New Russian Foundation to support social entrepreneurship

Yevgenia Shokhina to head new foundation to support social projects

22.08.2017

The organisation will support social projects and start-ups, and help create the necessary conditions to develop social entrepreneurship in Russia.

In an interview with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Yevgenia Shokhina said that the Foundation would offer financial assistance and any necessary training materials to those already working in this field or planning to do so in the future.

Shokhina is a former president of the business school of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. As director of a foundation supporting social projects, she plans to develop social entrepreneurship ˜so that the widest possible range of groups is drawn in, from young people to pensioners”.

The head of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Svetlana Chupsheva, commented:˜I am sure that Yevgenia Shokhina’s professional experience, her wide circle of business contacts and partners, including those in the non-commercial sector, will help her fulfil the mission of the Foundation to maximum effect.”

According to Shokhina, formulating an understanding of the meaning of social entrepreneurship is particularly important. It is vital to identify who is in a position to undertake the work, and what kind of business may apply for the relevant benefits.

Social projects will be financed from extra-budgetary sources on a repayment basis. It is predicted that the average loan for social projects will be 2.5 million roubles.  Funds will be released for a period of between one and three years. TASS reports that the following people propose to offer their support to the project: president of the Skolkovo Foundation,Viktor Vekselberg;  CEO of  Qiwi, Sergei  Solonin; chairman of the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank), Sergei Gorkov; as well as representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Health.

A board of trustees and a supervisory council for the Foundation will be formed shortly.

President Vladimir Putin earlier approved the creation of a foundation to support social projects at a meeting of the Supervisory Council of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives in Petrozavodsk. The meeting took place at the business forum Karelia: Points of Growth on 26 July. High profile experts and significant entrepreneurs with experience in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) confirmed the need to create a foundation to support social business.

Leaders of the Agency for Social Information and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, which deal with important programmes for non-commercial organisations, concluded a cooperation agreement at the beginning of June. The agencies intend to promote and publicise NGOs, social entrepreneurship, charities and volunteering, and to encourage partnerships in different spheres.

In April 2017, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives presented the first project accelerator for entrepreneurs. Participants represented 50 projects in different aspects of education, health, social services, culture and sport. The projects were selected from over 800 applications. In particular, the pilot accelerator included Surdo-online – a long- distance sign-language interpreting project; the Golova Company, which produces head-dresses for women undergoing chemotherapy; and the Indance Company, which organises dance shows to assist the rehabilitation of disabled people.

 

Biographical note

Yegenia Shokhina, PhD (Political Science) is the daughter of politician and economist, Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

2003 – graduated from the Department of Applied Political Science at the State University – Higher School of Economics.

2005 – MBA in Political and Business Communications at the Institute of Communication Management, National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

2011-2912 – Executive MBA programme Innovative management and the energy industry at the Institute of Communication Management, National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

2016 – Corporate Lawyer programme at the Federal scientific research centre The Russian Government Institute of Law and Comparative Jurisprudence.

2001-2006 – worked for a range of commercial organisations.

2007-2011 – Head of the Management Centre for Corporate Measures, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

2015-2017 –  Deputy Head of the Tulsk Regional Government Office of the Russian Federation.

2010 to date –  Editor in Chief of the journal Business in Russia Journal.

2013-2017 –  President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Business School.

Yevgenia is founder of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs School for Children, an educational project for school children, aged 8-14, aiming to encourage professional orientation and entrepreneurship.

Winner of the VI All-Russian Prize for Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Social Entrepreneurship.

Commended by the Minister for Economic Development of the Russian Federation for her participation in the planning and implementation of social economic policy based on the State-Private Co-Partnership system (2012).

Regularly supports the Russian Birch (Russkaya Bereza) Foundation (since 2007). Organises initiatives and charity events in support of sick children.

Candidate for membership of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation (2017), specialising in Support of the Family, Children and Motherhood, and Work with Young People.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2017/08/22/shohina-fond-po-podderzhke-sotsialnyh-proektov/

 

 

 

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