MISSION OF THE PARTNERSHIP OF COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
Our mission is to build civil society by improvement of local communities’ life quality through developing and promoting technologies of social stability.
WHY THE PARTNERSHIP WAS ESTABLISHED:
- development and promotion of community foundation technology,
- improvement of life within communities,
- and establishment of Civil society.
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Generally speaking, as far as Russian community foundations are not yet spoiled by abundant financial recourses, they find their competitive edge and strength in performing non-grantmaking roles such as of philanthropic educator, community catalyst, convener, etc. For example, Tumen Community...
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Generally speaking, as far as Russian community foundations are not yet spoiled by abundant financial recourses, they find their competitive edge and strength in performing non-grantmaking roles such as of philanthropic educator, community catalyst, convener, etc. For example, Tumen Community Foundation organized a competition of Socially Responsible Business, the foundation in Rubzovsk united top leaders of the city from different industries to organize a ‘Charitable Football Marathon” and the Togliatti Community Foundation conducted a round-table discussion on tax-breaks, such examples are diverse and numerous and each foundation finds creative ways to ‘wake up’ the community.
Acting in the environment of low competition - a ‘vacuum’ of alternative means of organized philanthropy, community foundations in Russia are well positioned to grow into leaders in the community. However, they are yet to work on increasing their visibility, trust and institutional capacity. Staff, even though composed of bright intelligent and dedicated individuals, needs specific training as far as the field is relatively new to Russia. Although, the number of supporters of community foundation is growing, it takes efforts to maintain that relationship and preserve trust with existing donors and ‘recruit’ the new ones. Most Russian community foundations are still struggling to cover administrative costs, and the effectiveness of building an endowment is constantly challenged by inflation and instability of the evolving market economy.
Politics and the influence of the government on local matters are twofold. On one hand, the environment can be rated as generally favorable for the development of philanthropy in Russia: the year 2006 was announced as the ‘Year of Philanthropy”. On the other hand, tax privileges were taken away from non-profit organization with the purpose of supposedly ‘avoiding fraud’ moreover, the control over non-governmental organizations has increased. At the moment, tax breaks are limited in Russia. Samara region is the only one where companies that give 7% of their net profit to charity get a 4% discount from tax on profits.
The lack of a tax-break mechanism and an accommodating law considerably limits the donor-base to banks and large enterprises. It is primarily banks that endow funds at Russian community foundations and technically keep the money in the bank who feel secure and encouraged by the partnership with community foundations. For other donors it is a higher risk. In spite of the challenges, some community foundations have managed to attract middle-size and small businesses as well as individual donors to contribute to private ‘named funds’ – the model well accepted by Russian donors. For example, the community foundation in Kaliningrad attracted 12 new donors in 2005 where 7 are individuals and 5 are commercial enterprises. The Togliatti Community Foundation has also tested the new approach of ‘payroll giving’ where private donations of employees are matched by their management: 650 000 rubles were collected via this method in 2005, and it is expected to double in 2006. Due to historical and economic situation in this country, Russian community foundations are struggling for private donations: 2 2200 00 rubles were gifted by individuals in 2005 to the members of the Partnership, which is less than 3% of the total collected by the members of the Partnership that year.
At the moment, the demand for responding to acute social issues exceeds the supply of charitable funds. For example, the community foundation of Saratov region had 218 applications at the III grant competition in 2005, yet only 54 were funded for the total of 3,5 million rubles. Community foundations ‘sink’ in the need to support diverse causes. In 2005, members of the Partnership have received 1,738 applications but were able to support only 954.Most communities are geared by the wish of donors not by the common strategy for community development. The number of donor advised and designated funds is growing inevitably and it poses a challenge for community foundations in Russia to direct resources to strategically viable projects. Community foundations need to work on educating donors and, in cooperation with their boards and a wider community, identify grantmaking strategies.
More of a global challenge is the heritage of the post-soviet era marked by general mistrust of the public and donors towards charity organizations. The situation has been improving step by step but it may take a few generations before new philanthropic traditions are evolved and members of the community comprehend the mission and core functions of its community foundation, and business, government and board members view community foundations as professional institutions that encounter high risks and carry a lot of responsibility for their communities, and therefore need to be treated accordingly.
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Youth Philanthropy: development of Youth Banks.
Even though the existing financial resources are in the hands of the older generation that has been ‘corrupted’ by the Soviet past with its absence of the giving culture, the future of communities is in the power of the new generation - the new taxpayers. The leaders of Russian community foundations understand that it is strategically important to grow the new generation of philanthropists, bueaurocrats and business managers - people who will take responsibility for themselves and their communities and build prosperous civil society with strong economy and solid philanthropic traditions. That is why the larger bulk of grantmaking is devoted to the youth. For example, a range of stipend programs for students has been designed in Togliatti: 329 students were supported by 1, 661, 800 rubles in the last five years. A model of youth philanthropy, called ‘Youth Banks’, where the young support the initiatives of the young via a grant competition process at a community foundation, has been implemented in 6 Russian community foundations and the prospects for its dissemination are bright. The pioneer in the field – the Youth Bank in Togliatti, has already supported 17 projects for the total of 664,520 rubles. Although the youth banks are young in this country, they have already started their partnership between each other and with foreign youth philanthropy groups in Berks County and Michigan USA as well as in Canada.
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