Russia’s rural philanthropy: reporting from a community foundation conference in Perm

 This article has been translated and adapted from an original piece by Matvei Masaltsev which appeared on the Philanthropy.ru portal. Matvei is Chief Editor of Philanthropy.ru and “Money and Charity”, both projects of CAF Russia.

How can local problems be solved with local resources? This was the question up for discussion at a recent conference of community foundations in Perm, Russia. The answer, it seems, lies with smart local giving – and not just money.

And that is exactly what community foundations across Russia are trying to do, working in their communities to mobilize people and resources.  When times are tough it can be difficult to think about helping one’s community, particularly in those rural communities across Russia which are in decline, wracked by high levels of alcoholism, poverty and often a general sense of despair.

On November 22^nd and 23^rd 2012, community foundation representatives gathered from all over Russia in Perm for a national conference of community foundations. They had come from all over from big cities, small towns and even small villages, and from the richest and poorest parts of Russia. No matter where one is, one can always change things for the better. It doesn’t take much money and in some cases, it takes no money at all.

Start with people!

Russian Community Foundations are less about charity and more about developing their communities. They do this by mobilizing resources from across the community – from business, government and NGOs – and by making small grants to support local citizen-led initiatives in the communities that they serve as a way of getting people more involved in addressing local problems and issues.

In Russia there are now over 40 community foundations. Over in the United States, there are several hundred which are also engaging local communities in both urban and rural areas. Nancy Straw, who also participated in the conference, is with the West Central Initiative – a hybrid community foundation serving nine counties in west-central Minnesota. Nancy summarized her organization’s work and its philosophy:

“We believe that it is the local people who are invariably best placed to both to identify local problems – and to devise solutions to these problems. They have a much greater and more long-term interest than outside agencies and institutions because they are the ones that live there. It’s our job at the West Central Initiative to support these local initiatives and ideas.”

Nancy Straw, West Central Initiative (left)The same is true among Russian community foundations. However, here it is not enough just to provide support for local ideas: community foundations really have to work to encourage people to come up with those ideas and get involved. In Russia, there is a strong culture of passivity and disengagement, and it can be a real challenge to overcome that. But sometimes the most effective methods are the simplest – like, for example, asking local people how they see their community and if they are willing to step forward and get involved.

That was what the Perm Social Initiatives Support Fund, “Assistance” did. They conducted a mapping exercise in three different districts which was aimed at identifying both key community needs (as defined by local people rather than bureaucrats) and existing local civic initiatives which could serve as entry points for action. The main conclusion of the research was that most people were indeed ready to get involved. In one village in particular, 100% of those surveyed said that they would be ready to provide some kind of assistance (material and non-material) in solving local problems. And across all seven areas surveyed, only 12% refused to do anything: the remaining 88% expressed a willingness to engage if there was a mechanism through which they could do so.

The mechanisms are there

All over Russia, there are many good examples of the different ways in which community foundations are providing different kinds of mechanisms for civic participation.

In Rubtsovsk, for example, the community foundation has established a reputation for itself as a pioneer in the art of local fundraising with its annual charitable show which starts local government officials and members of the business community. The community foundation’s annual show in Rubtsovsk

In Tchaikovsky, meanwhile (in the Perm region) the community foundation has developed an innovative partnership with the local university around the monitoring and evaluation of its social programmes.

And the New Angarsk Community Foundation (Irkutsk region) holds an annual fair where local NGOs present a range of different social projects all looking for financing from local businesses, who can “buy” a project. Such fairs have proved successful in various different cities but in Irkutsk they have been particularly effective, thanks to a rigorous project selection process and some good marketing.

These are just some of the examples of creative and innovative ideas that flew back and forth at the conference, all underlined with a strong spirit of fun and lots of energy.

Money and purpose

Mechanisms for giving are all very well but it is when it comes to the purpose or intent behind such mechanisms that things can get more complicated. Often in Russia the work of many charities often appears to stem from a sense of pity and it is pity which leads to money being raised for people one feels sorry for. But pity isn’t always the best starting point if you want to be effective, and it can often cause more problems than it solves. So, for example, orphans get sweets instead of a new family, or an unemployed person ends up dependent on benefits instead of getting a new job etc.

Among Russian community foundations it seems that real effort is being made to go beyond charity motivated by pity to something more significant and lasting, where cooperation and collaboration are emphasised. So, for example, local government and business contribute resources to a common pot, grants to community initiatives are awarded through a competitive process and decisions around their allocation are made through a joint committee. At least, that’s the idea. But even here the danger is that “shared resources” refers only to money and other assets, such as experience and expertise (of local donors) are overlooked.

In my view, the main measure of success for Russian NGOs (and indeed, among NGOs) seems to revolve too much around money. That seems to be what gets people excited, often more so than the impact on the ground. Within the specific sub-sector of community foundations, however, it does not seem so marked. Perhaps this is because community foundations are more focused on community development rather than, say, raising money for emergencies or humanitarian causes.

“Money is not your only resource and it’s not even the most important”, Vyacheslav Bakhmin of the C.S. Mott Foundation told conference participants. Similarly, in her presentation, Nancy Straw gave specific examples of how community problems can be solved without any money at all. A public meeting, for example, if properly organized and conducted can be a very effective way for community members to identify and resolve key issues.

Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Mott Foundation (right)

There are those foundations, observed Bakhmin, which are set up to do good for the local community. They can be good and effective but they can also be useless and disempowering: in either case, they are organized in ways in which ordinary people are beneficiaries, passive participants in the process. And then there are community foundations which are of the community, about which local people can say “this is ours”. They may also make mistakes, but if they can manage to engage, involve and bring local people together then that can really count for something. Indeed, in Russia today, there might be nothing else out there that is quite as valuable.