Which nonprofit entities in the Open Society network made political expenditures in U.S. elections since 2018?
Executive summary
OpenSecrets’ profile for the Open Society network shows the umbrella Open Society Foundations reported modest direct contributions to U.S. federal campaigns in the 2018 cycle—$75,444—and listed no “outside spending” on federal elections for that cycle [1]. Independent trackers and watchdogs, however, identify related Open Society entities that engaged in political activity in U.S. electoral contexts since 2018, most prominently the Open Society Action Fund’s documented grant to a Missouri ballot-effort in 2018 [2].
1. What the big public trackers show: OSF’s federal filing footprint
The Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets profile for Open Society Foundations (the network’s flagship entity) records $75,444 in contributions during the 2018 federal cycle and explicitly reports $0 in outside spending for that same cycle, signaling a limited direct footprint in FEC-classified federal advertising or independent-expenditure activity by that particular entity in 2018 [1]. OpenSecrets also maintains a broader “Political Nonprofits” outside‑spending data project that supplements FEC records with IRS filings, which is the methodological basis for identifying politically active nonprofits [3].
2. Related entities and state-level political spending: Open Society Action Fund and the Missouri example
InfluenceWatch’s compilation of filings and reporting highlights that the Open Society Action Fund—a distinct U.S.-focused advocacy arm in the Soros network—gave $300,000 to a group supporting Missouri’s Amendment 1 during the 2018 cycle, a spend clearly tied to a state ballot contest rather than a federal campaign [2]. That grant is an example of how organizations within the broader Open Society network have engaged in politically consequential expenditures at the state level even when the parent foundation’s federal outside‑spending totals appear minimal [2].
3. Names and structures matter: umbrella foundation versus action and policy arms
Open Society’s network includes multiple legal entities with different tax statuses and missions—Open Society Foundations (the global foundation), the Open Society Action Fund (a U.S. advocacy vehicle), and policy‑oriented arms such as the Open Society Policy Center or Open Society Institute in historical filings—meaning spending can be recorded under different organizational names and in different public databases depending on whether an activity is grants, lobbying, IRS‑reported expenditures, or FEC‑reported outside spending [4] [5] [2]. OpenSecrets’ totals and InfluenceWatch entries together illustrate that looking only at the central foundation’s FEC-facing profile can undercount network activity taking place through other entities [1] [2] [5].
4. The foundation’s public line and the transparency caveat
Open Society Foundations’ own public statements emphasize nonpartisan support for election integrity, civic participation, and transparency work, and assert that they do not support political parties or candidates—context that shapes how the network frames U.S. election-related spending [6]. At the same time, OpenSecrets’ outside‑spending project notes that political nonprofits can report activity in different ways to the IRS and FEC, and some “dark money” flows are inherently difficult to trace if routed through multiple nonprofit grants or intermediaries [3]. This structural complexity creates real limits on any definitive, single‑source accounting of all electoral expenditures by every Open Society‑linked entity since 2018.
5. Conclusion and reporting limits
Based on available public filings and third‑party compilations, the clearest, source-supported conclusion is that the Open Society Foundations itself showed limited direct federal outside spending in 2018 (reporting $0 outside spending and $75,444 in contributions), while affiliated U.S. entities—most notably the Open Society Action Fund—made politically significant expenditures at the state level (for example, a $300,000 grant tied to Missouri’s 2018 Amendment 1) [1] [2]. Any fuller accounting of “which nonprofit entities in the Open Society network made political expenditures in U.S. elections since 2018” would require systematic cross-checking of IRS Form 990 schedules, FEC outside‑spending records, and intermediary grant flows for each named Open Society affiliate—data that the cited sources outline in method but do not fully aggregate into a single definitive list [3] [5].