Plans are underway to close offices across the $25 billion international network of the grant-making, non-profit founded by billionaire George Soros.
Bloomberg reported that employees of the Open Society Foundations' Africa operations received written notice last week outlining the next steps of the process, which had been announced in June.
Those steps include closing half a dozen offices in Africa in addition to its Baltimore and Barcelona locations, according to a copy of the emails obtained by Bloomberg. The moves will result in a reduction of more than 40% of its workforce.
"With the decision by the board in June to cut the staff by more than 40%, our staffing size and footprint by necessity needs to diminish," Binaifer Nowrojee, OSF's vice president of programs, said in one of the emails. "We no longer have the bandwidth to operate multiple small offices, and thus the decision to further reduce our locations."
The move comes after Soros confirmed in June that he had handed over control of his company to his son Alex Soros, Bloomberg had reported earlier.
Over the years, the elder Soros has donated more than $32 billion to the nonprofit, which at the end of 2021 had more than 500 employees and donated money to humanitarian causes, and initiatives involving criminal justice reform and addressing climate change.
The Associated Press reported in August that Open Society Foundations plans to significantly curtail work in Europe and lay off much of the staff on the continent, the foundations' leaders told staff in Berlin, according to an internal email and several current employees, who say the decision is painful and perplexing.
The planned European cuts, as described in an internal email viewed by The Associated Press, would represent a historic break with the roots of Soros' support for civil society through education, human rights work, and policy research, which started in his native Hungary more than three decades ago.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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