Topical issues of financial support of the non-profit sector in the region (on the example of “presidential grants”)

In recent years, the country»s economy has undergone significant changes. There is aredistribution of roles and functions between its agents. New actors are involved in socio-economic processes. Socially oriented non-profit organizations are among these subjects. The state provides them with financial support, the volume of which has increased many times over the past few years. Federal support is of high importance, especially for organizations implementing projects in the regions of the country, for which such support is provided by external social investments. In this regard, the paper examines the practice of financial support for projects of socially oriented non-profit organizations in the region through “presidential grants”; the authors also consider a set of interrelated issues. The article emphasizes the relevance of the study on this topic for the Vologda Oblast, which is one of the leading regions of the Northwestern Federal District in the number of projects that receive financial support annually. The author reveals the disproportion in the distribution of support funds within the region between organizations registered in municipal districts and urban districts of the Vologda Oblast. At the same time, the author emphasizes special importance of “presidential grants” for organizations implementing projects in the territories that have “modest” budgetary opportunities. The author analyzes information openness of socially oriented non-profit organizations in the Internet; the results show that there is a low level of transparency of organizations-recipients of support, which, in the author’s opinion, isan obstacle to improving the efficiency of civil society structures, and also has an impact on the assessment of their activities by the population. The author considers it necessary to develop an all-Russian standard of openness of information on the activities of socially oriented non-profit organizations that attract funding for their projects. According to the author, this measure will help improve the quality of financing socially oriented non-profit organizations from the budget, attract additional social investment in the non-profit sector, and contribute to solving urgent problems in the social sphere.