Russian Museums & Fundraising
Howard Lake | 30 September 2011 | Blogs
Fundraising in Russia is a fascinating business, with no tax breaks for non-profits or donors, it often seems to bear the burden of the social stigma it had in Soviet times rather than the air of a beacon of enlightened self-sacrifice to help cure social ills. The Russian government has seen civil society organisations in countries like Ukraine overturn fraudulent election results and build an alternative social base. Perhaps understandably, they moved to cut off overseas influence in civil society and turn non-profits towards meeting approved social goals.
As in the UK and so many other countries, Russian government cut-backs have also begun to impact in new places such as Museums, whose funding is decreasing paradoxically at a time when the preservation of Russian culture is perhaps at its most respected. The renowned Potanin Foundation has played a major role in helping museums of all kinds to become much more professional and to provide a much better service to their visitors. On its own, however, it can only do so much; but now comes a light that might herald future positive change. That is the allowance of tax relief for the donor on grants made to endowments, albeit hedged with certain restrictions. The fund must be administered by a separate management company, it must exist for 10 years minimum, the interest only must be spent on the non-profits legal objectives.
http://eng.fund.legein.ru/
So, now we wait for the mini-garchs to step forward and make their mark or for the museums to really grasp this opportunity and begin to put into practice professional fundraising efficiently and effectively – time will tell, but my money is on several more years of “exit through the gift shop”.
John Baguley
www.internationalfundraisingconsultancy.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.