Development Co‑operation Profiles

Open Society Foundations

This profile is no longer updated. Find the latest version here.

Introduction

The Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, are the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. Open Society approaches this mission through the illuminating principles of justice, equity, and expression—defining characteristics of any truly open society.

Due to the limited availability of this foundation's 2022 data, this profile is based on 2021 data reported to the OECD.

Private development finance

Open Society provided USD 431.2 million for development in 2021 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2020, this amount represents an increase of 21.1% in real terms.

 

Compare

COVID-19 response

In 2021, Open Society provided USD 7.8 million as its COVID-19 response, representing 1.8% of its development finance. A total of USD 4.8 million was provided for COVID-19 control and other health-related activities.

Allocations to and through the multilateral system

In 2021, Open Society provided USD 4.6 million to the multilateral system, representing 1.1% of its development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes.

 

Compare

All this finance was provided to the United Nations (UN) system, most notably UNICEF (USD 2.4 million), UNESCO (USD 1.2 million) and UNRWA (USD 0.4 million).

 

Compare

See the section on geographic and thematic focus for the geographical and thematic breakdown of bilateral allocations earmarked through the multilateral development system.

Bilateral allocations

In 2021, Open Society channelled its contributions mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 362.2 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 33.9 million).

 

Compare

Civil society organisations

In 2021, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 362.2 million (84%) of Open Society’s development finance. A share of 45.2% of Open Society’s development finance was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 38.8% was earmarked for specific projects.

 

Compare

Geographic and thematic focus

In 2021, Open Society’s development finance mainly was focused on America and Africa, noting that more than half was unspecified by region. USD 101 million was allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Asia (USD 56.2 million) and Africa (USD 40 million), accounting respectively for 23.4%, 13% and 9.3% of Open Society’s development finance. South America alone was provided USD 39.9 million (9.2%). The Middle East received USD 17.8 million and South Asia USD 11.3 million, representing respectively 4.1% and 2.6%. Central Asia was allocated USD 10.1 million, and developing countries in Europe received USD 12.3 million, together accounting for 5.2% of Open Society’s grants for development. A sum of USD 221.7 million (51.4%) was unspecified by region in 2021, mainly including multi-regional programmes and core support grants.

Bilateral private development finance by recipient country

Compare

 

Compare

In 2021, 14.5% of development finance went to the top 10 recipients. Open Society’s most significant recipients included Brazil (USD 17.6 million), Colombia (USD 12.1 million) and Mexico (USD 7.7 million). Moreover, 79.9% of development finance was not allocated by country.

 

Compare

Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 12 million (2.8%) of Open Society’s development finance in 2021. Open Society allocated the highest share of its development finance (12.4%) to upper middle-income countries in 2021, followed by lower middle-income countries (4.9%) in 2021, noting that USD 344.4 million (79.9%) was unallocated by income group.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

Compare

Furthermore, Open Society allocated USD 1.1 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2021, equal to 0.3% of its development finance. The main SIDS recipients include Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 26.7 million in 2021, representing 6.2% of Open Society’s development finance. Of this, extremely fragile contexts received USD 7 million.

Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

 

Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.

Compare

Sectors

In 2021, almost all commitments by Open Society target social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 91.7% of the Foundations’ commitments (USD 395.5 million), with a strong focus on support to government and civil society (USD 288 million), education (USD 43.6 million) and health (USD 30.2 million). The remaining part of Open Society’s commitments related to the support for refugees in donor countries and humanitarian assistance (including support to refugees in developing countries).

 

Compare

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2021, Open Society committed the most significant shares of its contributions to the goals of peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10). Support for gender equality (SDG 5) amounted to USD 53 million, and contributions to climate action totalled USD 20.6 million.

 

Compare

Additional resources

Official website: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.