The Onassis Foundation was established in December 1975 in accordance with Aristotle Onassis' last wish to honor the memory of his son, Alexander. Half of Aristotle Onassis' fortune was the initial funding for the Foundation. Specifically, the 40% of the annual profits of the Business Foundation are given to the Public Benefit Foundation for implementing all its programs and initiatives.
The Onassis Foundation's mission is to support Greek society in the crucial areas of education, culture and health, releasing its potential and promoting Greece at its best. It has created Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens, a cultural space which hosts events and actions across the whole spectrum of the arts from theatre, dance, music, cinema and the visual arts to digital and hybrid art and the written word; it has historically supported other cultural institutions; offers financial assistance to universities with Greek chairs, departments or programs around the world; has granted more than 7.000 scholarships and research fellowships for post-graduate and doctorate studies; has established a long tradition of granting educational material and technological equipment to hundreds of Greek schools all over Greece and has diachronically supported Special Education; has acquired the Cavafy Archive (more than 4.600 manuscripts and personal items of the poet) to ensure its openness and accessibility to researchers and to the wider public; has great books’ collections contained in The Onassis Library; has completed and donated to the Greek State in 1992 Onassis Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre (OCSC).