Drivers of mass involvement of participants in academic fundraising

Abstract

The authors explore the best Russian and foreign practices of academic fundraising. The key problem of the study is the search for factors that increase the number of participants in academic fundraising in modern Russia. The authors focus on student philanthropy – a phenomenon that is not represented in modern Russian practice and, accordingly, in the scholarly discourse of Russian authors. The study has revealed that the formation of a culture of donations in the interests of the prosperity of one’s alma mater in financial or non-financial forms is excluded from the modern context of the formation of educational content and students’ competencies in Russia. In-depth interviews with employees of Russian universities’ endowments and a literature review conducted during the study made it possible to identify the common best practice of Russian and foreign universities in terms of mass fundraising – the use of social networks. The authors tested and confirmed a hypothesis that there is a close connection between the activities of endowments and alumni associations as holders of up-to-date databases of student and alumni contacts at ten leading Russian universities. The analysis of the financial performance of Russian universities’ alumni associations that are legal entities revealed the unique experience of entrepreneurial activities of the St. Petersburg State University Alumni Association, including the sale of souvenirs. The authors described a unique experiment of Tomsk State University on the creation of the UniProfi platform to promote students’ employment in graduates’ companies as a promising factor in increasing the number of participants in academic fundraising. The authors also presented a negative experience of starting a new practice by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology endowment: “Make a will in favor of MIPT!”. The novelty of the study lies in the identification of youth fashion for social entrepreneurship both in Russia and abroad as a new factor in increasing the number of participants in academic fundraising. The authors propose to consider student philanthropy and youth social entrepreneurship in close relationship with the growth of the cumulative financial and non-financial effects.