About Open Society Foundations and American Values Institute

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve this mission, the foundations seek to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, the Open Society Foundations implement a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, we build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. The foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities. For more information visit: http://www.soros.org/



The American Values Institute is a national consortium of researchers and social justice advocates and is affiliated with the Institute for America’s Future. We have joined together under the shared conception that Americans are committed to the values of fairness and democracy - and we seek to counter the potential for implicit bias to undermine these ideals.

AVI was formed in the heat of last year’s Presidential election when the issue of race appeared poised to play a crucial role in the election. The Right was running ads designed to appeal to racial prejudices and many white voters in different parts of the country were openly expressing racial anxiety. A year later, we are seeing a resurgence of these same tactics - confirming that this work continues to be crucially important despite the election of our first African American President. For more information visit: http://www.americansforamericanvalues.org/