Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic organization that controls most of the assets in George Soros’s $25 billion family office, is set to end a large part of its operations in the European Union as part of a retrenchment under new leadership.
Soros handed control of OSF to his son, Alexander Soros, in June, who promptly announced a headcount reduction of at least 40% at the foundation, which donates money to humanitarian and democratic causes worldwide.
OSF cited a “radical shift of strategic direction” in a new operating model created by OSF’s leadership that will require “significant further restructuring” and “closing all regional and global programs,” according to a letter sent to grantees in Hungary and shared with Bloomberg by a person who wished not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“Ultimately, the new approved strategic direction provides for withdrawal and termination of large parts of our current work within the European Union, shifting our focus and allocation of resources to other parts of the world,” the message said, quoting another note that had been sent to staff at OSF’s headquarters in Berlin.
“OSF will largely terminate funding within the European Union, and further funding will be extremely limited,” it said. The letter to grantees didn’t provide further details, saying only that the shift was decided because “EU institutions and governments were already allocating significant resources to human rights, freedom and pluralism” inside the bloc.
OSF’s press office didn’t immediately respond to emails or messages left by phone.
In the EU, OSF financed a wide range of philanthropic programs in the bloc’s eastern former communist members, including Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and elsewhere. They included initiatives aimed at strengthening democracy, promoting human rights and alleviating the poverty and discrimination faced by the Roma minority.
It also funds projects in non-EU European countries such as in the Balkans and further afield in central Asia.
The organization based its European headquarters in Budapest until 2018, when it moved to Berlin following a years-long campaign against Soros and the OSF’s liberal values by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary. It also has offices in Barcelona, Brussels and Belgium.
OSF has spent more than $19 billion on its philanthropic commitments over the past three decades. In 2021, it gave out $209 million in funding in the Europe and central Asia region, almost 14% of its global expenditure, according to the organization’s website.
Radio Free Europe was first to report about OSF’s exit from the EU.
— With Marton Kasnyik, Zoltan Simon, and Sarah Muller
Soros handed control of OSF to his son, Alexander Soros, in June, who promptly announced a headcount reduction of at least 40% at the foundation, which donates money to humanitarian and democratic causes worldwide.
OSF cited a “radical shift of strategic direction” in a new operating model created by OSF’s leadership that will require “significant further restructuring” and “closing all regional and global programs,” according to a letter sent to grantees in Hungary and shared with Bloomberg by a person who wished not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“Ultimately, the new approved strategic direction provides for withdrawal and termination of large parts of our current work within the European Union, shifting our focus and allocation of resources to other parts of the world,” the message said, quoting another note that had been sent to staff at OSF’s headquarters in Berlin.
“OSF will largely terminate funding within the European Union, and further funding will be extremely limited,” it said. The letter to grantees didn’t provide further details, saying only that the shift was decided because “EU institutions and governments were already allocating significant resources to human rights, freedom and pluralism” inside the bloc.
OSF’s press office didn’t immediately respond to emails or messages left by phone.
In the EU, OSF financed a wide range of philanthropic programs in the bloc’s eastern former communist members, including Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and elsewhere. They included initiatives aimed at strengthening democracy, promoting human rights and alleviating the poverty and discrimination faced by the Roma minority.
It also funds projects in non-EU European countries such as in the Balkans and further afield in central Asia.
The organization based its European headquarters in Budapest until 2018, when it moved to Berlin following a years-long campaign against Soros and the OSF’s liberal values by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary. It also has offices in Barcelona, Brussels and Belgium.
OSF has spent more than $19 billion on its philanthropic commitments over the past three decades. In 2021, it gave out $209 million in funding in the Europe and central Asia region, almost 14% of its global expenditure, according to the organization’s website.
Radio Free Europe was first to report about OSF’s exit from the EU.
— With Marton Kasnyik, Zoltan Simon, and Sarah Muller
