The Philanthropy 50 2009 Gift Profile: George Soros

George Soros: $150-million

Biggest beneficiary: Fund for Policy Reform

Other key beneficiary: Central European University

Donor’s background: Mr. Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management, a New York firm that manages hedge funds, and is the founder of the Open Society Institute, a foundation with headquarters in New York.

Mr. Soros, 79, donated $100-million in cash to establish the Fund for Policy Reform, in New York, which will support advocacy efforts designed to reduce climate change. The fund will make annual $10-million awards over the next 10 years to the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco think tank that advises governments throughout the world on environmental policies.

In addition, Mr. Soros pledged $50-million to Central European University, in Budapest, to create the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The institute was established as a response to the financial crisis and to challenge traditional economic thought, and will provide research grants, establish a scholarly journal, and organize conferences. Its first symposium is scheduled for April and will convene economic scholars to examine how the financial turmoil of the last year affects regulatory policies.

Mr. Soros said in a news release that he decided to support the institute because “the entire edifice of global financial markets has been erected on the false premise that markets can be left to their own devices. We must find a new paradigm and rebuild from the ground up.”

Mr. Soros, who helped found Central European University in 1991, plans to give the university $5-million a year for the next 10 years to complete his commitment to the new institute.

Mr. Soros’s philanthropy is rooted in his personal history. Born in Budapest in 1930, Mr. Soros graduated from the London School of Economics in 1952 and began working at an investment bank.

He moved to the United States in 1956, where he eventually established a private investment firm that became the Quantum Fund, one of the first hedge funds. It was through Quantum that Mr. Soros accumulated most of his wealth, which Forbes magazine has pegged at $13-billion.

He established the Open Society Institute in 1993 to support the development of democratic institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union. The organization made at least $185-million in grants in 2009, including $100-million to help people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who are struggling because of the global economic downturn, and a $50-million matching grant to the Robin Hood Foundation, in New York, to aid needy people in that city. To receive all the grant money, the Robin Hood Foundation must raise close to $100-million over the next two years.

Open Society also made a $35-million grant to help low-income families in New York State purchase school supplies and clothing for their children. The group worked with the state of New York and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to give out about $200 each to approximately 850,000 children receiving public assistance in the state. Some of this grant money—$5-million—is going to the Open Society Institute Baltimore to help Baltimore residents hurt by the recession.

—Maria Di Mento

View more profiles of donors who gave the most in 2009.