratives and leaders who shift old paradigms and change hearts and minds.
We recognize the best way to make a difference is to support and mobilize people and organizations to forge new power, test emergent ideas, and pursue just causes.
And above all else, we’re
action-oriented.
We’d much rather take on a big challenge and fail than never give it a shot in the first place.
We believe our collective future is at stake. And right now, in ways large and small, we have a chance to work with a broad network of change-makers to correct the imbalances of our time—so each and every one of us has the social, economic, and democratic power we need to thrive.
As we attempt to tackle the biggest, most intractable challenges facing the planet, we call upon a wide variety of tools to help us.
Because Omidyar Network has a hybrid structure that combines a limited liability company (LLC) with a private philanthropic foundation, we can make grants to nonprofit organizations to fund everything from research to convenings, white papers, general operating support, and everything in between.
Our LLC enables us to invest in innovative for-profit startups that are tackling social challenges with an entrepreneurial spirit. It also allows us to invest in not-for-profits beyond public charities, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. Policy, politics, ballot initiatives, and direct advocacy are critical ways Omidyar Network leverages our resources to support the organizations driving change we hope to see in the world.
And we are transparent.
We work with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to survey our grantees and better understand how we can improve our mission, grantmaking, and relationships. We publish the results of this survey (key findings and full report), as well as our grants and investments.
We also publish our points of view for the more durable areas of our work. We do this to enable those who work with us—and those who might disagree with us—to have clarity on what we are trying to achieve.
Although we express our own viewpoints, we know that the hard work of generating impact, developing new ideas, advocating for policy, and other activities will largely be done by those we fund and those with whom we partner.
