Features of the charity movement in Russia and abroad

The modern renaissance of charity is the response of society to the current socio-economic situation, which is characterized not only by great impoverishment of large population number, but also the capacity of weakening the state. In Russian society the necessity to find ways out of the economic and social crisis, to soften the social tension in private organizations (charitable organizations, in particular), solves the problem of social assistance. The way out of today’s crisis is seen in the development of philanthropy models, which best suit to the traditions of Russian culture and history. Charitable organizations together with the state assume responsibility of the implementation of social policy. In connection with it, decision of their place and role in modern Russia is really important. Particularly important theoretical and practical meaning is the studying of partnership between social actors - government, business and non-profit organizations, including charities. In this paper we’ll present the analysis of positive and negative experiences of charitable activities in Russia. The studying of the modern state, the development of real trends in charitable activities are the main theoretical and practical problems of our time. The sociological consideration of the problem is the studying of philanthropy as dynamic, developing and changing relationships, which exhibit a measure of the civil society’s development in the historically determined social system. We support the point of view of [5.6] that charity - is not just a transfer of money, also it is the system of economic, ethical and law relations. Charity regained the socio-historical importance and became an important component of the social relations of the modern Russian society. An American multimillionaire and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie stressed out: «It is ashamed to die rich. It is necessary to have time to spend money on good works during the life». This view is shared by lots of people in the West - private charity is something common and honorable there, usually men transferred to charities a significant portion of their capital, leaving to their heirs just the necessary "cost of living". As for Russia people are still very suspicious about charity: the majority of citizens know just a little about the real help provided by charities, and do not believe that their money will be transferred to those people who really need it. Unlike the West, Russia’s attitude to charity has two ways: somebody will say "what a fine fellow!" but someone will be interested in the way where money comes from. So usually people prefer not to attract too much attention to their charity work. The way we see imperfect laws are also the obstacles for the development of charity in Russia. Nowadays charity has the great importance in solving many social problems. Unfortunately, on the modern stage of development the indicators of charity activities have not reached the expected level yet. The main problems of development of the charitable spheres in Russia are determined in this article. First of all, the legal system in the field of philanthropy has not been normalized yet. Individuals and corporations are ready to pay more and spend more if only they know how to do it. Secondly, there is a problem of dependence of charity on the state. It means that in order to make a charitable donation charitable organizations have to "bless» the authorities. Thirdly, there is hard socio-economic situation. The distrust of charities is another important problem of philanthropy development in Russia. Almost 64% of respondents believe that money they gave will be used for other purposes. [2] All this led to the urgent problems in the development of charity. Thus, it means that charity in Russia is underdeveloped, and the most successful organizations, both in business and in philanthropy operate mainly by governmental resources. After having analyzed the special literature [3, 5, 6] we came to the conclusion, that charity is becoming one more burden to the society.

In our point of view one of the stages in development of Russian charity was the creation of charitable organizations which specialize in different spheres: such as the support of scientific, educational projects, the families of the dead and wounded soldiers, orphanages, hospitals, and the provision of funds for the expensive treatment. There are some international charity organizations such as «Doctors without Borders», «Doctors of the World», «The Salvation Army», and «The International Red Cross» in Russia. They are engaged in traditional forms of charity: the delivery of medicines and medical equipment to the hospitals, and delivery of food to the orphanages. This article is our first attempt to reveal comparative characteristics of charity movement in Russia and abroad. Orientation to the local authority or the administration of the Federation as the main charity customer is the brightest factor of Russian philanthropy. In the countries of the Western democracy everything is on the contrary. The customer and the main destination of charity is a society there. Although, the activity of Russian donors in the charity sphere is coordinated (is in full agreement) with state and local interests, they do not get some tax advantages, unlike their Western colleagues. The number of charitable donations of Russian people (more than $ 1.5 billion a year) is just a clear experiment.[2] The Western indexes are impressive too, but they get the taxes advantages and deductions. How do the Western donators help to the society and what do they spend their money for? They finance the activities of charitable organizations. Lots of taxes advantages and privileges for donors motivate the charity activity. Their work is regulated by the state, accounting is clear for the public and donors. For example, in the UK more than 70% of the social services are provided by non-state organizations. [4] Speaking about charity movement in Russia it hasn’t reached the expected level of development yet. The non-state organizations do not have a strong position and certain prospects. Moreover the public trust to the charitable organizations is low. Thus, nowadays Russia is on the way of searching a new strategy for the society development. Every year the number of private donators increases in the whole country. Every month the army of volunteers becomes bigger. We are sure, the number of grants, foundations, charities, and just a number of philanthropists, who are ready to support unprotected people, will increase soon. In this way, we can say that the prospects of charity development in Russia are very positive.

First of all, the calmness of Russian society, the economic recovery, the growth of living standard of the people would surely lead to creation of general facilities for the development of such social phenomenon as the charity movement in the future. Secondly, the changes, which will happen in the case of Russian businessmen, have a positive influence on the development prospects of Russian charity. Therefore, in the nearest future, Russia is waiting for the renaissance of national charity traditions, as well as a renaissance of the Christian (religious) charity traditions.

 

LITERATURE

[1.] http://www.biography.com/people/andrew-carnegie-9238756

[2.] https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/publications/2015-publications/world-giving-index-2015

[3.] http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/how-to-do-charity-in-russia/377610.html

[4.] jlxrpd.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/result-document.pdf

[5.] Brewer, Karen (2011), “From Philanthropy to Reform: The American Red Cross”, PhD, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland

[6.] Smith, Johanna H. (2012), The Art of Doing Good: Charity, University of California Press, Berkeley.

 

И.И. Челохсаева

студент группы 36э152

E-mail: [e-mail]

Т.О. Ильницкая

Научный руководитель