George Soros Moving $18B To His Pro-Democracy Foundation

Image by getty images
In a dramatic move reshaping the map of American philanthropies, Jewish businessman and philanthropist George Soros has disclosed a major boost to his Open Society Foundations with an $18 billion cash infusion from his personal wealth. The move will make Soros’ foundation the third largest charity in the world and the second largest in America, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Foundation officials said Soros, who is 87, has increased in recent years the pace of transferring funds to the foundation. Soros’s personal net worth, made by successful foreign currency betting and hedge fund management, is estimated at $25 billion.
A leading donor for progressive causes in America and around the world, Soros has come under fire for his support for Democrats in the U.S., for backing non-governmental organizations in Israel, and for promoting democracy in Eastern Europe. In his homeland of Hungary, Soros was a target of anti-Semitic attacks by allies of the current government.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
