About the Open Society Foundations
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. Working in every part of the world, the Open Society Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalised communities.
Open Society does more than give away money. We use a range of tools including advocacy, litigation, and research to help support open societies around the world.
Open Society was founded by George Soros, who began his philanthropy in 1979 by giving scholarships to black South African students during Apartheid.
Open Society established its first country foundation in Hungary in 1984, and throughout 1980s and 1990s, focused on countries in the Soviet Bloc making the transition to democracy.
Open Society expanded its reach globally during the 1990s, and now we work in over 100 countries in every region of the world including in South Africa since 1993.
About Luminate
Established in 2018, Luminate is a global philanthropic organisation with the goal of empowering people and institutions to work together to build just and fair societies. Luminate does this by funding and supporting non-profit and for-profit organisations and advocating for policies and actions that will help people participate in and shape the issues affecting their lives, and make those in power more transparent, responsive, and accountable.
Luminate prioritises delivering impact in four connected areas that underpin strong societies: Civic Empowerment, Data & Digital Rights, Financial Transparency, and Independent Media. Across all these areas, Luminate’s strategy is long-term yet responsive. This allows Luminate to focus on supporting those driving sustainable solutions to deeply entrenched issues – while remaining flexible enough to react quickly to evolving challenges.
Luminate builds on a portfolio and wealth of expertise built up over a decade as the Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative at Omidyar Network. Established by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, we remain part of The Omidyar Group. To date, Luminate’s global work has supported 236 organisations, in 18 countries with over $314 million in funding.
To learn more, visit www.luminategroup.com, and follow on Twitter @luminategroup
