EFC goes to Moscow

Finding out more about the environment for independent giving in Russia, showing support for Russian donors and the Russian Donors Forum, and working out how European foundations can best work with Russian donors were the three key objectives of the European Foundation Centre Governing Council’s ‘Mission to Moscow’ in mid-October. It seems to have been successful on all counts.

The two-day mission consisted largely of meetings with government ministers and corporate leaders. With acceptance as part of Europe an openly expressed desire, both groups seemed keen to benefit from whatever the Europeans might offer. ‘It would be very interesting to analyse European laws on foundations and tax and see what is useful for the Russian system,’ said Deputy Minister of Education Viktor Bolotov at a meeting at Interros Holding Company HQ. ‘Russia has new laws that are not working,’ he candidly admitted. Their programme for modernizing Russian education could benefit from foreign expertise – ‘not copying but trying to take something positive’. He hoped the meetings with the EFC would become regular and would lead to joint activities.

One immediate positive outcome of the ministerial meetings was an agreement to reconsider the 24 per cent tax currently levied on grants to Russian NGOs. Although there are ways to avoid this,[1] none is satisfactory, and the tax is clearly a major burden for NGOs and a deterrent to foreign donors.

The corporate leaders seemed equally positive. Interros President Vladimir Potanin, Yukos Chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Dmitry Borisovich Zimin, founder of Russia’s first family foundation, are probably the most forward-looking of Russia’s new philanthropists. ‘Maybe now we will be able to become part of the Western civilization we already feel ourselves to be part of,’ said Khodorkovsky. ‘We don’t want your money,’ he told the delegation, ‘we need people to help us organize the work we want to do.’ Zimin echoed this: he had found ‘a lack of professional competence in the philanthropy field’ and was looking for contacts with Western foundations ‘who know how to run the business’.

Both Dario Disegni of Compania di San Paolo and Rien van Gendt of the Van Leer Group expressed themselves as interested in partnering with Russian donors. ‘We are ready to work with you,’ said Disegni.

1 Grants are exempt from profit tax if the donor is (a) registered with the government Commission for Technical Assistance or (b) registered on a government list of foreign grantmakers or (c) if it is not a grant but a donation. But option (a) is very bureaucratic and requires every grant to be separately registered; option (b) excludes grants for health, human rights, social services and civil society development  and has no clear procedures for registering; and option (c) means that no spending restrictions or reporting requirements can be placed on the gift.

The new Russian philanthropists

Interros Holding Company
Supports several scholarship and grant programmes through the Vladimir Potanin Charity Fund. Also cooperates with the State Hermitage to implement the ‘Greater Hermitage’ project in the centre of St Petersburg.

For more information
www.interros.ru
www.stipendia.ru

Yukos
In addition to the $50 million Yukos spends annually to support social and economic development in three (out of 89) regions in Russia, Yukos has created the Open Russia Foundation with an initial $15 million endowment to bring the peoples of the Russia and the West closer together through educational and cultural projects.

For more information
www.yukos.com
www.openrussiafoundation.org