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这是一位亿万富豪将面临进难两难的选择：是花费2.5亿美金买下值得尊敬的华盛顿邮报，或者去花钱建立一个新型的网站，创办者还是一个没什么经验还存在争议的调查性报道记者，彼埃尔•奥米迪亚（Pierre Omidyar）会选择后者，这完全符合他的个性：他给以对国家安全局的报道而闻名的格林•沃尔德（Glenn Greenwald）新开办的新闻社提供资金支持。奥米迪亚先生没在某个已成立的公司中固定工作过，他31岁白手起家把eBay创办成为世界规模的在线市场，成为亿万富翁。从他30多岁卸任eBay行政职务以后，怀抱着改善世界的愿望培育创新型的初创企业是他慈善事业的核心。现年46岁的奥米迪亚先生已经为此投入了十亿的财富，考虑到他2.5亿的传媒业投资，这也是一笔相当大的赌注。

他的个人财富约有85亿美金，这个并不是我们认真对待他每一笔风险投资的唯一原因。在eBay和他的慈善计划中，他证明了具有一种能力：能将一个有前途但还模糊的思路变得具体实在。他的慈善事业的演化也是一个值得研究的个案，值得其他想为慈善做贡献的企业家学习。

THE billionaire’s dilemma: 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? 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. 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. 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. 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.

His wealth—still around $8.5 billion—is not the only reason why any venture by Mr Omidyar should be taken seriously. 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. And the evolution of his philanthropy is a case study with lessons for other entrepreneurs seeking to become benefactors.

In his first few years as a big giver, Mr Omidyar went from embracing the conventional wisdom to challenging it. 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. Mr Omidyar started out doing that, but quickly concluded that handing out grants was not the most effective use of his money.

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. 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. 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. 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.

The network’s early years were a mess, with the sort of frequent strategy changes and staff turnover that are common among foundations. 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. He has focused i本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。