Open Society Foundations, the progressive nonprofit started 30 years ago by billionaire George Soros, is preparing to lay off 40% of its staff, roughly 800 employees, following the now 92-year-old founder’s handover of leadership to his son.
The move comes amid what board chair Alexander Soros and Mark Malloch-Brown, the organization’s current president, described in a cryptically worded press release Friday as a plan “to transform operations across the global network” with the intent of creating a “nimbler organization” better able to support tactical short and long-term goals. “While Open Society works on these internal changes, the Board remains firmly committed to the Foundations’ core priorities – democracy, human rights, climate justice, and addressing inequity,” they wrote.
Originally named the Open Society Institute, the seeds of the New York City-based family foundation took root in 1984 in the elder Soros’ native Hungary. Soros spent part of his teenage years living under Nazi occupation that he survived by obtaining “false identity papers” that hid his family’s Jewish background. His stated goal in starting the predecessor organization was to encourage nascent pro-democracy movements in Eastern Europe. From those efforts emerged what has become one of the most prolific grantmaking organizations in the world.
Open Society Foundations has given away an estimated $19 billion of its founder’s wealth to date including $452 million in 2021 alone, according to its most recent federal Form 990-PF financial disclosure filing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The foundation last reported assets totaling just shy of $5.9 billion.
Open Society leaders said Friday that the “Board reiterates its commitment to a philanthropic model that ensures that every grant-making dollar is maximized.” However, the foundation does not appear to have been a model of leanness or efficiency in recent years with its largest reported expense category during 2021 being the $112 million it spent on payroll and benefits. The foundation reported having 538 employees on staff earning $50,000 or more during 2021, at least 16 of whom were earning six figures or more in salary and eight who were receiving benefits also valued in the six figures. Of them, six received more than $500,000 in salary alone. The highest-paid person that year was the former president, Patrick Gaspard, who received more than $2.2 million in combined salary and benefits.
Both the foundation, and George Soros personally, have long been known for their generous support of liberal causes, which have earned them praise from progressive activists and allied human rights groups. However, the funding activities also have earned the ire of the political right in the United States and from some world leaders such as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has accused Soros of interfering in that country’s democratic processes.
The younger Soros appears to be pivoting toward an even more overtly political stance, having recently told the Wall Street Journal that he considers himself “more political” than his father and intends to boost philanthropic support for voting and abortion rights.
George Soros made his fortune as a hedge fund manager and currency speculator after emigrating to the United Kingdom and eventually the United States after the Second World War. His most famous – or infamous – wager came in September 1992 when he shorted billions of British pounds with borrowed money from which he profited when economic conditions forced the UK’s central bank to impose a severe currency devaluation. The episode became known in the UK as “Black Wednesday.” Critics later denounced Soros as “the man who broke the Bank of England.
