Open Society Foundations has established a $2-million fund to help new nonprofit chief executives put their ideas to work quickly.
The New Executives Fund will provide financial assistance to nonprofits around the world that are working on the causes supported by Open Society, the foundation created by George Soros. Those include public health, education, and promoting social change.
Open Society is making grants of $25,000 to $250,000, depending on the size of an organization’s operating budget. The foundation hopes eventually to provide the grants to a new batch of recipients two or three times a year and may put more money into the fund as needed.
Christopher Stone, president of Open Society Foundations, recalled that having access to unrestricted grant money was crucial in his first year as head of the Vera Institute of Justice in 1994.
“We had suffered some financial setbacks in recent years, and I knew it was going to take me a few years to dig out,” said Mr. Stone. “So being able to attract some discretionary funding from a few foundations made a huge difference for me at the start of my time there, and I always remembered that.”
He said he saw the benefits of such support but on a much larger scale, later in his career when he was teaching at Harvard University. Its then newly appointed president, Drew Gilpin Faust, was starting just as the financial crisis hit and Mr. Stone said he remembers a few alumni coming forward to provide support so that Ms. Faust could move forward with new ideas.
“On a very small scale in my own career, and then watching the same thing happen at one of the world’s largest nonprofits, has left me with an abiding sense of just how valuable this kind of support is to a new director,” said Mr. Stone.
Seven Initial Grantees
The nonprofits chosen will receive two-year grants that their new executives will be able to use for any purpose or program within the organizations.
The new leaders supported by the first round of grants are:
• Brad Brockman of Equal Education, in South Africa
• Andrea Coomber of Justice, an organization that aims to improve the legal system in Britain
• Soe Nain, of International HIV/AIDS Alliance, in Myanmar
• Oluwakemi Okenyodo of the Cleen Foundation, a public safety, security, and justice nonprofit in Nigeria
• Christine Stegling of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, which focuses on improving global access to services for people with HIV and related illnesses
• Gábor Attila Tóth of Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, a human-rights watchdog organization
• John Wadham of Interights, an international human-rights litigation group in London
Send an e-mail to Maria Di Mento.