Open Society Foundations
international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros
Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by billionaire business magnate George Soros. OSF financially supports progressive organizations. As of 2025, OSF has reported expenditures in excess of $24.2 billion since its establishment in 1993. OSF has assets of over $23 billion, making it one of the world's largest foundations. It has offices in over a dozen countries. The New York Times described OSF as "a sprawling political and philanthropic empire that seeks to advance a liberal, democratic agenda around the globe".
History
On May 28, 1984, George Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation/New York City and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the founding document of the Soros Foundation/Budapest. This was followed by several foundations in the region to help countries move away from Soviet-style socialism in the Eastern Bloc.
In 1991, the foundation merged with the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne ("Foundation for European Intellectual Mutual Aid"), an affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, created in 1966 to imbue 'non-conformist' Eastern European scientists with anti-totalitarian and capitalist ideas.
In 1993, the Open Society Institute was created in the United States to support the Soros foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Open Society Foundations” as international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q786194. VIAF identifies the subject as 267169336. The Library of Congress control number is no2012114909. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025, 1993, 1984 and 1991.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Open Society Foundations”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Open Society Foundations primary sources, Open Society Foundations archive and Society research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Open Society Foundations”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Open Society Foundations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.