The Project on Death in America (PDIA) completed all grantmaking in December 2003, having distributed $45 million in grant awards to organizations and individuals working to improve care for dying patients and their families. The program is working, however, to make sure that the progress it spearheaded continues.

PDIA’s mission was to understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement. Over the course of nine years, PDIA created funding initiatives in professional and public education, the arts, research, clinical care, and public policy. PDIA and its grantees have helped build and shape this important and growing field, and have helped place improved care for the dying on the public agenda.

PDIA History

In 1994, the Open Society Institute (OSI) launched a new grantmaking program called the Project on Death in America (PDIA). Its goal was ambitious: to help transform the experience of dying in the United States. OSI Founder and Chairman George Soros established the project—one of his first U.S.-based philanthropic initiatives—in response to his personal experiences with the deaths of his parents. Over the course of nine years, PDIA created funding initiatives in professional and public education, the arts, research, clinical care, and public policy. PDIA and its grantees have helped build and shape this important and growing field, and have helped place improved care for the dying on the public agenda.

PDIA was one of many OSI programs to close at the end of its funding cycle, two years after George Soros announced a significant reorganization of OSI and the Soros foundations network. PDIA was not closed because it had achieved its goal of cultural transformation or because its work was not making enough of an impact; in fact, the loss of PDIA funding leaves a vibrant but still fragile field in need of ongoing philanthropic support.

Over the past decade, OSI has made a significant investment in programs and individuals working to improve the care people receive when they are seriously ill. Time will tell whether PDIA achieved its mission; the goal of "transforming the culture of death in the United States" was purposefully ambitious. A true transformation of American culture will require a sustained, concerted effort of funders, clinicians, researchers, educators, and the public working together over time. PDIA has helped lay a strong foundation for the field of palliative care, and PDIA grantees throughout the United States will continue to advocate for compassionate, skilled care of patients and families as they mentor, teach, and lead future generations of health care professionals.

Although PDIA is no longer making grants in the United States, the Open Society Institute's International Palliative Care Inititiative will continue its work in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. Part of the OSI Public Health Program, these international initiatives exemplify the Open Society Institute's continued committment to advocate for palliative care as a public health issue. These global issues are an important part of the legacy of the Project on Death in America. Find out more about OSI's International Palliative Care Initiative.