www.macfound.org

About us

Our mission: We provide professional support for civic initiatives.

NGO School, Foundation for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations is the largest resource center in Russia which provides comprehensive consulting support to organizations undertaking civic initiatives. Our main goal is to provide legal, financial and organizational advice and create opportunities for partner cooperation and further development of the nonprofit sector in Russia.

Over the 10 years, NGO School Foundation’s “alumni” have managed to accomplish a great many of crucial changes. The number of nonprofit organizations in Russia has increased from several hundreds to over 300,000. More than three million volunteers are involved in their activities. Around 30 million people have become beneficiaries of Russian NGOs.

NGO School Foundation is a team of experts in the field of project management, organizational management, financial administration, law, psychology, fundraising, and public relations. Our experts are creative and active people who believe that civil society plays a critical role in the course of Russia’s development.

How it all started…

At the end of the 1990s, when the Russian non-profit sector was still very young, leaders of the non-profit organizations were facing a number of problems: How do I establish and register and an NGO? How do I pay taxes? How do we organize our operations to make them most efficient? Where can I get money and what is the most expedient way to allocate it?

The need for updated information and professional training was so urgent that a decision was made to create a stable structure able to address these issues. This is how NGO School entered upon the scene. Established in 1996 with support from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF-Russia) and UK Department for International Development (DFID), in the first phase of its development NGO School conducted a survey of needs of Russian non-profit organizations; this study helped to understand the demand for professional training courses and allowed to create an efficient training scheme.

Representatives of officially registered Russian non-profit organizations became participants of the seminars and trainings. Most sessions were conducted in Moscow free of charge; NGO School also covered accommodation and, in some cases, travel expenses. The Expert Council was formed to select trainees on a competitive basis. Throughout the project time span, the two-week Foundation Course for NGO leaders enjoyed the highest demand; the competition to enter it would reach 8 applicants per slot.

During the first year, NGO representatives were interested in the basic questions, e.g. What is the third sector? What sources of funding are available? What is a grant application and how do I write a project proposal? What is the legal and financial framework for non-profit activities? Nowadays, we are observing significant changes in the needs of the third sector. Today, NGO staff seek to improve their managerial, legal and accounting expertise, acquire new fundraising and PR techniques, and develop their business communication skills.

Now NGO School has changed its status from a project-based entity to a fully operational organization - an independent educational, information and consulting center for representatives of nonprofit organizations and also for businesses carrying out charity activities - called NGO School Foundation.

Our activities

At present NGO School Foundation operates in five major fields.

Consulting Services – we provide comprehensive advice on legal, financial, and fundraising issues that may arise in nonprofit organizations. NGO School Foundation is the only such service in Russia providing high-quality consulting support to NGOs free of charge.

Trainings and Educational Programs – we offer short-term and foundation courses for nonprofit organizations on issues of public administration, marketing, and use of innovative technologies. We are now developing a much broader range of courses and searching to investigate certain topics in finer detail.

Information Services – we provide up-to-date information about changes taking place in the third sector and are planning to launch an online library containing the most important documents and resources on various aspects of nonprofit activity.

Developing International Partnerships – we play an active role in establishing international cooperation links allowing Russian NGOs to become not only mere grant recipients, but also equal opportunity partners.

Developing Social Projects and Promoting Civic Initiatives – we design and examine social projects for particular regions and businesses carrying out charity activities. The high level of expertise allows our team to create social programs which cater for the needs of businesses, governmental institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

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