--- category: "Private Organization" aliases: - "Omidyar Network Fund" - "Omidyar Network Fund Inc" - "ON" tags: - Organization - Philanthropy - ImpactInvesting - AIPolicy - Anthropic summary: "Philanthropic investment firm of The Omidyar Group, run through an LLC and a private foundation, which bought Anthropic shares from the FTX estate in 2024 and funds AI-policy groups including Americans for Responsible Innovation." location: "San Francisco, California" relations: - type: founded with: "[[Pierre Omidyar]]" reverse: true fn: 5 - type: founded with: "[[Pam Omidyar]]" reverse: true fn: 5 - type: director_of with: "[[Pam Omidyar]]" reverse: true role: "board member" fn: 5 - type: head_of with: "[[Mike Kubzansky]]" reverse: true role: "chief executive officer" start: 2018 end: 2026-03 fn: 4 - type: head_of with: "[[Michele Jawando]]" reverse: true role: "chief executive officer; earlier senior vice president of programs and president" start: 2026-03 fn: 4 - type: director_of with: "[[Pat Christen]]" reverse: true role: "board chair" fn: 4 - type: owned with: "[[Anthropic]]" role: "shareholder; bought just under 50,000 shares from the FTX bankruptcy estate with the Ford and Nathan Cummings foundations" start: 2024 fn: 7 - type: funded with: "[[Humane Intelligence]]" role: "seed funding; partner in the 30-million-dollar generative-AI effort" start: 2023 fn: 6 - type: funded with: "[[Collective Intelligence Project]]" role: "partner in the 30-million-dollar generative-AI effort" start: 2023 fn: 6 - type: funded with: "[[AI Now Institute]]" role: "partner in the 30-million-dollar generative-AI effort" start: 2023 fn: 6 - type: funded with: "[[Economic Security Project Action]]" role: "partner in the 30-million-dollar generative-AI effort" start: 2023 fn: 6 - type: funded with: "[[AFL-CIO Technology Institute]]" role: "partner in the 30-million-dollar generative-AI effort" start: 2023 fn: 6 - type: funded with: "[[Center for American Progress]]" role: "governance-of-tech partner" fn: 8 - type: funded with: "[[Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator]]" role: "governance-of-tech partner" fn: 8 - type: partner_of with: "[[Ford Foundation]]" role: "co-purchaser of Anthropic shares" start: 2024 fn: 7 - type: partner_of with: "[[Nathan Cummings Foundation]]" role: "co-purchaser of Anthropic shares" start: 2024 fn: 7 created: 2026-09-23 updated: 2026-09-23 --- Omidyar Network is a [[San Francisco]] philanthropic organization that describes itself as "a venture of The Omidyar Group" and gives its mission as "to bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility." It states that it has "committed more than $1.9 billion to initiatives that share our vision."[^1] It operates "both a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and a 501(c)(3) foundation," a "dual checkbook structure." The LLC invests in startups and "also allows us to invest in not-for-profits beyond public charities, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations," while "policy advocacy, ballot initiatives, and coalition building are critical ways Omidyar Network leverages our resources."[^2] The foundation files with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] as Omidyar Network Fund Inc, EIN 20-1173866, at 535 Mission Street in San Francisco, in care of George E. Diener, under an IRS ruling dated February 1, 2005. It files as a private foundation (Form 990-PF). For the tax period ending December 2024 it reported assets of 382,487,320 dollars and income of 112,303,357 dollars. Earlier returns show the following (in dollars):[^3] | Year | Revenue | Expenses | Assets | |---|---|---|---| | 2013 | 85,433,257 | 47,484,427 | 319,941,051 | | 2014 | 63,219,899 | 45,316,923 | 321,874,224 | | 2015 | 193,202,032 | 57,796,178 | 446,696,927 | | 2019 | 63,634,282 | 107,667,084 | 490,860,479 | | 2020 | 21,031,743 | 74,652,984 | 490,038,780 | | 2021 | 45,099,453 | 52,643,847 | 495,201,056 | | 2022 | 25,198,385 | 30,544,043 | 367,592,522 | | 2023 | 5,560,652 | 28,555,210 | 392,593,149 | ### Leadership [[Mike Kubzansky]] joined Omidyar Network in 2013 and was chief executive from 2018. On March 11, 2026, the organization announced that [[Michele Jawando]] would succeed him. Jawando had joined in 2021 as senior vice president of programs and become president in 2025; she had worked for Representative [[Gregory Meeks]] and Senator [[Kirsten Gillibrand]], had been a senior executive at [[Google]], and had led strategic initiatives at the [[Center for American Progress]]. The announcement said Kubzansky was "moving on to build and lead a new entity that will shape AI investment for the public good." The board chair is [[Pat Christen]].[^4] Its website lists [[Pierre Omidyar]] and [[Pam Omidyar]] as co-founders, Pam Omidyar also as a board member, [[Marta Tellado|Marta L. Tellado]] as a board member and [[Mona Sutphen]] as a board observer.[^5] ### Generative AI Fund On December 5, 2023, Omidyar Network announced "an initial $30M investment across a diverse slate of organizations to support the responsible development of generative AI," describing it as "part of the new funders initiative on AI launched by the White House last month." The announcement said the investment came "on the heels of the recent Open AI saga," the November 2023 crisis on the board of [[OpenAI]], and that Omidyar aimed to ensure "that the future of this technology is not defined by market considerations of a few dominant players." Kubzansky said the investment would "help bridge the gap between private interests and the common good."