Human rights groups raise concern as George Soros' OSF plans to lay off 40% of its staff globally

The human rights groups are concerned about Open Society Foundations (OSF) plans to lay off 40% of their global staff — the nonprofit's second major cut in three years — as billionaire investor George Soros, 92, hands over reins of his multi-billion dollar OSF to his son Alexander Soros, reported AP.

“We are most concerned for social justice movements, which now have to wait for the impact on their sustainability,” reported AP quoting Kellea Miller, executive director of the Human Rights Funders Network. “In the field of philanthropy, decisions at the top can have an outsized ripple effect on those enacting change,” Miller added.

Open Society Foundations, the umbrella organization for Soros' charitable work, said its board of directors has “approved significant changes to the Foundations’ operating model.” The global layoffs will comply with local regulations, the foundations said. The foundation has not said where or when layoff will take place.

Mark Arena, a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations said the move “Will involve some difficult decisions.” Arena further added, ”We anticipate that implementing the proposed new model would involve the redesign and retooling of our existing operations, and a substantial reduction in headcount of no less than 40% globally."

In 2021, the Open Society Foundations offered buyouts to dozens of employees and sought to streamline their internal structures. The foundations currently employ around 800 staff members and maintain offices in over 20 countries.

Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch, which was a major recipient of OSF funding, said he has no reason to think the foundation layoffs will mean a decline in support for human rights work. Roth added after the layoff the foundation may make fewer, but larger grants as the staffs cut may make the organisation harder to handle multiple smaller grants in future.

The Human Rights Funders Network said the OSF was the sector's third largest funder in 2019, the most recent year it has analyzed.

“We also consider the humanity of those losing jobs at OSF," Miller said. "This is not nominal, and it also means that movements that have longstanding relationships with program officers there now have to rebuild their access and wait for transparency about the implications” miller added.

Earlier this month, the foundation announced that Soros was handing over control of his foundations to his 37-year-old son, Alex, who was elected head of OSF's board in December.

The change to a “new model” is meant to maximize the foundations' grantmaking dollars, the OSF statement said, and “create a culture of ‘strategic opportunism.’” The lack of details about the new plan, however, could provide fodder to those who see Soros as having undo power. 

Soros’ public profile began to change, experts say, when he supported John Kerry’s run against then President George W. Bush. Then, Victor Orban, now Hungary’s prime minister, demonized him as a shadowy figure seeking to undermine Europe’s predominantly Christian majority through supporting migration, among other issues.

“Can you ever explain what you’re really doing to somebody who believes that a Jewish billionaire is bringing in migrants?” asked Emily Tamkin, a reporter and author of the book “The Influence of George Soros.” “Is there anything you can say that can make that person believe that you’re not a negative and nefarious force in society? I don’t think there is, and I definitely don’t think there is for political actors who are convinced that this is a useful device for them.”

Alex Soros told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported he would succeed his father at the helm of OSF, that he would be “more political,” but hasn’t elaborated further.

In the early years of the foundations' work, George Soros praised it for being fluid and flexible and empowering staff in countries to run their own projects, said Tamkin.

“(He) contrasted that to these big foundations in New York City with the professional staff and how they were removed from what was actually happening and the people they were actually trying to help," she said. "I think in some ways, philosophically, perhaps people within OSF making this decision see this as a return to form.”

Tamkin said it remains to be seen, “whether reducing staff allows that return to flexibility and empowering of people on the ground, or if really the bureaucratic center remains the bureaucratic center just with fewer people.”

OSF is perhaps most famous for its work supporting dissident movements in Soviet countries, including Soros' native Hungary. It continues to pour funds into Central European University, which Soros founded in the early 1990s in Budapest. It was forced to relocate to Austria after Hungary's parliament passed a new law governing universities with foreign accreditations.