Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Steven Walling<steven.walling@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
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> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Steven Walling<steven.walling@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
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