Alliance for Open Society International (AOSI)

AOSI was created in 1998 as an experiment – “a social justice laboratory” – to apply left-of-center approaches to drug addiction, criminal justice, and education. ² In 2013, George Soros said, “Baltimore is our poster child, the city that has done the most.” Soros said, “we now consider the Baltimore experiment so successful that we wanted to replicate it nationwide.” ³  However, Baltimore’s incarceration rate is three times the U.S. national average, and Baltimore continues to have “one of the highest per capita heroin addiction rates in the nation.” ^{4 5}

Parent Organization

Hedge fund investor George Soros created the Alliance for Open Society International’s parent organization, the Open Society Foundations, in 1979 to pay for scholarships for Black South African students suffering under the racist apartheid policies of the country’s then-white-dominated government. Soros also funded students from the Soviet bloc to study in the West. He opened his first foundation in then-Communist-ruled Hungary in 1984 to expand access to information, and expanded Eastern Europe and Russian-focused operations throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He also operated a foundation in China and engaged in post-apartheid work in South Africa. ⁶

The Foundation began significant operations in the U.S. in the 1990s, focusing on stopping the War on Drugs, relaxing limits on immigration, abolishing the death penalty, and reducing incarceration. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Foundation focused on opposing alleged discrimination against Muslims, and it backed opening up legal marriages to same-sex couples. Approximately 20 percent of the Foundation’s money is spent on U.S. operations. ⁶

Internationally, the Foundation’s work is often used to oppose dictatorships and to support human rights, though much of its work in Europe is focused on left-of-center political objectives. In the U.S., the Foundation normally promotes left-of-center policy and cultural positions about sexuality, abortion, immigration, climate change, and gun control. Fellowships are a significant part of the Foundation’s support work. ⁷

The Foundation also focuses on broad social change concepts from a left-of-center point of view. For example, its U.S. prostitution promotion funding prioritizes “groups and coalitions which also demonstrate meaningful inclusion of trans people and people of color.” Its racial justice fellowships description claims that “toxic narratives […] economic insecurity, and an outright assault on civil rights protections” are “threats.” The page also claims “structural racism and xenophobia” are “seemingly intractable problems.” ⁸

Baltimore Programs

History

George Soros and the Open Society Foundations launched Alliance for Open Society International in 1998 as an experiment – “a social justice laboratory” – to focus on addressing three problems in the Baltimore area from a left-of-center perspective: “drug addiction, an over-reliance on incarceration, and obstacles that impede youth in succeeding inside and out of the classroom.” ²

AOSI provides support for “social entrepreneurs” in Baltimore through its “Community Fellowships” program, which gives each Fellow “$60,000 over 18 months,” as well as covering health insurance, travel, and relieving education debt. ³ Fellowships are focused on “implementing projects that address problems in underserved communities in Baltimore City.” ⁹

In 2013, George Soros said, “Baltimore is our poster child, the city that has done the most.” Soros said, “we now consider the Baltimore experiment so successful that we wanted to replicate it nationwide.” ³ However, Baltimore’s incarceration rate is three times the U.S. national average, and Baltimore continues to have “one of the highest per capita heroin addiction rates in the nation.” ^{10 5}

AOSI celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. ¹¹ The group’s 20th anniversary speaker series in 2018 included then-Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh (D) and former mayor Kurt Schmoke (D). ¹² In February 2020, Pugh was sentenced to three years in jail for fraud and other charges related to using public money to increase purchases of her book. ¹³

Education and Youth Development

AOSI’s Education and Youth Development program seeks to keep children in school and implement schooling policies that the Open Society Institute-Baltimore believes will improve student outcomes. AOSI’s “High Value High Schools” program is intended to increase “graduation rates and post-secondary success, particularly for Baltimore’s African-American male students.” ¹⁴

In 2016-2017, AOSI made grants totaling $1.855 million towards its Education and Youth Development program. ¹⁵

Criminal and Juvenile Justice

The Criminal and Juvenile Justice program seeks to reduce incarceration by making it a “last resort” option. This includes reducing bail and increasing the number of people released on parole. ¹⁶

In 2016-2017, AOSI made grants totaling $1.97 million towards its Criminal and Juvenile Justice program. ¹⁵

Addiction and Health Equity

This program seeks to expand public access to behavioral health services, particularly drug addiction services. AOSI seeks to “divert individuals struggling with addiction from the criminal justice system into the public health and social services systems.” ¹⁷

In 2016-2017, AOSI made grants totaling $1.2 million towards its Addiction and Health Equity program. ¹⁵

Community Fellowships

This program identifies community “activists and social entrepreneurs” and provides then with a grant of $60,000 for a term of 18 months in order to implement programs that “address problems in underserved communities in Baltimore City.” ¹⁸

In 2016-2017, AOSI made grants totaling $715,000 towards its Baltimore Community Fellows program. ¹⁹

AOSI’s impact goes beyond its direct funding. The group regularly partners with other left-of-center groups for events to assess race-related social change, provides public testimony to lawmakers, and publishes reports on its endeavors. ²⁰

