OREANDA-NEWS. April 23, 2012. The daily newspaper Vedomosti, the Donors Forum Non-Profit Partnership of Grant-Awarding Organisations, and the PwC network of audit and consulting firms announced the beginning of the fifth annual all-Russian project Leaders in Corporate Philanthropy 2012, reported the press-centre of PwC.

The project is meant to identify the best corporate philanthropy programmes and spread information about them in order to enhance awareness about Russian corporate philanthropy in society, business, government and the media. As in previous years, the project consists of two parts - ranking and programme contest. The study evaluates performance of Russian and international companies undertaking charity initiatives in Russia and having 2011 turnover of at least RUB 300 million.

This year the project started a month earlier, so the participants had an extra month to prepare questionnaires and materials for the programme contest. Filled-in applications will be accepted in electronic format until 24 August 2012.

The opening ceremony included the project presentation and seminar for all interested Russian and international companies that consistently undertake charity initiatives. In the seminar, participants found out about the contest nominations and jury members.

The project organisers and contest partners participated in the opening ceremony.

In his opening speech, Alexander Gubsky, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Vedomosti, noted that the rational aspect of programme implementation is rather crucial for corporate charity. Therefore the newspaper as an organiser of the project pursues the mission of increasing awareness of business owners and managers about efficient utilisation of funds.

Ekaterina Kapralova, PwC Senior Manager, said,
“In our company we certainly run own charity projects. However we believe that the major contribution into corporate charity comes from our participation in the Leaders in Corporate Philanthropy, our expertise, that facilitate professional ranking”.

Natalia Kaminarskaya, Executive Secretary of Donors Forum Non-Profit Partnership of Grant-Awarding Organisations, explained distinctive features of the project compared to previous projects. For example, the jury, traditionally staffed by representatives of academic institutions, business society, governmental agencies, and non-profit organisations, has now 40% of new members. For the first time representatives of the companies that participated in the previous year contest were invited to jury. These are Galina Grigorieva, sustainable development manager, Alcoa, and Liya Sidlina, corporate social liability manager, BAT Russia.

Along with the permanent project partners, i.e. Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Public Chamber Commission for Charity and Volunteering Development, the International Business Leaders Forum also presented a dedicated nomination in 2012.

2012 Nominations:
The best programme contributing to the development of local communities and better social environment in the region of company's presence (nomination by the Ministry of Economic Development);

The best programme promoting volunteering in Russia (nomination by the Public Chamber Committee);

The best programme disclosing a company's corporate philanthropy policy and social investment principles (nomination by RSPP);

The best programme encouraging the youth to get engaged in the social and economic development (nomination by IBLE).

Partners' representatives presented their own nominations highlighting the key selection criteria.
Artem Shadrin, Director of the Strategic Programme Management and Budgeting Department at the Ministry of Economic Development, said that through its nomination, the Ministry intends to support development of the interaction between three sectors and to reward those companies which not only implement significant charity programmes but also seek to be more effective by engaging regional authorities and resources of the not-for-profit sector in the implementation process.

Oksana Oracheva, expert and advisor to the Public Chamber Committee, pointed out,
“We would like requests to clearly specify how volunteer projects are selected, how they fit into the process of interaction with a local community and who initiates them. It is important for us to see that the proposed approach is systemic and the project can be rolled out...”

Elena Feoktistova, Director of RSPP's Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and Non-Financial Reporting,  drew the attention of those present to the fact that, ”it is important for RSSP to make sure that a request should expressly reflect the policy, strategy and priority of the selected area. The nomination helps companies better understand their activities...”

In addition to the nominations, this year's project announced a Special Prize, The Most Significant Breakthrough of the Year to be awarded for the first time by the Vedomosti daily.

Alexander Gubsky, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vedomosti, explained that “the award would mark the progress made by the company as compared to its ranking in the previous year. Philanthropy is quite a new activity in our country.  Philanthropy activities should be ongoing rather than just for one year. We intend to encourage companies to continue implementing their programmes.”

Elena Dubovitskaya, PwC Senior Manager, said that the current methodology was reviewed and slightly adjusted based on the results of the survey conducted this year. The survey polled the participants in the 2011 project.

It was for the first time when the press conference as part of the opening ceremony was conducted in the unusual format:  journalists and members of the newspaper's editorial office acted the roles which were not typical of them: they answered questions asked by the event participants rather than asked questions themselves.    

Tatyana Lysova, Editor-in-Chief of Vedomosti daily, said:
“Sometimes the companies, which did not get high ranking, announce that they will not participate in the project next year... However, those who decide not to take risks and not to participate in the ranking, they will not be able to benchmark themselves against others and to understand how the industry is developing... One should benchmark itself against others, at least, every 12 months - otherwise they would have no opportunities for growth.”

In closing the seminar, the project organisers and partners pointed out that the participation in the project is free of charge, and that all materials, instructions, application forms and questionnaires will be available on the Donors Forum's website in the next few days for downloading.

The organisers requested the participants to ask all questions regarding the participation in the project by calling at the following telephone number: +7 499 978 5993 or by writing an e-mail at the following address: Corporateleader@donorsforum.ru.