Abbreviation | OSF |
---|---|
Founded | April 1993 |
Founder | George Soros |
Location |
|
Chair | Alexander Soros |
President | Binaifer Nowrojee |
Revenue | $988 million [1] (in 2021) |
Endowment | $5.89 billion [1] (in 2021) |
Website | opensocietyfoundations |
Formerly called | Open Society Institute |
Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a US-based grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. [2] Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the stated aim of advancing justice, education, public health and independent media. [3] [4] The group's name was inspired by Karl Popper's 1945 book The Open Society and Its Enemies . [5]
As of 2015, the OSF had branches in 37 countries, [6] encompassing a group of country and regional foundations, such as the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. The organization’s headquarters is located at 224 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. In 2018, OSF announced it was closing its European office in Budapest and moving to Berlin, in response to legislation passed by the Hungarian government targeting the foundation's activities. [7] As of 2021, OSF has reported expenditures in excess of US$16 billion since its establishment in 1993, mostly in grants to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) aligned with the organization's mission. [8]
On May 28, 1984, George Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation/New York City and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the founding document of the Soros Foundation/Budapest. [9] This was followed by several foundations in the region to help countries move away from Soviet-style socialism in the Eastern Bloc. [10]
In 1991, the foundation merged with the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne ("Foundation for European Intellectual Mutual Aid"), an affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, created in 1966 to imbue 'non-conformist' Eastern European scientists with anti-totalitarian and capitalist ideas. [11]
In 1993, the Open Society Institute was created in the United States to support the Soros foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. [6]
In August 2010, it started using the name Open Society Foundations (OSF) to better reflect its role as a benefactor for civil society groups in countries around the world. [12]
In 1995, Soros stated that he believed there can be no absolute answers to political questions because the same principle of reflexivity applies as in financial markets. [13]
In 2012, Christopher Stone joined the OSF as the second president. He replaced Aryeh Neier, who served as president from 1993 to 2012. [14] Stone announced in September 2017 that he was stepping down as president. [15] In January 2018, Patrick Gaspard was appointed president of the Open Society Foundations. [16] He announced in December 2020 that he was stepping down as president. In January 2021, Mark Malloch-Brown was appointed president of the Open Society Foundations. [17] On March 11, 2024, OSF announced that Binaifer Nowrojee would start as the group's new president on June 1, 2024. [18]
In 2016, the OSF was reportedly the target of a cyber security breach. Documents and information reportedly belonging to the OSF were published by a website. The cyber security breach has been described as sharing similarities with Russian-linked cyberattacks that targeted other institutions, such as the Democratic National Committee. [19]
In 2017, Soros transferred $18 billion to the foundation. [20]
In 2020, Soros announced that he was creating the Open Society University Network (OSUN), endowing the network with $1 billion. [21]
In 2023, George Soros handed over the leadership of the foundation to his son Alexander Soros, who soon announced layoffs of 40 percent of staff and "significant changes" to the operating model. [22]
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The Library of Congress Soros Foundation Visiting Fellows Program was initiated in 1990. [23] [24]
Its $873 million budget in 2013 ranked as the second-largest private philanthropy budget in the United States, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation budget of $3.9 billion. [25] As of 2020, its budget increased to $1.2 billion. [26]
In August 2013, the foundation partly sponsored an Aromanian cultural event in Malovište (Aromanian : Mulovishti), North Macedonia. [27]
The foundation reported granting at least $33 million to civil rights and social justice organizations in the United States. [28] This funding included groups such as the Organization for Black Struggle and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment that supported protests in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, the death of Eric Garner, the shooting of Tamir Rice and the shooting of Michael Brown. [29] [30] [31] According to OpenSecrets, the OSF spends much of its resources on democratic causes around the world, and has also contributed to groups such as the Tides Foundation. [32]
The OSF has been a major financial supporter of US immigration reform, including establishing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. [33]
OSF projects have included the National Security and Human Rights Campaign and the Lindesmith Center, which conducted research on drug reform. [3]
The OSF became a partner of the National Democratic Institute, [34] a charitable organization which partnered with pro-democracy groups like the Gov2U project [35] run by Scytl. [36]
On January 23, 2020, the OSF announced a contribution of $1 billion from George Soros for the new Open Society University Network (OSUN), which supports Western university faculty in providing university courses, programs, and research to serve neglected student populations worldwide at institutions needing international partners. The founding institutions were Bard College and Central European University. [21] [37]
In April 2022, OSF announced a grant of $20 million to the International Crisis Group in support of efforts to analyze global issues fuelling violence, climate injustice and economic inequality and providing recommendations to address them. [38]
