eBay Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The eBay Foundation invests in organizations whose work center on the intersection between entrepreneurship and technology to benefit vulnerable and marginalized populations. Its interests range from economic and global development, to refugees, the LGBTQ community and community development, among others.
IP TAKE: While the eBay Foundation is a generous funder – awarding some $49 million and counting a year – it’s website only offers vague information regarding its grantmaking strategies and interests. This is a low-key funder with big awards, investing in both large and small outfits.
Given its sparse public-facing profile, the best way to unlock this funder’s grantmaking is through eBay’s employees, who often lead the foundation’s charitable gifts. Don’t be dissuaded by it’s low-profile – the eBay Foundation, primarily through its employee-led grantmaking program, gives generously and widely to a variety of demographics that range from immigrants, refugees, women, children, LGBTQI people, the disabled, and other marginalized individuals.
Get on this funder’s radar by networking with its employees who can make your foundation’s case. Note that much of the foundation’s funding is tied up in supporting fellow Silicon Valley foundations despite supporting some smaller outfits. However, keep up to date with the foundation’s Twitter account and corporate news blog, which update the public regarding recent giving.
PROFILE: Headquartered in San Jose, California, the eBay Foundation strives to unleash the “power of entrepreneurship to build economically vibrant and thriving communities” since 1998. It is the first corporate foundation to be endowed with pre-IPO stock. The eBay Foundation, also the philanthropic arm of its sister corporation eBay, views itself as a catalyst for change by “supporting entrepreneurs and small business, targeting vulnerable and marginalized groups. The foundation’s vision is inspired by eBay’s founder, Pierre Omidyar, who also makes grants separately through his Network, formerly the Omidyar Foundation.
The eBay foundation’s sparse website suggests it invests in economic development opportunities that address entrepreneurship amongst marginalized communities. However, tax filings reveal an interest in community building and work that “strengthens nonprofits.” Overall, the foundation’s giving centers on the relationship between entrepreneurship and technology across its grantmaking and employee-led giving program.
Grants for Economic Development
While the foundation does not conduct grantmaking through public-facing programs on its website, taxes show a broad interest in awards to organizations that address building entrepreneurship amongst vulnerable communities that have been systemically and historically prohibited from opening businesses. Believing itself a catalyst for entrepreneurship, the eBay Foundation addresses economic development and improving employability across all of its grantmaking interests, from global development work to community development. The foundation funds grantees across the globe.
Past economic development grantees include St. Elisabeth’s SHE Army, which supports under-served mothers returning to the workforce. As well, the foundation has funded Sustainable Economies Law Center, Ventures, Out in Tech, Free Geek, and Hatch, an enterprise incubator and accelerator program through which eBay employees provide workshops and mentoring.
Global Development and Refugees
The eBay Foundation does not name an interest in global development either on its one-page website embedded on its corporate sister’s site or elsewhere. However, it has conducted related giving through its Global Give initiative, which the foundation launched to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and through its employee-led program, which has funded global development organizations like the African Diaspora Network. Though a collaboration with eBay executives, ADN provided strategic “consulting and mentoring to mobilize strong networks of African Diasporans and friends of Africa to catalyze economic opportunities for local and global impact, particularly among youth and women.” Overall, the eBay Foundation’s global development giving tends to focus on developing economic stability and opportunities amongst under-represented populations.
Much of eBay’s development giving addresses refugees, such as the foundation’s grants to Capacity, which empowers refugee and migrant entrepreneurs. The foundation has also funded The Bike Project, to support refugees’ employment and transportation to work, as well as the Spice Kitchen Incubator, which helps refugees and low-income residents launch and grow diverse food businesses. eBay has funded Thrive Refugee Enterprise, which provides micro-financing and business support to refugee entrepreneurs. Another grantee that benefits refugees is the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, based in San Jose, which works to “advance, protect, and promote the legal rights of communities of color and low-income persons, immigrants, and refugees.” Additionally, the foundation has funded Oakland Bloom, also in San Jose, to provide educational training and hands-on support to aspiring chef entrepreneurs from refugee, immigrant, and low-income communities.
Grants for Community Development
The eBay Foundation’s website restricts information about its awardees, making it challenging to pull back the curtain on what kinds of community development concerns it supports. However, the foundation tends to fund both larger and medium-sized organizations here, like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which then dole out eBay’s funding to community development-minded organizations, like the Settlement Home for Children, which cares for abused and neglected children.
Other community development grantees include heimatBEWEGEN (in Dreilinden, Germany) to create an inclusive community with opportunities for all to increase digital and technological knowledge, and Yonge Street Mission. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the global economy, the eBay Foundation has contributed $500,000 in April to the Silicon Valley Strong Fund to provide financial assistance to low-income residents who have lost wages and are facing economic hardship, as well as $1 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s regional response and nonprofit emergency funds. And, for its employees, the eBay Foundation matched an additional $1 million in employee donations in response to the pandemic, as well as to lessen the effects of the pandemic on the Bay Area housing crisis.
Grants for Public Health
Though the eBay foundation does not historically invest in health concerns, it has stepped up giving in this area in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The foundation’s employee-led grantmaking program has increased its giving three fold to meet the needs of humanitarian and medical organizations, and emergency assistance funds in the U.S. and abroad.
Past health grantees include the Italian Red Cross, Fondation de France and Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres). Given the foundation’s recent increase in giving, expect more grants for public and global health down the road.
Important Grant Details:
The eBay Foundation’s grants tend to range widely anywhere from about $3,000 to $4,000,000. Rather than general support, its awards tend to offer community building grants and broad funding meant to strengthen nonprofits.
While the foundation does not appear to impose geographic limitations on its giving, tax filings show that grants cluster in California, Washington D.C., Virginia, Arkansas, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Of its Northern California grantees, awards focus on Mountain View and San Francisco. Northern California Grantmakers and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation have received some of the foundation’s largest grants.
The eBay Foundation does not appear to accept unsolicited grant proposals or LOIs. Keep up to date with the foundation’s giving through its corporate news blog, which often names new philanthropic investments.
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