He's donating $100 million to a university

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2005 | by Jim Hopkins

SAN FRANCISCO -- Entrepreneurship turned eBay founder Pierre Omidyar into one of the world's richest men. Now, he's betting it can ease one of the world's most daunting problems: poverty.

Omidyar, who started eBay 10 years ago, will announce today that he is donating $100 million for a new Tufts University program to generate millions of tiny loans, some as small as $40, to finance entrepreneurs trying to escape poverty in India, Bangladesh and other poor countries.

The gift is a big endorsement of social entrepreneurship -- a field of growing interest for the new generation of technology entrepreneurs. The shift could recast traditional philanthropy dominated by non-profits such as the Ford Foundation built on Old Economy wealth.

The new entrepreneurs,...