OSF has given grants to Jewish Voice for Peace. [39]
In 2007, Nicolas Guilhot (a senior research associate at the French National Centre for Scientific Research) wrote in Critical Sociology that the Open Society Foundations is functionally conservative in supporting institutions that reinforce the existing social order, as the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation have done before them. Guilhot argues that control over the social sciences by moneyed interests, rather than by public officials, reinforced a neoliberal view of modernization. [40]
An OSF effort in 2008 in the African Great Lakes region aimed at spreading human rights awareness among prostitutes in Uganda and other nations in the area was rejected by Ugandan authorities, who considered it an effort to legalize and legitimize prostitution. [41]
Open Society Foundations has been criticized in the pro-Israel publications Tablet, Arutz Sheva and Jewish Press for funding the activist groups Adalah and I'lam, they accuse of being anti-Israel and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Among the documents released in 2016 by DCleaks, an OSF report reads "For a variety of reasons, we wanted to construct a diversified portfolio of grants dealing with Israel and Palestine, funding both Israeli Jewish and PCI (Palestinian Citizens of Israel) groups as well as building a portfolio of Palestinian grants and in all cases to maintain a low profile and relative distance—particularly on the advocacy front." [42] [43] [44]
In 2013, NGO Monitor, an Israeli NGO, reported that "Soros has been a frequent critic of Israeli government policy, and does not consider himself a Zionist, but there is no evidence that he or his family holds any special hostility or opposition to the existence of the state of Israel. This report will show that their support, and that of the Open Society Foundations, has nevertheless gone to organizations with such agendas." The report says its objective is to inform the OSF, claiming: "The evidence demonstrates that Open Society funding contributes significantly to anti-Israel campaigns in three important respects:
The report concludes, "Yet, to what degree Soros, his family, and the Open Society Foundations are aware of the cumulative impact on Israel and of the political warfare conducted by many of their beneficiaries is an open question." [45]
In November 2015, Russia banned the group on its territory, declaring "It was found that the activity of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and the security of the state". [46]
In 2017, Open Society Foundations and other NGOs for open government and refugee assistance were targeted by authoritarian and populist governments emboldened by the first Trump Administration. Several right-leaning politicians in eastern Europe regard many of the NGO groups to be irritants if not threats, including Liviu Dragnea in Romania, Szilard Nemeth in Hungary, Nikola Gruevski in North Macedonia (who called for "de-Sorosization"), and Jarosław Kaczyński of Poland (who has said that Soros-funded groups want "societies without identity"). [47] Some of the Soros-funded advocacy groups in the region said the harassment and intimidation became more open after the 2016 election of Donald Trump in the United States. Stefania Kapronczay of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which received half of its funding from Soros-backed foundations, claimed that Hungarian officials were "testing the waters" in an effort to see "what they can get away with." [47]
In 2017, the government of Pakistan ordered the Open Society Foundations to cease operations in the country. [48]
In May 2018, Open Society Foundations announced they will move its office from Budapest to Berlin, amid Hungarian government interference. [49] [50] [51]
In November 2018, Open Society Foundations announced they are ceasing operations in Turkey and closing their Istanbul and Ankara offices due to "false accusations and speculations beyond measure", amid pressure from the Turkish government including detention of liberal Turkish intellectuals and academics even tangentially associated with the foundation. [52] [53] [54]
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death of the two founders, the foundation owned 90% of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States that manages over $1.4 billion in assets. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. An affiliated group, Tides Advocacy, is a "massive progressive incubator." Tides has received substantial funding from George Soros.
Central European University is a private research university with a campus in Vienna and a non-degree, research and civic engagement presence in Budapest. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States.
Kinga Göncz is a Hungarian academic and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary between 2006 and 2009. In 2009 she headed the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) European election list and was subsequently elected as one of 22 Hungarian Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
George Soros is a Hungarian-American businessman, investor, philanthropist and a liberal political activist. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of US$6.7 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes called Soros the "most generous giver". He is a resident of New York.
The Blinken OSA Archivum is a dynamic archival institution that aims to explore new ways of assessing, contextualizing, presenting, and making use of archival documents both in a professional and a consciously activist way. It was founded by George Soros in 1995, and opened in 1996 as a department of the Central European University. Originally called simply Open Society Archives (OSA), in 2015 it was renamed Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives after receiving a major donation from the couple. The Archivum changed its name once again in 2024, and assume the current one, together with a new look and new websites.
