The Omidyar Network – created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam – will donate $100 million to boost investigative journalism, prevent misinformation and to fight hate speech worldwide.
The network plans to contribute the first $4.5 million to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), known for its work in last year’s Panama Papers investigation, according to the Washington Post.
“We think it’s really important to act now to keep dangerous trends from becoming the norm,” said Stephen King, the leader of the Omidyar Network’s civic engagement initiative.
The contribution is part of a three-year funding project, which will be announced Wednesday at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford, England.
King said a contribution such as this is “an urgent need” in investigative journalism, and it’s also “the largest-ever contribution” to the industry.
“A free and independent media is key to providing trusted information and critical checks and balances on those in positions of power,” King said, according to Forbes.
Gerard Ryle, ICIJs director, says the donation will give the organization a lot more lead way in terms of hiring additional staff to strengthen its level of production.
“We’ve been operating on a shoestring, so this is a huge help,” Ryle said, per The Post.
He added that the $4.5 million is like “hands-off money” that, if it could talk, would say, “Do what you want and we’ll back you.”
Other organizations expected to receive a piece of the billionaire’s contribution include the Latin American Alliance for Civic Technology and the Anti-Defamation League, Forbes noted.
“There were too many good causes. How do you do it well?” Omidyar told Forbes back in 2000, four years before he and his wife founded Omidyar Network. “When you create wealth in a short time, you think about philanthropy as you think about a business.”
Since establishing the philanthropy network, Omidyar and his wife have donated more than $1 billion to organizations focused on bringing about more social change.
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