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The Omidyar way of giving
奧米迪亞式的給予
The founder of eBay aims to be a more entrepreneurial philanthropist than his predecessors.
這位eBay的創始人想要成為比他的前輩們更成功的創業慈善家。
THE billionaire's dilemma:
這是一個億萬富翁的艱難選擇：
spend 250m on buying the venerable Washington Post, or splash the cash on a start-up news network to be headed by a controversial investigative journalist with no experience of running anything?
花費25, 000萬美元買下可敬的《華盛頓郵報》，還是把砸在一個剛剛起步的網絡新聞公司上？而且這家公司的領頭人只是一個毫無管理經驗而且備受爭議的調查記者。
It is entirely in character that Pierre Omidyar chose the second option, bankrolling the new journalism venture of Glenn Greenwald, best known for his reporting on the National Security Agency.
奧米迪亞當然是選擇了后者，為以報道國家安全局而出名的Glenn Greenwald的新型新聞事業提供資金。
Mr Omidyar did not become a billionaire at the age of 31 by fixing an established institution, but by building eBay from scratch into a worldwide online marketplace.
奧米迪亞能在31歲的年齡就成為一個億萬富翁，是通過白手起家將eBay打造為一個涵蓋全球的購物網站，而非改組一個已經建立的機構。
And fostering innovative start-ups with an ambition to improve the world has been the focus of his philanthropy since he gave up his executive role at eBay while still in his 30s.
也正是這個原因，使得他在30多歲放棄了eBay執行官的角色后，就把幫助那些想要促進世界的革新創業者作為了自己慈善事業的核心。
Mr Omidyar, who is now 46, has already deployed 1 billion of his fortune to this end, which puts his 250m media investment into perspective: a big bet, but not that big.
現年46歲的奧米迪亞已經將自己財產中的10億美元用于該方面，借此我們可以正確地理解為何他會向媒體業投入這25, 000萬美元：算是一次豪賭，卻也并不離譜。
His wealth—still around 8.5 billion—is not the only reason why any venture by Mr Omidyar should be taken seriously.
我們關注奧米迪亞的原因可不僅僅是他仍然高達85億美元的巨額財產。
Both at eBay and in his charitable schemes he has demonstrated an ability to turn a promising but vague idea into something concrete and substantial.
不管是在eBay還是在他的慈善事業上，奧米迪亞都展現出一種將有前景卻很模糊的想法轉變為具體而詳實的計劃的能力。
And the evolution of his philanthropy is a case study with lessons for other entrepreneurs seeking to become benefactors.
他在慈善事業上的創新也可以為那些需要幫助的創業者們提供不少經驗。
In his first few years as a big giver, Mr Omidyar went from embracing the conventional wisdom to challenging it.
在開始幾年大量投資以后，奧米迪亞對于傳統觀念從開始的全盤接受轉變為了審視挑戰。
From the days of Carnegie and Rockefeller a century ago to Bill Gates today, the American tradition has been for the rich to give a large chunk of their fortune to a foundation, usually carrying their name, which then doles out chunks of money to charities it likes.
從百年前的卡耐基和洛克菲勒到如今的比爾蓋茨，富人們都習慣于將財產的大部分捐獻給基金會。然后這個通常以捐贈者名字命名的基金會再將這些資金分配給合適的慈善機構。
Mr Omidyar started out doing that, but quickly concluded that handing out grants was not the most effective use of his money.
一開始奧米迪亞也是這么做的，但馬上就發現這種單純給予的方式并不能最有效地發揮資金的價值。
His experience at eBay led him to conclude that in the right circumstances a business can be at least as powerful a force for good as a charity.
他在eBay的經歷讓他意識到，在合適的情況下，商業行為也能和慈善活動一樣，有著造福社會的能力。
By creating a readily accessible global marketplace,eBay had given hundreds of thousands of people the chance to improve their lives by becoming online entrepreneurs.
eBay就通過建立一個全球參與的網上商城使得幾十萬人可以通過網上創業來改善生活。
So in 2004 Mr Omidyar replaced his foundation with a new organisation, Omidyar Network, which sees itself as an active investor, not a passive donor, and is free to put money equally into for-profit and non-profit ventures.
因此，奧米迪亞在2004年將他的基金會改組成了奧米迪亞網絡公司。公司的定位是一個主動的投資公司，而不是一個被動的捐贈者，同時也能自由地將資金用于盈利或者非盈利的創業行為。
Almost half of the 300 or so outfits it has backed aimed to make money—though Mr Omidyar has said that any profits will be recycled, with none going back to him.
在它所資助的將近300企業中，將近一半以盈利為目的的，雖然奧米迪亞曾表示這些盈利將會重新用于投資，而不是回到他本人手中。
The network's early years were a mess, with the sort of frequent strategy changes and staff turnover that are common among foundations.
早期，這家網絡公司因為頻繁的策略調整和人事變動而一團糟糕。但這種情況在基金會中也相當普遍。
Things have got better since 2007, when Mr Omidyar brought in Matt Bannick, a former head of eBay's international operations, to run the network.
2007年，奧米迪亞讓前eBay國際運營主管Matt Bannick接受公司，此后情況開始好轉。
He has focused it on five main themes: financial inclusion, consumer internet and mobile telecoms, education, property rights and open government.