István Teplán is a Hungarian economic historian, sociologist and educator, graduated from Harvard IEM in 1999. He is one of the creators of the first international Western-style graduate school in the post-communist Central Europe.
George Eli Birnbaum is an American political consultant. He worked on the United States congressional and senatorial races. In 1998, he moved to Israel to work as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of staff, and afterwards formed a partnership with political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alexander Soros is an American investor and philanthropist. One of the five children of billionaire George Soros, he chairs the Board of Directors of the Open Society Foundations and sits on the investment committee for Soros Fund Management. He was also named one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders of 2018.
Kálmán Mizsei is a Hungarian economist. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Budapest University of Economics. Mizsei has held senior positions at many Hungarian and international organizations. From 2001 until 2006, he served as UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the CIS. He was the European Union Special Representative for Moldova in 2007–2011. In 2019, he joined the European Union High Level Advisers' Mission to help the Moldovan government to strengthen its reintegration policy.
The U.S. Russia Foundation (USRF) is an American non-profit organization founded in 2008 that aims to strengthen relations between the United States and Russia and to promote the development of the private sector in the Russian Federation. While initially established with its headquarters in Moscow, the organization attracted negative attention from the Russian government and relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2015.
The fourth Orbán government was the Government of Hungary from 18 May 2018 to 24 May 2022, after the 2018 parliamentary elections, led by Viktor Orbán.
Hungarian-American billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros's philanthropy and support for progressive causes has made him the subject of many conspiracy theories, most of them originating from the political right. Veronika Bondarenko, writing for Business Insider said: "For two decades, some have seen Soros as a kind of puppet master secretly controlling the global economy and politics." The New York Times describes the allegations as moving "from the dark corners of the internet and talk radio" to "the very center of the political debate" by 2018. Professor Armin Langer has noted that Soros is "the perfect code word" for conspiracy theories that unite antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a controversial issue in some countries. In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Some critics of foreign funding of NGOs contend that foreign funding orients recipients toward donor priorities, making them less responsive to the communities they work in.
Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire is a non-fiction book by Michael T. Kaufman released by Random House in 2002, that illuminates the early life, education, work, and controversial philanthropy of George Soros, a man considered by many to be one of the most enigmatic yet globally influential financiers of his era.
Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve is a non-fiction book by George Soros, released by John Wiley and Sons in 1995, that gives an insight into the financial theory, personal history, and political analysis of George Soros. The narrative proceeds in an interview-like style with Byron Wien, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, and German Journalist Krisztina Koenen asking questions of Soros.
The Hungarian conservative party Fidesz has been accused of exhibiting anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies since their return to leading the Hungarian government in 2010 under the leadership of Viktor Orbán in his second premiership. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of severely restricting media freedom, undermining the independence of the courts, subjugating and politicising independent and non-governmental institutions, surveilling political opponents, engaging in electoral engineering, and assailing critical NGOs. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of engaging in cronyism and corruption. Fidesz has been accused of antisemitism, and the Fidesz-led government has been accused of passing legislation that violates the rights of LGBT persons. Due to its controversial actions, Fidesz and its government have come in conflict with the EU on multiple occasions.
Open Society Foundations–Armenia (OSFA) is the Armenian branch of Open Society Foundations (OSF). Open Society Foundations–Armenia was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Yerevan. The foundation seeks to support local partners working to promote and protect human rights, the rule of law, justice, accountability, and transparency in Armenia.
Kornel Klopfstein-Laszlo is a New York-based Hungarian journalist, policy analyst, and human rights advocate. He is the co-founder of Print-it-Yourself, a citizen journalism project combating Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's control over the media. In 2020, Klopfstein joined Open Society Foundations, a grantmaking network founded by George Soros. He also serves as a board member of edemokracia.hu, a Central European think tank that promotes press freedom, access to information, and participatory democracy.
Soros, through foundations and his Open Society Institutes, pours some $500 million per year into organizations in the former Soviet world... And Soros gets results. Through strategic donations, Soros helped bring down the communist government in Poland, toppled Serbia's bloodstained strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and fueled the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia. Soros has also funded opposition parties in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, and Macedonia, helping them into either power or prominence. All of these countries were once Russian allies..