June 20, 2014. The charity work done by for-profit organizations based in the Urals (as well as by those located in the rest of Russia) has been evolving in an extensive way and needs to be made more efficient, Director of CAF Russia (Moscow) Maria Chertok said at a press conference on charity projects in the Urals.

Now according to the findings of a research on corporate charity projects conducted by Expert Ural Analytical Center among for-profit organizations, corporate volunteer work remains the prevalent form of charity. The most wide-spread projects are financial aid to specific families or people, trips to orphanages, urban improvements, blood donation, guided tours, and seminars. A very small number of companies practice pro bono, that is, professional services that are free of charge.

According to Chertok, corporate volunteer work became topical in 2008 as a relatively inexpensive way of aiding others.

‘Volunteer work gives a company a feeling that it is participating actively in charity work, yet the company’s own interests usually come to the foreground: team building, improving the company’s internal and external image are just a few. The issue of the good of society is only of secondary importance. One worrying thing is the quality of this charity work: we can see some activity yet nothing is done to incorporate the expert component into this. We do not see any evaluation of these projects in terms of social efficiency and productivity, which means that charity work, despite the fact that it is evolving, remains within the contour of a business’s internal agenda that mainly has to do with creating good publicity. However, there is no agenda relating to important social change,’ Chertok said.