Since 2004, ON has invested +$350M in over 150 companies. 57% of those dollars have funded grants and 43% for-profit investments.

Omidyar has pioneered this space -- utilizing philanthropic capital to drive large scale, catalytic impact. Some of the organizations they've supported include: Digg, Wikipedia, MeetUp, DonorsChoose, Creative Commons, Code for America, among others.

But as Matt illuminates in his post, Omidyar Network is an anomaly. Less than 1% of the capital U.S. foundations disbursed in 2007 (the last year of complete data) supported for-profit ventures. Moreover, only 4% of that 1% was invested in equity — precisely the kind of risk capital than can nurture businesses.

With hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into philanthropy over the next few decades, a big question (and opportunity) will be: How can we best deploy these funds?

More to come on this topic...

Google’s three-part approach is similar to the integrated philanthropy model developed a decade ago by Internet software company Salesforce.com Inc. Salesforce.com Foundation applies a 1/1/1 formula to social change, with 1 percent of staff time, 1 percent of equity, and 1 percent of profits going to advance the mission of qualified nonprofits.

[Google's] first philanthropic innovation was its structure. Google established Google.org as a unit within the corporation, allowing it to invest in for-profit as well as nonprofit ventures. Under the DotOrg umbrella sat the smaller Google Foundation, a more traditional 501(c)(3) organization. This hybrid structure, unusual for corporate philanthropy, has a parallel in private giving. Omidyar Network, established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam, invests in both nonprofits and for-profit enterprises that offer social benefits.