Which organizations affiliated with George Soros receive funding and what causes do they support?
Executive summary
George Soros primarily channels philanthropic and political funding through the Open Society Foundations (OSF), a global grantmaking network that has received more than $32 billion in donations from Soros and supports a wide array of civil-society, education, justice and democratic-governance projects worldwide [1] [2]. Beyond OSF, Soros has long-standing ties to specific institutions and vehicles—Central European University, the Democracy Alliance, the Center for American Progress, and fiscal-sponsorship intermediaries such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund—that together fund universities, progressive think tanks, legal and voter-advocacy groups, media, and local community organizing [1] [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. Open Society Foundations: the central hub and its priorities
The Open Society Foundations (OSF) is the core of Soros’s philanthropy and is described by Soros’s sites and OSF itself as the world’s largest private funder of groups working on rights, equity, and justice; OSF uses grants, research, advocacy, litigation and investments to back human-rights, democratic governance, and education projects in scores of countries [2] [7] [8]. OSF’s reported expenditures and transfers over decades amount to tens of billions, and the foundation specifically lists work on freedom of expression, accountable government, and inclusion among its mission priorities [1] [8].
2. Universities, scholarships and international education
Soros founded Central European University and has a documented history of funding higher-education programs and scholarships—OSF scholarship programs for African and Eastern European students date to the late 1970s and OSF grantmaking has supported multiple universities in Africa and elsewhere, reflecting a sustained education strategy as part of his philanthropy [1] [9] [7].
3. Progressive think tanks, political infrastructure and electoral spending
Soros has been an early and ongoing donor to U.S. progressive institutions: he was an initial donor to the Center for American Progress and is a major backer of the Democracy Alliance, a network that coordinates progressive funding, and his donations have gone into political infrastructure and campaign-related vehicles over multiple cycles [5] [4]. Independent reporting and filings also show OSF and related nonprofits making donations that flow—sometimes through intermediary fiscal sponsors—into groups active in election-related communications and advertising [6] [10].
4. Fiscal sponsors, intermediary groups and targeted local grants
Not all Soros-funded work appears as direct grants; fiscal-sponsorship entities such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund have been described in congressional and media reporting as intermediaries that enable fast-launch advocacy campaigns and channel substantial sums to political and civic projects, including midterm election work reported in 2021 [6]. OSF-affiliated entities and alliance partners also fund local organizing and community initiatives: for example, OSF-associated grants to Maryland organizations in Baltimore supported digital equity coalitions, community organizing outfits and local advocacy groups in recent years [11].
5. Israel/Palestine, civil-society NGOs, and criticism
OSF has funded a portfolio of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs and has been the target of criticism—NGO Monitor and other critics argue some grants supported groups that oppose government policies and question Israel’s legitimacy; OSF has responded by emphasizing diverse grantmaking and denying support for terrorism, while also noting the deliberate low-profile approach it sometimes uses in sensitive contexts [12] [8]. InfluenceWatch and other trackers catalogue ties between Soros-funded networks and movements such as Black Lives Matter or Occupy through intermediaries, a linkage cited by critics though the nature and scale of those ties are debated [13].
6. What this funding supports — themes, not an exhaustive list
Taken together, organizations funded by Soros-affiliated networks primarily support human-rights and democracy promotion, civil liberties, criminal-justice reform, public-interest law, academic exchange, progressive policy research, local community organizing and electoral infrastructure—however, the available reporting maps priorities and vehicles rather than a single exhaustive list of every beneficiary, and independent watchdogs raise contrasting assessments about political influence and transparency [2] [7] [5] [6] [11] [13].