Open Society Foundations Pledges $300 Million for U.S. Democracy and Economic Programs

U.S. over the next five years. The new strategy comes even as President Donald Trump’s administration has singled out the Soros family, accusing them of supporting violence and fostering division. Those attacks are part of a broad effort rolled out in 2025 by Trump and his allies to influence nonprofits and charitable funders through executive orders, by withholding funding or by threatening investigations.

“We are continuing our work unabated. S. at Open Society Foundations, when asked about the administration’s attacks on the Soros family.

The president’s allies in Congress have also asked the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice to investigate nonprofits they accuse of supporting domestic terrorism, illegal immigration or climate programs that they disagree with. In December, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered law enforcement to investigate nonprofits that support antifa, an umbrella term for far-left-leaning groups that Trump has designated a domestic terrorist organization.

When asked if the Justice Department was looking into Open Society, a DOJ spokesperson said the department does not comment on investigations.

U.S. population from participating in public life. The foundations’ new strategy aims to improve people’s economic well-being and deepen civil rights protections, which she said are often handled separately rather than seen as two sides of the same struggle.

OSF will look for state-level policies that strengthen protections for vulnerable groups, which could be replicated in other states, Ispahani said, and for policies that help create a fair economy for the working class. “You can’t address the racial wealth gap without tackling core, working class economic issues like living wages, affordable child care and housing,” she said. S. S.

that OSF has approved under the leadership of Alex Soros, one of George Soros’ sons, who has overseen a yearslong restructuring of the foundations and major layoffs. “Guaranteed rights and freedoms are just as critical as broad economic prosperity and are the strongest defense we have against a closed society,” Alex Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, said in a statement. S.

democracy strategy had poured at least $220 million into building a multiracial, multifaith, pro-democracy alliance, which had included five-year grants to community-based groups led by people of color and women. Giving to democracy from large foundations has increased. S.

Charitable foundations are restricted from directly supporting candidates or political parties, but they can fund a wide range of nonpartisan activities like voter registration, civic education, journalism, policy development or government accountability.

Near the end of President Barack Obama’s second term and through Trump’s first term, large philanthropic foundations started allocating more resources toward democracy-related activities, according to research from Kristin Anne Goss, a professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

David Wolcheck, the lead data analyst for research at the nonprofit Candid, which tracks charitable grantmaking, drew on a different data set but found that foundation support for democracy-related activities tripled between 2016 and 2020. It then dropped by a third the following year.

He said further research was needed to determine exactly why. Other major foundations have also announced large commitments related to democracy in the past year, but comprehensive data about grantmaking in this area won’t be available publicly for several years. S.

among private and community foundations, according to Wolcheck’s research. ” The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation pledged $100 million between last year and this year to protect voting rights, civil rights and improve the capacity of democracy to deliver for people.

In March, the Minnesota-based McKnight Foundation approved spending an additional $20 million from its endowment in 2026, some of which will go toward efforts to increase civic engagement and participation among people with different views.