George Soros gives £13.7 billion to his pro-democracy foundation
Liberal philanthropist makes one one of the biggest transfers of wealth ever made by a private donor to a single institution
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Your support makes all the difference.George Soros has given £13.7 billion ($18 billion) to his human rights foundation in one of the biggest transfers of wealth ever made by a private donor to a single institution.
The billionaire hedge fund manager, who is a leading Democratic donor, has donated the majority of his estimated $24.6 billion fortune to the Open Society Foundations.
His hefty contribution makes the foundation the third largest in the world – just behind the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the Wellcome Trust.
The organisation, which has branches in 37 countries, seeks to promote democracy across the world with the explicit aim of advancing justice, education, independent media and public health. It has parted with nearly $14bn since it was established back in 1979 and has invested in programs which protect gays and lesbians and seek to tackle abuses by the police.
Officials from the foundation said the Hungarian-born philanthropist boosted the speed of donations from the earnings of his successful hedge fund.
Soros, who ranks 20th on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, has brought his lifetime giving to a whopping $32 billion with this donation.
The philanthropist, who was born in Hungary to a non-observant Jewish company, survived Nazi-Occupied Hungary and emigrated to England in 1947. He studied at the London School of Economics while juggling jobs as a railway porter and waiting tables but it was in the US where he made his fortune.
Soros has been a long-time champion of groups promoting liberal, democratic and open-border values in eastern Europe and is a long-standing critic of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government. He made substantial donations to Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful bid to be president.
Soros rose to fame by betting against the pound in 1992 and used Quantum Fund to bet successfully that sterling was over-valued against the Deutsche Mark, forcing then Prime Minister John Major to pull the pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
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