Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the rapid development of endowment funds for non-governmental and non-commercial organizations, the president's budget address said on Wednesday.
"The effectiveness of endowments is not evident even in the organizations where they were formed," the budget address said. He referred to the federal law outlining the procedures for creating endowment funds which came into force in late 2006.
According to Russian law, an endowment can be part of a non-commercial organization's assets, consisting of donations and managed by a company to generate revenues.
The law stipulates that endowment funds can be created in non-commercial organizations dealing with education, science, health care, the arts, social support and sports (except professional sports). The major donors who contribute to the funds have the right to control how the funds they donate are spent.
"We should analyze the situation and take measures to fix it, in terms of diversifying the kinds of charity that can be used for creating endowment funds, as well as adding not only money to the fund, but other assets," the address said.
The current law allows only money to be donated to endowment funds. The government is reviewing the possibility of donating securities and property.
