$2.3m in New Nonprofit Funding from Omidyar Network

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-07-01 16:39:00 UTC
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Hot on the heels of last week's announcement of venture funding for rural lighting startup D. Light Design, the Omidyar Network's has announced more funding, although this time it's from their nonprofit grant-making arm. They will give $2.3 million to Global Voices, mySociety, and the XYZ Show -- all startups that bridge technology and global good.

The funding comes as a part of Omidyar's program to increase government transparency and accountability. The goal of their government transparency funding is to increase the foundation upon which people base their civic participation. The three grantees accomplish this goal in different ways.

Global Voices is the granddaddy of global change social media platforms. Since 2005 it has been giving people around the world, connect by common interests in political reform, international development, and social entrepreneurship the chance to write about the world as they saw it. It is often the best place to discover what engaged citizens of the developing world think about what's happening in their own countries, and to discover a few of development from another perspective. The new funding will support a significant strategic expansion, with an emphasis on discovering new voices from less-heard parts of the world.

MySociety.org is a web shop in the UK that has been taking advantage of an increased volume of publicly available government data to give citizens better information. Rather than just create one site or application, they have built a variety of platforms from tools to help get local needs like filled in potholes met to easier interfaces for discovering MP voting patterns. The grant from Omidyar will help MySociety collaborate with African nonprofits and developers to build similar platforms around the continent.

The other grantee is Keyna's The XYZ Show, a satirical television puppet show that lampoons major figures in the country, and enables dialog and conversation about difficult topics. For those who are skeptical of the value of that, just think about the importance of satire in American politics - the Daily Show, Colbert, South Park. These are the cultural artifacts that keep us honest even when our general discourse goes completely insane. The funding will help expand the reach of the program with online engagement, distribution and more.

Read more about the grants on Omidyar.net

Photo credit: ItzaFineDay

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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