May 20, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
What will Open Society Foundations look like without George Soros?
That’s one of many topics The Chronicle discussed with the billionaire hedge-fund manager during an hourlong conversation earlier this month. (Read the full profile of Mr. Soros here).
The 80-year-old philanthropist says he’s worried that the Open Society Foundations will lose its innovative spirit after he’s gone. His staff members say they are less concerned, noting that younger employees share Mr. Soros’s appetite for risk taking.
Meanwhile, Open Society has begun a search for a new president to replace Aryeh Neier, who has led the fund since 1993 and will step down next April. Mr. Soros says that person will be not only a replacement for Mr. Neier but, potentially, for Mr. Soros himself. The foundation is also taking steps to simplify its operations to make it easier for a new leader to take over. The organization is currently made up of more than 40 offices and independent foundations around the world.
Mr. Soros’s son, Jonathan Soros, is leading the search for a new president. Mr. Neier calls Jonathan Soros a “reassuring presence” at the foundation. But the elder Mr. Soros says that while some of his five children will be involved in the Open Society network in some way, he doesn’t view any of them as a natural successor to him.
Mr. Soros, meanwhile, says he’s interested in giving out many big grants now. In the past nine months, his fund has committed $60-million to Bard College, $50-million to Harlem Children’s Zone, and $100-million to Human Rights Watch. He says he plans to give more so long as he identifies compelling ideas to support.
One thing that’s striking is how ambivalent Mr. Soros is about many aspects of philanthropy. This is a topic he discusses at length in an introduction to a new book, The Philanthropy of George Soros: Building Open Societies, published this month by PublicAffairs. In our conversation, Mr. Soros talked about how philanthropy turns charity leaders into beggars who tell donors what they want to hear—before turning around and doing what they wanted to do in the first place.
Mr. Soros is also critical of what he sees as many donors’ preoccupation with measurement. He says that insisting on quantifiable results can distort the goals of a grant as well as its results. Often the projects that stand the least chance of success—promoting transitions to democracy in the former Soviet Union, for example—are the most worthwhile, he says.
Mr. Soros also discussed his polarizing image. He readily acknowledges that his reputation in the conservative news-media as a left-wing billionaire trying to force his progressive agenda on the American public has sometimes complicated life for his foundation. But he says he has no regrets: “I am willing to endanger my own standing and the standing of the foundations that I support for the sake of the objectives.”
