George Soros, the billionaire New York financier, announced Monday that he has pledged to give a $100-million grant to Human Rights Watch, which investigates and publicizes human-rights abuses worldwide.
The grant from Mr. Soros’s Open Society Foundations will be made over 10 years and will enable Human Rights Watch to increase its global presence by adding more regional offices throughout the world and by expanding its research capabilities, especially in countries in Africa, parts of Asia, and Central and Latin America.
“Human rights as a cause is very close to my heart, and I’m very much committed to it,” said Mr. Soros in an interview. He said he feels particularly close to Human Rights Watch because of a decadeslong association with the group, which he credits with helping to form him as a philanthropist.
Although it is not a condition of the grant, Mr. Soros has asked Human Rights Watch to use news of his support to raise an additional $100-million from other donors.
The philanthropist said that he made the pledge right now because he approves of the group’s plan to expand, and he sees his gift as an endorsement of the organization’s work.
Mr. Soros also said he hopes his gift will encourage private donors in countries beyond Europe and North America to devote resources to building human-rights efforts. But he acknowledged that the task is challenging.
“I think it’s going to be an uphill struggle because in many countries tax [laws] are not as favorable as in the U.S., and there isn’t a tradition and culture of giving to rather abstract causes,” said Mr. Soros.
A History of Big Gifts
Human Rights Watch officials said the grant from the Soros foundation is the largest donation the group has ever received. Mr. Soros, however, is no stranger to such gifts.
He landed the No. 6 spot on The Chronicle’s most recent Philanthropy 50, an annual list of the most-generous individual donors, for pledging a total of $150-million in 2009 to nonprofit groups. Of that total, he gave $100-million to establish the Fund for Policy Reform, in New York, which he set up to support the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco think tank focused on environmental policies. The former Hungarian émigré also pledged $50-million to Central European University, in Budapest, for an economics institute.
Mr. Soros, whose wealth was pegged at $13-billion by Forbes magazine, has also appeared on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50 list in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Not counting this recent pledge, he has given away at least $770-million to charity through his foundations and personal donations in the past five years and a total of $8-billion since 1979.
Mr. Soros, who is 80, stressed that while he is likely to make other large commitments in the future, he has no particular plan or path laid out for his giving in the coming months and years. He acknowledged that he had previously planned to distribute his entire fortune during his lifetime but has recently changed his mind.
“My foundations have developed a niche or mission which will need to be serviced past my lifetime to support civil society, to hold governments accountable for their behavior.”