About Open Society

     The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that seeks to promote the development and maintenance of open societies around the world by supporting a range of programs in the areas of educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and often controversial issues.

     Established in 1993 and based in New York City, the Open Society Institute is part of the Soros foundations network, an informal network of organizations created by George Soros and operating in over 30 countries around the world, principally in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union but also in Guatemala, Haiti, Mongolia, Southern Africa, and the United States.

     Together with its Hungary-based affiliate, the Open Society Institute-Budapest, OSI assists these organizations by providing administrative, financial, and technical support, and by establishing "network programs" that address certain issues on a regional or network-wide basis.

     The programs of the Open Society Institute fall into three categories: network programs; international initiatives; and programs that focus on the United States. Network programs based in New York include the Arts and Culture Program, which supports contemporary artistic culture in the countries of the network; the East East Program, which was developed to provide a network for the sharing of experience and information among formerly communist countries; the Children and Youth Programs, which aim to provide young people with opportunities and resources to help them become full participants in society; the English Language Programs, which provide English-as-a-Foreign-Language support and modern teaching methodologies to countries within the network; the Internet Program, which support projects that develop e-mail and Internet services among the countries in the network; the Medical and Health Programs, which are aimed at improving public health care in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; and the Women's Program, which was initiated to support the national foundations in dealing with women's issues.

     New York-based programs with an international focus include the Burma Project, which promotes international awareness of the repressive military dictatorship in Burma and supports education and training for Burmese refugees; the Forced Migration Projects, which aim to provide early warning of forced movements of people and to identify the conditions that cause such dislocations; the Landmines Project, which supports efforts toward a comprehensive worldwide ban on landmines; and the Soros Documentary Fund, which supports the production of documentary films and videos dealing with contemporary human rights and social justice issues.

     The Open Society Institute's U.S. Programs include the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture, a program for the study of effective and humane responses to crime; the Emma Lazarus Fund, which was established to combat discrimination against legal immigrants in the wake of the 1996 welfare reform legislation; The Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research center; the Open Society Fellowships Program, which provides funding to individuals whose work promotes open society; the Program on Law and Society, which seeks to improve the values and performance of the legal profession and the civil justice system; and the Project on Death in America, a program which supports alternative approaches to the care of the dying. Other U.S. Program initiatives focus on campaign finance reform, educational reform, the medical profession, journalism, and reproductive health and choice. In 1996, the Open Society Institute opened an office in Baltimore as part of its Urban Initiatives program, an experimental effort which focuses grantmaking on specific urban areas in order to affect substantive change.