Open Society Foundations

Open Society Foundations
Founded 1993
Founder George Soros
Location
Key people
 George Soros, Chairman
Christopher Stone, President
Jonathan Soros, Global Advisory Board Member
Endowment $1,590,570,302[1]
Website opensocietyfoundations.org

Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros.[2] Open Society Foundations financially support civil society groups around the world, with a stated aim of advancing justice, education, public health and independent media.[3][4]

The OSF has branches in 37 countries,[5] 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; its headquarters are in New York, New York.

Since its founding in 1993, OSF has reported expenditures of over $11 billion.[6] The group's name is inspired by Karl Popper's 1945 book The Open Society and Its Enemies.[7]

History

On May 28, 1984, Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation (New York) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the founding document of the Soros Foundation Budapest.[8] This was followed by several foundations in the region to help countries move away from communism.[9]

In 1991 the foundation merged with the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne, an affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, created in 1966 to imbue 'non-conformist' Eastern European scientists with anti-totalitarian and capitalist ideas.[10]

Open Society Institute was created in the United States in 1993 to support the Soros foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.[5]

In August 2010, it started using the name of Open Society Foundations (OSF) to better reflect its role as a funder for civil society groups around the world.[11]

Soros believes there can be no absolute answers to political questions because the same principle of reflexivity applies as in financial markets.[12]

In 2012, Christopher Stone joined the OSF as the second president. He replaced Aryeh Neier, who served as president from 1993 to 2012.[13]

Activities

George Soros at the 47th Munich Security Conference in 2011

The Open Society Foundations reported annual expenditures of $827 million in 2014.[14] 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.[15]

According to the foundations' website, 1993-2014 expenditures included:[14]

Expenditures in 2014 included:[14]

Within these totals, OSF reported granting at least $33 million to civil rights and social justice organizations in the United States.[16] 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 shooting of Trayvon Martin, the death of Eric Garner, the shooting of Tamir Rice and the shooting of Michael Brown.[17][18][19] According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the OSF spends much of its resources on democratic causes around the world, and has also contributed to groups such as the Tides Foundation.[20]

OSF has been a major financial supporter of U.S. immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and net neutrality.[21][22]

OSF projects have included the National Security and Human Rights Campaign and the Lindesmith Center, which conducted research on drug reform.[3]

The Library of Congress Soros Foundation Visiting Fellows Program was initiated in 1990.[23][24]

Nicolas Guilhot has argued that the Open Society Foundations serve to perpetuate institutions which reinforce the existing social order. Nicolas Guilhot, writing in Critical Sociology, connects the Soros charities to the history of capitalist philanthropy maintained by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. Guilhot argues that control over the social sciences by monied interests has depoliticized this field and reinforced a capitalist view of modernization. He argues that despite critiques of malfunctioning free markets, Soros is actually a neoliberal who believes that competitive markets are the best way to organize society.[25]

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 not received well by the Ugandan authorities, who considered it an effort to legalize and legitimize prostitution.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "IRS Form 990 2013" (PDF). Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Duszak, Alexandra (December 21, 2012). "Donor profile: George Soros". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 Harvey, Kerric (2013). Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. SAGE Publications. p. 919. ISBN 9781483389004.
  4. ↑ "Open Society Foundation mission and values", OSI, Soros, September 6, 2012.
  5. 1 2 Callahan, David (September 14, 2015). "Philanthropy vs. Tyranny: Inside the Open Society Foundations' Biggest Battle Yet". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "Expenditures". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  7. ↑ de Cock, Christian; Böhm, Steffen (2007), "Liberalist Fantasies: Žižek and the Impossibility of the Open Society", Organization (SagePub) 14 (6), doi:10.1177/1350508407082264, retrieved 26 October 2012.
  8. ↑ Tény, Nóvé Béla, Soros (PDF), HU: KKA.
  9. ↑ Hoduski-Abbott, Bernadine E., Lobbying for Libraries and the Public's Access to Government Information, Lanham: Scarecrow, 2003. p. 75
  10. ↑ GUILHOT, NICOLAS (2006-01-01). "A NETWORK OF INFLUENTIAL FRIENDSHIPS: THE FONDATION POUR UNE ENTRAIDE INTELLECTUELLE EUROPÉENNE AND EAST-WEST CULTURAL DIALOGUE, 1957-1991". Minerva 44 (4): 379–409. (subscription required (help)). – via ScienceDirect (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
  11. ↑ Schrier, H. Edward (2013). THE BATTLE OF THE THREE WILLS: as it relates to good & evil. Author House. p. 338. ISBN 9781481758765.
  12. ↑ Soros on Soros John Wiley, ISBN 978-0-471-11977-7
  13. ↑ "Criminal Justice Expert Named to Lead Soros Foundations". The New York Times. 2011-12-11. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  14. 1 2 3 "About Us: Expenditures". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  15. ↑ Orlina, Ezekiel Carlo; Ramos-Caraig, Dorcas Juliette (March 6, 2015). "Top philanthropic foundations: A primer". Devex. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  16. ↑ Collins, Ben (August 19, 2015). "No, George Soros Didn’t Give $33 Million to #BlackLivesMatter". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  17. ↑ Ferguson Inc. — The city's protest movement tries to find a path forward; Politico; March 4, 2015
  18. ↑ Riot Act;Snopes; January 17, 2015
  19. ↑ Riddell, Kelley (January 4, 2015). "George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action". Washington Times. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  20. ↑ MacColl, Spencer (September 21, 2010). "Capital Rivals: Koch Brothers vs. George Soros". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  21. ↑ Preston, Julia (November 14, 2014). "The Big Money Behind the Push for an Immigration Overhaul". New York Times. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  22. ↑ Bedard, Paul (February 26, 2015). "Soros, Ford Foundation shovel $196 million to 'net neutrality' groups, staff to White House". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  23. ↑ Hoduski-Abbott, Bernadine E., Lobbying for Libraries and the Public's Access to Government Information, Lanham: Scarecrow, 2003. p. 76
  24. ↑ Kranich, Nancy (2001). Libraries & Democracy: The Cornerstones of Liberty. American Library Association,. p. 186. ISBN 9780838908082.
  25. ↑ Guilhot, Nicolas (May 2007). "Reforming the World: George Soros, Global Capitalism and the Philanthropic Management of the Social Sciences". Critical Sociology 33 (3): 447–477. doi:10.1163/156916307X188988. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  26. ↑ "Uganda prostitute workshop banned". BBC. March 25, 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2015.

Further reading

External links

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