A number of institutions have established open-access funds.  The first wave of literature analyzing these endeavors is beginning to appear.  The following documents may help inform your understanding of the trend toward open-access funds:

• SPARC Member Spotlight: Testing the waters with open-access funds (University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary)
• SPARC enews Feature: Berkeley steps forward with bold initiative to pay authors’ open-access charges
• “Paying for Open Access Publication Charges”, a report by Universities UK and Research Information Network)
• “One Year (Almost) with the Open Access Authors Fund”, by Andrew Waller