While it doesn't quite match the $3.34 billion in donations announced this week by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, eBay Inc. is one of the first Internet commerce firms to announce substantial philanthropic gifts, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The company operates a Web site where people offer a wide variety of items for sale.

Pierre Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll, eBay founders, set up their own foundation last year with 96,000 shares of company stock, the Monitor reports.

The stock is now worth $20 million, and the company founders have decided to become the first and most visible philanthropists among online commerce firms, the Monitor reports.

Their largesse will help pay for a community center for at-risk children in San Jose, Calif.'s Farm Drive neighborhood and fund a University of California program that sends elementary school teachers and students on research trips, the Monitor reports.

The eBay fund is managed by Community Foundation Silicon Valley.

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