Excellent observations, @Sharon1014. These are all questions that need to be asked, and while it's highly unlikely we'll ever get straight answers (or any answers at all), it does say a lot about Airbnb's track record - and in particular, about the inherent lack of trust and faith that the host community has in the company as a whole - that their motives should even need to be called into doubt in the first place. Your footnote (13) is a fair and accurate analysis of the whole thing, really.
We're not privy to information on how this fund is structured - whether it's a restricted or term endowment, designed to keep the principal amount intact while using the investment income for charitable efforts, or whether its a quasi-endowment, for example, which are usually started by the institutions that benefit from them via internal transfers or by using unrestricted endowments already given to the institution.
Something that should give pause for thought though, is Airbnb's recent behaviour in relation to the $250M Host Fund, which was allegedly set up (along with major PR campaign) in order to help ease the hardships of hosts whose incomes had been wiped out by the arbitrary Extenuating Circumstances refunds. Yet the public S-1 filings reveal that Airbnb retained almost $50 million of that Host Fund for their own purposes, and have been very vague about exactly how much of the other nearly $200M was actually used to provide relief to hosts.
The Open Homes Fund is another cause for some concern. Airbnb has been resolutely silent about how much in public donations have been collected and disbursed by the (tax-efficient, of course) OHF, and so far, no report has ever been published by the company on how (or even if) this money has been distributed, or to whom
But then, Airbnb is under no obligation whatsoever to publish any such report as its Open Homes Fund is a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), which are largely unregulated entities, unhindered by pesky disclosure or transparency requirements and frequently the subject of controversy. (The money and assets in donor-advised funds are intended to go to charity some day, but there are no payout requirements, and money can sit in a donor-advised fund for decades - hence DAFs often being referred to as 'Zombie philanthropy'
Interestingly, as part of its ridiculed and ultimately short-lived 'Kindness Cards' debacle, Airbnb initially stated that they would re-route any unwanted 'guest contributions' to their Open Homes Fund instead. Given the company's blind determination to plough ahead with the much-loathed initiative - even in the face of furious opposition from hosts - one would have to wonder now what the company's real motives and intentions beind the Kindness Cards program were?
In the 'Important Announcement from Brian Chesky' global press release of Oct 30th, in which our Dear Leader eulogised about the wonderful Host Endowment Fund and the awesome Host Advisory Board that were coming our way, he gushingly wrote..
"At a time of unprecedented loneliness and disconnection, the role of a host now is more important than ever. Last month, I met with a host named Dorian from Oakland, California. Dorian is a jewelry designer, and she and her husband host guests in the extra bedrooms in their home. Their favorite part of hosting is meeting their guests and discovering the commonalities they share. Dorian told me, “I love the feeling that the world is not that large of a place after all.”
Thank you Dorian, and our 4 million hosts, for making this world feel smaller."
Odd though, that he neglected to mention the Dorian in question had at that point, already been selected as Head of the Host Advisory Board. But that's Airbnb and transparency for ya..
@Sarah977 @Michelle53
