The Soros Foundation Hungary

The Soros Foundation has been present in Hungary for seventeen years and has managed about $137 million in this period.

Over seven thousand individuals and organizations submitted applications for support to the Foundation in 2000, of which the boards granted 3800.

Through the programs announced for 2001, the Soros Foundation strives - among other things - to rectify the operational problems of open society. Its key principles of support are that it should help create equal opportunities by mitigating the differences that flow from social, ethnic and geographical diversity; that it should help marginalized groups; and that it should espouse new, innovative, and alternative initiatives to that end. These principles are realized in the following program areas: Education, Culture and Arts, Health Preservation, Legal, Information, and NGO Programs.

A new priority was added in 2000, i.e. to promote accession to the European Union.

George Soros intends to run his foundations until 2010. In the years between 2000 and 2010 they will manage annual budgets equaling half of their 1999 budget. The 2001 budget of the Soros Foundation Hungary is 1.5 billion forints and will remain the same in the years to 2010.