International Programs

While OSI Baltimore’s grant standards include a requirement that “the proposed work must focus on Baltimore or, if state-based, must significantly benefit Baltimore,” ²¹ it made grants for work in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018 totaling $427,644. ²² This goes to the “Constitutionalism Fund,” which is a collaboration between the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations to promote the Constitution of South Africa. ²³

AOSI likewise provided over $431,000 to a “Middle East Rule of Law” program dedicated to building government, institutional, and democratic foundations “in Palestine” in 2018. ²⁴

Government Funding

USAID

In 2005, the Alliance for Open Society International, together with Pathfinder International, filed a lawsuit against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) over a Congressionally-mandated provision that required recipients of foreign aid to have “a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.”  The “Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003” included a limitation on the use of funds that said, “No funds made available to carry out this division, or any amendment made by this division, may be used to implement any program that targets victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons…through any organization that has not stated in either a grant application, a grant agreement, or both, that it does not promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution.” ²⁵

This requirement was controversial. Some aid organizations prefer to remain neutral on the legality of prostitution, out of concern that taking a position “explicitly opposing prostitution may alienate certain host governments, and may diminish the effectiveness of some of their programs by making it more difficult to work with prostitutes in the fight against HIV/AIDS.” There was also concern that the requirement could limit speech in other forums about how to address the spread of AIDS. ²⁶

The Alliance for Open Society International argued that the 2003 law, as implemented by USAID, “imposes an unconstitutional condition” because it mandated “that recipients of government funds adopt and express the government’s viewpoint as their own and by prohibiting recipients from engaging in any speech—even if privately funded—that the government deems ‘inconsistent’ with its orthodoxy.” ²⁷  The AOSI’s position is consistent with the overall Foundation’s support for legalized prostitution. ²⁸

In November 2012, the US Supreme Court held that “The Policy Requirement violates the First Amendment by compelling as a condition of federal funding the affirmation of a belief that by its nature cannot be confined within the scope of the Government program.” ²⁶

In his dissent, U.S Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the “First Amendment does not mandate a viewpoint-neutral government,” and that “a central part of the Government’s HIV/AIDS strategy is the suppression of prostitution, by which HIV is transmitted,” therefore it was “entirely reasonable to admit to participation in the program only those who believe in that goal.” ²⁶

The U.S. Supreme Court decision had other ramifications, in addition to allowing AOSI to receive taxpayer funding while supporting legalized prostitution. Since the Court’s decision only applied to the U.S.-based organization, the federal government continued to enforce the prostitution provision for foreign entities. AOSI argued that the government was violating foreign entities’ rights, an argument with which a federal circuit court agreed in 2018. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court after a rehearing was denied in May 2019. ²⁹ The American Bar Association supported AOSI’s position. ³⁰ In June 2020, the Court ruled against AOSI, allowing the restriction as applied to foreign entities to stand. ³¹

In 2017, Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, wrote that “Soros, his Open Societies [sic] Foundations (OSF), and their many smaller affiliates have received U.S. taxpayer money through USAID and that USAID has made the OSF the main implementer of its aid.” Given this, Gonzalez urged the Trump administration to “investigate the extent of cooperation between the OSF and its affiliates, USAID, and U.S. embassies abroad.” ³² Another report indicated that AOSI received over seven million dollars from the George W. Bush administration for its involvement with a federal needle exchange program overseas. ³³

Leadership

Patrick Gaspard is president of AOSI and the larger Open Society Foundations. ³⁴ Gaspard joined the Foundation in 2017 as vice president after serving as President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to South Africa from 2013 to 2016 and as the Obama White House director of political affairs. Prior to that, Gaspard was the executive director of the Democratic National Committee and the national political director for the Obama 2008 presidential campaign. Gaspard’s career began as a New York City-based union organizer and then political director for the SEIU. ³⁵

Alexander Soros is George Soros’ son and a member of the Foundation’s Global Board. A left-of-center activist, he sits on a number of boards and is engaged on environmentalism, left-of-center domestic and Israel-focused politics, and other issues through both direct donations and his positions with various organizations. He is also a major Democratic donor. ³⁶

Christopher Stone was president of the Open Society Foundation from 2012 to 2017. Prior to and after his time with the Foundation, his career has focused on academic instruction about criminal justice reform as a professor at various elite colleges. ³⁷

Danielle Torian was named director of AOSI in January 2020. ³⁸ She has worked in activist as well as official Baltimore circles, including organizing events for Baltimore residents to apply for city grants after Freddie Gray’s death led to protests, riots, and the unsuccessful prosecution of police who arrested Gray shortly before his death. ³⁹ Torain organized the events as part of her work with the race-oriented, Black-run group Frontline Solutions. ⁴⁰

The highest-paid employees of Alliance for Open Society International in 2018 were: ³⁴

• Diana Morris: Program Director (Total Compensation: $329,861)
• Lorna (Tracy) Brown: Associate Program Director (Total Compensation: $203,246)
• Karen Webber: Division Director (Total Compensation: $208,944)
• Pamela King: Division Director (Total Compensation: $196,973)
• Scott Nolen: Team Manager (Total Compensation: $183,018)

Financials

In 2018, Alliance for Open Society International reported total revenues of $8.9 million, total expenditures of $7.5 million, and net assets of $24.5 million. It made grants to other organizations totaling $4.5 million. ²²