[^6] The named partners were [[Humane Intelligence]], whose co-founder [[Rumman Chowdhury]] thanked Omidyar "for our initial seed funding" for AI red-teaming exercises; the [[Collective Intelligence Project]], to run "AI Alignment Assemblies"; the [[AI Now Institute]]; [[Economic Security Project Action]], with the [[Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator]], to "develop proposals for AI governance structures including public options for generative AI"; and the [[AFL-CIO Technology Institute]], to "help working people tell their stories to policymakers in Congress and statehouses." Omidyar also said it would "invest in private venture capital funds" backing companies that use generative AI in healthcare diagnosis, chip design and batteries.[^6] ### Anthropic Shares On April 1, 2024, Omidyar Network announced that it, with the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[Nathan Cummings Foundation]], had bought "just under 50,000 shares" of [[Anthropic]] stock that had been offered for sale in the bankruptcy proceedings of [[FTX]]. Kubzansky said: "As a philanthropic leader who manages both our grants and our capital for social good, we are investing in generative AI that protects and promotes the public interest and prioritizes the long-term benefit of humanity." The statement cited Anthropic's "long-term benefit trust" (the [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]]), which "oversees some seats on its board, effectively creating a buffer against direct investor influence," and said that "following the governance failures at OpenAI, we are hopeful that having mission-aligned investors ... will help protect and reinforce the safety and other mission-driven priorities of Anthropic's work."[^7] ### AI Policy Grantmaking Under its "Governance of Tech" program, Omidyar Network funds groups on online safety, including "social media warning labels" and the effect of "AI companions" on children; on tech competition and antitrust enforcement, working with smaller companies that "share a common interest in scaling American-led innovation and 'winning' the AI race"; on "public AI infrastructure"; and on AI-enabled worker surveillance and algorithmic management. The partners it lists as "people and organizations we're funding" are the AI Now Institute, the [[Young People's Alliance]], the Center for American Progress, the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, [[Carnegie Mellon University]]'s Open Forum for AI, and [[Americans for Responsible Innovation]].[^8] Americans for Responsible Innovation is a 501(c)(4) that lobbies Congress on AI regulation and that also lists Coefficient Giving, the former [[Open Philanthropy]], as a supporter.[^9] Before this public grantmaking, in April 2023, [[Jeff Alstott]] of the [[Rand Corporation]] emailed a proposal for licensing advanced AI to members of the Omidyar Network, asking recipients to keep the document "off the public internet."[^10] On December 11, 2025, Kubzansky condemned the Trump administration's executive order "preempting essential state and local AI regulations." He wrote that "as a philanthropic investor in AI companies and funds, Omidyar Network is acutely aware of the risks to innovators and investors created by inconsistent or poorly drafted rules. But the solution is not to preempt state and local laws," and urged Congress "to reject any attempts to impose a national moratorium on new AI safeguards."[^11] ### Footnotes [^1]: Omidyar Network, "Who We Are," accessed September 23, 2026. https://omidyar.com/who-we-are/ [^2]: Omidyar Network, "Our Approach," accessed September 23, 2026. https://omidyar.com/how-we-invest/our-approach/ [^3]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Omidyar Network Fund Inc," EIN 20-1173866, Form 990-PF data for tax years 2013 through 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201173866 [^4]: Omidyar Network, "Omidyar Network Appoints Michele L. Jawando as Chief Executive Officer," March 11, 2026. https://omidyar.com/update/omidyar-network-appoints-michele-l-jawando-ceo/ [^5]: Omidyar Network, "Our Team," staff, board and founders, accessed September 23, 2026. https://omidyar.com/who-we-are/our-team/ [^6]: Omidyar Network, "Omidyar Network launches a dedicated funding effort to promote inclusive and responsible development of generative AI," December 5, 2023. https://omidyar.com/update/omidyar-network-launches-a-dedicated-funding-effort-to-promote-inclusive-and-responsible-development-of-generative-ai/ [^7]: Omidyar Network, "Omidyar Network purchases shares of Anthropic," April 1, 2024. https://omidyar.com/update/omidyar-network-purchases-shares-of-anthropic/ [^8]: Omidyar Network, "Governance of Tech," accessed September 23, 2026. https://omidyar.com/priority/governance-of-tech/ [^9]: Americans for Responsible Innovation, "About Us," accessed September 23, 2026. https://ari.us/about-us/ [^10]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 [^11]: Omidyar Network, "Omidyar Network condemns Trump administration EO banning state AI regulations," December 11, 2025. https://omidyar.com/update/omidyar-network-statement-on-trump-eo/