Influence of George Soros’ Background on His Philanthropic Contributions

George Soros was born in 1930 in Hungary. He survived the Nazi occupation of 1944-1945 that led to the massacre of more than 500,000 Hungarian Jews. Together with his family, they survived by concealing their background using false identity papers. George Soros left Budapest in 1947 and went to London where he worked part-time at the railway station as a porter and a nightclub waiter in order to fund his education at the London School of Economics. George Soros migrated to the United States in 1956 and joined the field of finance and investments which marked the beginning of his successful career journey.

George Soros established his own hedge fund in 1970 known as Soros Fund Management which allowed him to be among the most prosperous investors in the United States. He used the fortune from this investment to set up the Open Society Foundation. George Soros began participating in philanthropic activities in 1979 and gave scholarships to the South Africans of black color during the apartheid. Read his profile at Forbes.

George Soros is a billionaire hedge fund manager and a Democratic donor. He is the founder of the Central European University in Budapest which is a leading regional center for social science studies. He donated $18 billion to his Open Society Foundation, as reported by Open Society. The organization was founded by George Soros to promote democracy and human rights and has been in existence for more than thirty years now. This is one of the largest transfers of wealth that has ever been made to a single foundation by a donor. This donation has transformed Open Society Foundation into one of the second largest philanthropic organizations in America.

George Soros is recognized for his philanthropic contributions. He has donated more than $32 billion towards charitable activities through the Open Society Foundation. In his leadership, the organization has engaged in various activities which include advocating for freedoms such as that of expression, government accountability, and promotion of justice and equality. Open Society Foundation has recently invested in programs that protect lesbians and gays from abuse and discrimination. In 2014, the organization contributed to the fight against the Ebola outbreak, and in 2016 it offered protection to people in the United States from hate incidences following the elections. Read more on nytimes.com.

During the 1980’s, George Soros supported the open exchange of concepts in communist Hungary through funding academic visits to the west and support of fledging independent cultural groups. At the end of the cold war, he expanded his philanthropic activities not only in the United States but Asia, Latin America, and Africa too. George Soros was one of the first noticeable voices that criticized the war on drugs, arguing that it is more damaging than the drug issue. Consequently, he helped to establish medical marijuana movement in America.

The numerous contributions of George Soros have reached his own foundations and are supporting independent organizations like the European Council on Foreign Relations, the International Crisis Group, Global Witness, as well as the Institute for New Economic Thinking. In his philanthropic work, George Soros remains dedicated to fighting the most intractable problems in the world and has the reputation of emphasizing the significance of dealing with losing causes.