Mission Statement

The Soros Foundation-Hungary is a private, independent, philanthropic institution dedicated to fostering the development of an open society in Hungary. The foundation endeavors to assist in the creation of equal opportunities for all Hungarian citizens in each area of Hungarian society. Our funding priorities are under constant review, ensuring that each of the sectors we believe to be critical for the well being of Hungary's citizens receives adequate attention. We also challenge our grantees to help themselves along the road to self-sufficiency and assist them in representing their own interests.

In pursuit of these aims, the foundation distributes its 1998 grants through five major grantmaking programs (Primary / Secondary Education and Youth; Pubic Health and Social Welfare; Culture and the Arts; Higher Education, Research and Scholarships; and, Civil Society). We also sponsor four affiliated organizations (the Business Basics Enterprise Development Foundation; the Center for Culture and Communication; the Non-Profit Information and Training Center; and, the Independent Ecological Center) and run a number of non-grant service programs including conferences on topics of current interest as well as various training and publishing programs.

The Soros Foundation-Hungary is part of an informal network of nonprofit foundations created by the philanthropist George Soros and linked together through the Soros foundations network. The Soros Foundation-Hungary has played a special role both within the network and within formerly communist Eastern Europe as a whole. Its establishment in 1984 makes it not only the first East European foundation sanctioned by Soros, but one of the first private, independent foundations in the region.

The Soros Foundation-Hungary's commitment to the establishment and maintenance of an open society in Hungary underlies all our basic policies. An open society is a society based on the recognition that human beings operate with imperfect knowledge, that nobody has a monopoly on the truth, that different people have different views and interests, and that a need exists for institutions to protect the rights of all people to allow them to live together in peace.

The Soros Foundation-Hungary is proud of its 14-years of helping to create an open, humane society in Hungary under two radically different social systems. From our experience, we believe that the best way to meet the challenges of post-communism is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where the problems are located. To facilitate this objective, we have created a dynamic series of grantmaking programs overseen by more than 50 advisory boards comprised of 170 experts in various fields. In 1997, more than 20,000 individuals and organizations submitted grant proposals; of these, 5,500 were selected for funding worth more than $18.3 million. An additional 3,500 individuals participated in various conferences and courses organized by the foundation.

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