 | |
| Abbreviation | OSF |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 1993; 32 years ago (1993-04) |
| Founder | George Soros |
| Location |
|
Chair | Alexander Soros |
President | Binaifer Nowrojee |
| Revenue | $436 million[1] (2023) |
| Endowment | $5.27 billion[1] (2023) |
| Website | opensocietyfoundations |
Formerly called | Open Society Institute |
Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly theOpen Society Institute, is an Americangrantmaking network founded by business magnateGeorge Soros.[2] Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the stated aim of advancing justice, democracy, education, public health and independent media.[3][4] The group's name was inspired byKarl Popper's 1945 bookThe 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 theOpen Society Initiative for West Africa, and theOpen Society Initiative for Southern Africa. The organization'sheadquarters is located at224West 57th Street inMidtownManhattan, New York City. In 2018, OSF announced it was closing its European office inBudapest and moving toBerlin, in response to legislation passed by the Hungarian government targeting the foundation's activities.[7] As of 2025, OSF has reported expenditures in excess of US$23 billion since its establishment in 1993.[8]
On May 28, 1984, George Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation/New York City and theHungarian 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 fromSoviet-style socialism in theEastern Bloc.[10]
In 1991, the foundation merged with theFondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne ("Foundation for European Intellectual Mutual Aid"), an affiliate of theCongress 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 theUnited States to support the Soros foundations inCentral andEastern Europe andRussia.[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 ofreflexivity applies as in financial markets.[13]
In 2012,Christopher Stone joined the OSF as the second president. He replacedAryeh 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 acyber 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-linkedcyberattacks that targeted other institutions, such as theDemocratic 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 sonAlexander Soros, who soon announced layoffs of at least 40 percent of its international staff of then 800 and "significant changes" to the operating model.[22]
TheLibrary 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 theBill 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 anAromanian cultural event inMalovište (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 theOrganization for Black Struggle andMissourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment that supported protests in the wake of thekilling of Trayvon Martin, thedeath of Eric Garner, theshooting of Tamir Rice and theshooting of Michael Brown.[29][30][31] It reported granting to organizations outside of the United States as well. According toOpenSecrets, the OSF spends much of its resources on democratic causes around the world, and has also contributed to groups such as theTides Foundation.[32]
The OSF has been a major financial supporter of USimmigration reform, including establishing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.[33]
OSF projects have included the National Security and Human Rights Campaign and theLindesmith Center, which conducted research on drug reform.[3]
The OSF became a partner of theNational Democratic Institute,[34] a charitable organization which partnered with pro-democracy groups like the Gov2U project[35] run byScytl.[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 wereBard College andCentral European University.[21][37]
In April 2022, OSF announced a grant of $20 million to theInternational Crisis Group in support of efforts to analyzeglobal issues fuelling violence, climate injustice andeconomic inequality and providing recommendations to address them.[38]
OSF has given grants toJewish Voice for Peace.[39][40]
In 2007, Nicolas Guilhot (a senior research associate at theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research) wrote inCritical Sociology that the Open Society Foundations is functionally conservative in supporting institutions that reinforce the existing social order, as theFord Foundation andRockefeller Foundation have done before them. Guilhot argues that control over thesocial sciences by moneyed interests, rather than by public officials, reinforced aneoliberal view ofmodernization.[41]
An OSF effort in 2008 in theAfrican Great Lakes region aimed at spreading human rights awareness amongprostitutes in Uganda and other nations in the area was rejected byUgandan authorities, who considered it an effort to legalize and legitimize prostitution.[42]
Open Society Foundations has been criticized in the pro-Israel publicationsTablet,Arutz Sheva andJewish Press for funding the activist groupsAdalah andI'lam, which they accuse of beinganti-Israel and supporting theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Among the documents released in 2016 byDCleaks, an OSF report reads "For a variety of reasons, we wanted to construct a diversified portfolio of grants dealing withIsrael andPalestine, 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."[43][44][45]
In 2013,NGO Monitor, an Israeli NGO, reported that "Soros has been a frequent critic ofIsraeli 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."[46]
In November 2015,Russiabanned 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 theRussian Federation and the security of the state".[47]
In 2016, India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) placed the OSF on a watchlist forbidding them from extending any financial assistance to other NGOs or individuals without prior explicit permission.[48]
In 2017, Open Society Foundations and other NGOs for open government and refugee assistance were targeted by authoritarian and populist governments emboldened by thefirst Trump Administration. Several right-leaning politicians in eastern Europe regard many of the NGO groups to be irritants if not threats, includingLiviu Dragnea inRomania,Szilard Nemeth inHungary,Nikola Gruevski inNorth Macedonia (who called for "de-Sorosization"), andJarosław Kaczyński ofPoland (who has said that Soros-funded groups want "societies without identity").[49] Some of the Soros-funded advocacy groups in the region said the harassment and intimidation became more open after the 2016 election ofDonald 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."[49]
In 2017, the government of Pakistan ordered the Open Society Foundations to cease operations in the country.[50]
In May 2018, Open Society Foundations announced they would move its office from Budapest toBerlin, amid Hungarian government interference.[51][52][53]
In November 2018, Open Society Foundations announced they would cease operations inTurkey and close theirIstanbul andAnkara 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.[54][55][56]
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..
