Gregory Maxwell wrote: > On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Steven Walling<[email protected]> > 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 _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
