01.08.2019

The Friends Foundation, in partnership with the Higher School of Economics, opens enrolment in a student educational programme for leaders of non-profit organisations on August 1.

The purpose of the educational programme is to train leaders and managers of NGOs in modern management methods. The programme introduces modern applied work tools, helps integrate the latest approaches to project management, acts as an accelerator of NGO projects and creates a community of NGO professionals.

Student enrolment will last until September 15. You can apply on the programme’s website.

The procedure for selecting new students in 2019 will include the submission of a questionnaire, a video interview and for the first time an in-person interview with the founders of the Friends Foundation. Classes will begin in November and will last eight months. The programme includes eight modules, final defence and an international internship. The course is designed for 30 students. Tuition is paid, but grants are provided according to the results of selection and interviews.

‘All our projects are aimed at professionalising and creating charity infrastructure,’ says Dmitry Yampolsky, one of the founders of the Friends Foundation. ‘Institutions that train professional staff are becoming part of the infrastructure of any industry. They are responsible for the development of standards and the supply of specialists to the market. This, in particular, is one of the main tasks of the Moscow school of professional philanthropy’.

The Friends Foundation launched the first course in Russia on NGO management in the autumn of 2018, with 72 speakers, five days of full-time intensive work per month and more than 200 academic hours. 168 applications for training from 23 cities across Russia and its neighbouring countries were submitted, or 5.6 people per place. The professional community almost immediately unofficially designated this course as the first MBA for NGOs. In July 2019, 26 first-year students successfully completed the course.

Moscow School of Professional Philanthropy is a long-term strategic project of the Friends Foundation. The plans for the development of the school include the establishment of the first faculty of philanthropy in Russia and a research centre dealing with issues of the non-profit sector.

The Friends Foundation was founded in 2015 by three friends, Gor Nakhapetyan, Yan Yanovsky and Dmitry Yampolsky, to help the charity sector in Russia become more professional. The fund attracts successful managers from various sectors to work at NGOs, and through the training of their employees, creates platforms and mechanisms for both fundraising and successful cooperation with business and the state.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2019/08/01/moskva-shkola-professionalnoj-filantropii-nabor/