Soros Fund Charitable Foundation – InfluenceWatch
Soros Fund Charitable Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation founded and funded by billionaire George Soros. The foundation is associated with Soros Fund Management, a private investment management firm that Soros founded in 1969. Soros Management Fund manages about $30 billion in assets, with much coming from Soros’s own investments.
The foundation is closely associated with the Soros Network’s other grantmaking arms, the Open Society Foundations and Foundation to Promote Open Society. It also shares the same New York City address as the other two organizations.
The Soros Fund Charitable Foundation also awards scholarships for students contributing to the scientific, cultural, or economic development of China and fellowships to individuals involved in the fields of culture, economics, and science. The scholarships and fellowships are used for trips by Chinese nationals to the United States and trips by non-Chinese nationals to China. It also supports international and U.S.-based philanthropic organizations.
Leadership
George Soros, a billionaire financial trader and left-wing mega-funder, is the main funder of the Soros Fund Charitable Foundation. Soros has an estimated net worth of $8.3 billion as of April 2020.
Maryann Canfield is listed as the president and a director on the foundation’s 2018 tax return.
The board vice president and treasurer is Christopher I. Naunton.
Gail Scovell is the secretary of the board of directors.
Grants and Advocacy
According to its 2018 tax returns, the Soros Fund Charitable Foundation made a $7,500 grant to the ACLU Foundation, gave $15,000 to Planned Parenthood, and provided $30,000 to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Center for Public Integrity, a journalism nonprofit, reported in 2013 that the fund contributed $255,000 to 35 different Christian organizations in 2012, many of which leaned conservative. The more recent tax returns showed smaller grants to religious organizations.
The Soros Fund Charitable Foundation has also contributed more than $1 million to more than two dozen universities in 2012, according to the Washington Post. These includes $249,150 to Princeton University in New Jersey and $106,350 to Yeshiva University in New York City.
The Soros Fund Charitable Foundation collaborated with the libertarian-conservative leaning Charles Koch Institute, among other groups meant to span the ideological spectrum, to start Communities Overcoming Extremism: The After Charlottesville Project, to start a dialogue to bring sides together after the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2017.