$18 Billion Vaults George Soros Into Stratosphere of Grant Makers

George Soros’s philanthropic war chest sits at $18 billion after a series of gifts he made over the past two years, placing his Open Society Foundations second in terms of assets among private grant makers, behind only the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The assets represent a huge opportunity for progressive advocacy groups favored by Mr. Soros, a Jewish native of Hungary who survived the Nazi occupation and escaped the Communist takeover and made a fortune as a hedge-fund manager.

Since getting involved in philanthropy in the late 1970s, Mr. Soros has supported marginalized populations, Europe’s Roma ethnic group, the establishment of democratic governments around the world, and a variety of social-justice efforts that progressives champion.

Over the past several years, Mr. Soros has shifted assets from Soros Fund Management, his hedge fund, to the Open Society Foundations, a network of grant makers and other organizations he created, according to Laura Silber, a spokeswoman for Open Society Foundations, who confirmed the $18 billion figure.

From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Soros contributed $732 million to Open Society Foundations, according to Chronicle data, so the $18 billion announcement suggests a dramatic escalation in his philanthropic efforts during the past two years.

The money “sustains the foundation over quite some time at a significant scale,” said Gara LaMarche, president of Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal donors.

Mr. LaMarche, who previously served as director of U.S. programs for Open Society Foundations, said the increased assets, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, were a positive development for liberal causes and social-justice philanthropy.

Sending a Message

While the Open Society Foundations wouldn’t disclose any plans for the new reserves, the money sends a strong message, said Benjamin Soskis, research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Since President Trump’s election last year, Mr. Soros and his organizations have poured millions into groups, such as the ACLU, that have pushed back against policies emanating from the White House.

“In a moment at which civil society globally is under immense assault, this is a gesture that shows there is some guarantee that his resources are going to be available to stem the tide,” said Mr. Soskis, a Chronicle contributor. “It must offer a bit of reassurance to people in the field,” he said.

Mr. Soskis said the shift of assets was an indication that the network was ready for a leadership transition. Chris Stone took the top job in 2012 to organize a “sprawling and messy” network, according to Mr. Soskis. The recent cash infusion, he said, is a show of support for Patrick Gaspard, a vice president who has been tapped to step up to acting president at the end of the year. Mr. Gaspard previously served as President Obama’s ambassador to South Africa,

“It’s a vote of confidence in the organization,” Mr. Soskis said.

Payout Requirements

Two of the largest organizations in Mr. Soros’s philanthropic network, the Foundation to Promote an Open Society and the Open Society Institute, are private grant makers.

Federal laws require that private foundations pay out at least 5 percent of their assets each year, which would amount to about $900 million annually if all of the $18 billion were moved into private U.S. foundations.

However, the way foundations can account for their payout makes it difficult to get an exact number, and Open Society did not provide any details on how the $18 billion was distributed among Mr. Soros’s various philanthropic enterprises.

Historically, his foundations have spent their funds far faster than federal law has required, with Mr. Soros replenishing those funds annually.

Philanthropy experts have predicted a surge in giving this year from hedge-fund managers because of a 2008 tax rule that requires that fees they earned overseas be repatriated by the end of this year. To avoid a massive tax, many hedge-fund managers are expected to make charitable gifts to reduce their tax liability.

Shifting Plans

In an essay laying out his giving philosophy in the New York Review of Books in 2011, Mr. Soros worried that his philanthropy would become too centralized and lack entrepreneurial vitality after his death.

But he said he did not want to “pull the rug out” from under the people who work with the foundation by sunsetting his philanthropies.

“When I established the Open Society Foundations, I did not want them to survive me,” he wrote. But as the Open Society Foundations took on a more substantial form, I changed my mind. I came to realize that terminating the foundation’s network at the time of my death would be an act of excessive selfishness.”

Mr. Soros is a longtime antagonist of conservatives, many of whom see him as a wealthy puppet-master of liberal causes and organizations.

Micheal Hartmann, senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank, said that by putting the assets into his foundations, rather than pouring it into political campaigns, Mr. Soros is signaling that he’d like to build institutions that will last for decades. If he chooses to focus on political advocacy, Mr. Hartmann added, Mr. Soros will far surpass political donors on the right, such as the Koch brothers, in terms of influence.

“It’s an attention-getting number,” he said. “I would certainly hope that a significant portion of it would go to engagement with the right on ideas and not just the building of infrastructure to fight all the time.”

Because Mr. Soros has been such an ardent political fighter and the subject of an assortment of conspiracy theories, says Mr. Soskis, the huge amount of cash sitting at Open Society’s disposal “is only going to amplify the outsized role he plays in the minds of the right.”

Note: The figure for the Open Society Foundations is the current asset value. Assets for all others are for fiscal year 2016 except those marked with an asterisk, which are for fiscal 2015.