George Soros Moving $18B To His Pro-Democracy Foundation
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 guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO