Saving Bosnia: Looking Back at George Soros’s $50 Million Intervention After 25 Years

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According to the 2017 Almanac of American Philanthropy, one of the great achievements in the history of philanthropy was what the Open Society Foundations did in Bosnia 25 years ago. “Western governments,” the Almanac says, “were pathetically slow and inadequate in their response to the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia that killed tens of thousands. The most effective actor by far was philanthropist George Soros—who used $50 million of his own money to insert a highly effective relief team into the city of Sarajevo while it was under siege, re-establishing gas and electric service during the bitter winter, setting up an alternate water source, and bringing in desperately needed supplies. It has been estimated that Soros’s gift saved more lives than the efforts of all national governments plus the United Nations combined.”