Matt Bannick將公司的業務集中到了5大領域：金融包容，消費互聯網和移動電信，教育，財產權利和開明政府。
With the non-profits it backs, ranging from Kiva, a microfinance website, to the Sunlight Foundation, which promotes open government, Omidyar Network practises venture philanthropy—developing a non-profit start-up in the same way as a new business venture, except for not expecting it to make money one day.
奧米迪亞網絡公司采取了一種慈善新模式來資助從小型融資網站Kiva到提高政府透明度的陽光基金會那樣的非盈利組織，即用和創業公司同樣的模式去建設，只是不期望它們掙錢。
Typically, foundations have given funds for a specific project rather than to build the capabilities of the charity itself, which makes it hard for the charity to hire and retain talented people.
傳統的基金會將資金給予特定的項目而非慈善機構，這也就阻礙了慈善機構吸引和雇傭人才。
In contrast, the network not only provides money for its charities' general budget, it has a human-resources department that helps them find good staff.
與此相反，奧米迪亞網絡公司除了向慈善組織的整體財政提供資金支持外，還有一個為它們尋找雇員的人力資源部門。
This service seems to be universally appreciated by the charities Mr Omidyar backs, some of which say it is more valuable than the money they get.
這項服務受到奧米迪亞資助的那些慈善機構的廣泛推崇，其中一些機構甚至認為這比資金援助有價值的多。
Although there are several other successful venture-philanthropy organisations, such as New Profit Inc, none comes close to the scale of Omidyar Network, which makes it the crucial test case for the idea.
雖然此外還有一些成功的創業慈善機構，比如New Profit Inc，但它們都沒有達到奧米迪亞網絡公司的規模，也因此該公司是這種模式最重要的試金石。
The moneymaking counterpart to venture philanthropy is impact investing: aiming to turn a profit while doing some social or environmental good.
還有一種和創業慈善極其類似的盈利行為稱為影響力投資：以創造利潤的同時努力使社會和環境收益為目標。
But Mr Omidyar thinks most so-called impact investors are being too risk-averse.
但是奧米迪亞認為大多數的所謂影響力投資不愿承受風險。
He has concentrated on trying to build viable businesses that sell to the very poorest consumers, where costs must be pared to the bone.
他一直致力于為極端貧困地區提供交易渠道，在那些地區費用要消減到最低程度。
Some of these already look promising.
他的一些努力已經得到了回報。
D.light, a provider of cheap lamps that absorb solar energy during the day and dispense light at night, in place of dangerous and toxic kerosene lamps, is now shipping 500,000 units a month, in India and Africa.
燈泡供應商D.light希望用一種在白天吸收太陽能而在晚間釋放燈光的廉價燈泡替代危險且有毒的煤油燈。如今它在印度和非洲的銷售額已經達到了每月50萬支。
Bridge International Academies now has 200 schools providing poor children in Kenya with a decent education for 5 a month.
公司Bridge International Academies現在在肯迪亞有著200所學校以每月5美元的收費為貧困兒童提供初等教育。
MicroEnsure, a firm that gets mobile-phone companies to provide free life-assurance as an incentive for loyal subscribers, now serves over 4.5m people in Africa and Asia, up from 600,000 in 2010.
一家推動手機公司以免費安全保險來刺激訂閱服務的公司MicroEnsure正為亞洲和非洲超過450萬人口提供服務，而在2010年時這個數字只有60萬。
Big enough to make a difference
足夠影響世界
To be judged a success, Omidyar Network will need some of these promising start-ups to grow far bigger.
想要獲得公眾的認可，奧米迪亞網絡公司還需要這些前景美好的新公司們的規模進一步擴大。
To encourage this, it is seeking ways to co-ordinate its investments in for-profits and non-profits so as to accelerate the growth of an entire sector.
為了達到這個目標，該公司正積極努力地平衡在盈利和非盈利組織的投資以加速整個行業得到發展。
So far it has succeeded only, to some extent, in microfinance, where it has invested in for-profit lenders and in non-profits that provide the ecosystem for the market, such as credit bureaus and consumer-information services, for which there was no viable commercial model.
目前，它只在小型融資業上獲得了一定程度的成功。在這一領域，它同時投資了盈利性的借貸方和非盈利性的供貸方，如征信所和消費信息服務機構，為市場營造了一種前所未有的生態系統。
Can Mr Omidyar do the same in education? Or health? Or indeed journalism?
奧米迪亞能在教育業也做的同樣出色嗎？那么醫療業呢？當然還有新聞業呢？
His media venture is in a similar spirit to his other projects, seeking a new business model for the investigative journalism that he sees as a crucial underpinning of democracy.
他涉足新聞業的初衷和開展其他計劃相同，都是為了給投資新聞業尋找到新的商業模式。他也把新聞業看做民主的基石。
Years more of work will be needed before it is clear whether his mix of impact investing and venture philanthropy can deliver social change on the scale Mr Omidyar dreams of.
奧米迪亞這種影響力投資和創業慈善相結合的模式想要給社會帶來如他預想的那么大規模的變化還需要很長時間的努力。
