Record applications for corporate charity projects
Corporate charity leaders: New project round receives record numbers of applications
Moscow, 08.09.2015
Despite the crisis experienced during 2014, corporate charity applications have been received from 65 companies. According to the Donors’ Forum this means that the difficult economic climate has not deterred firms from engaging in charity work and that they have adapted to new realities. This annual initiative run by the Donors’ Forum, Vedomosti newspaper and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has elicited a record number of corporate charity applications, which are in the final stages of assessment being undertaken by an expert panel.
The aim of this initiative is to find the best examples of charity programmes that best promote the values of corporate charity within the business community and in society as a whole.
The record number of applications is an important event given that the number of projects had fallen away rather badly during 2014. The fact that large participating companies (i.e. those with a turnover of 100 million roubles) decided not to curtail their charitable work and were able to adjust to the new realities is a natural phenomenon, according to Natalia Kaminarskaya, Executive Secretary of the Donors’ Forum. She says “Businesses that engage in charity in a systematic way have always been drawn into the social processes that go on around them as this forms part of their corporate social responsibility and strategic development policies. Difficult economic circumstances should provide an opportunity for firms to increase the effectiveness of their charitable projects and not seen as a reason for cutting down on such work”.
An expert panel will assess each application according to criteria devised by PwC. The in-depth evaluation is based on a detailed structural approach that ensures maximum objectivity and avoids conflicts of interest. Issues of objectivity and thoroughness are particularly relevant given that 2015 has been declared the year of the assessment within the Donors’ Forum and will be discussed during their annual conference to be held on 22 October in Pashkov House.
The panel which is examining project applications in this year’s round comprises: Olga Bashkirova (“Renova” charity), Yulia Danilova (Miloserdie.ru), Roman Skoltsky (RVVZ Foundation), Elena Feoktistova (RSPP). Lev Ambinder (Rusfond), Yuri Blagov (Centre for Corporate Responsibility at PwC), Alla Petrova-Lemachko (Sverdlovsk State Academy Philharmonia), Liya Sidlina (British American Tobacco Company), Svetlana Gerasimova (Moscow International Higher Business School), Alexander Gorelik (former head of the UN Information Centre in Moscow), Ekaterina Pluzhnik (Rusbank), Lydia Tikhonovich (Philanthropy.ru), Mikhail Klarin (Institute for Strategic Education Development), Inna Prokhorova (Corporate Charity “Katren”), Elena Temicheva (ASI), Artem Shadrin (Ministry of Economic Development).
The award ceremony for winners in the “Leaders in Corporate Charity” project competition will be held on 25 November in the historical Helikon Opera building on Great Nikitskaya Street. In keeping with tradition, there will be nominations for the best companies, leaders in categories and sub-categories according to industry, and candidates for special prize winners.
The winner of the 2014 “Corporate charity leader” prize was the “Katren” Charity.
