Culture of interaction

Following the Foundation mission to bring together active and creative professionals, we pay special attention to building trustworthy, sincere and equal relations with non-profit organizations and humanitarian leaders.

Our aspiration for open communication was embodied in the decision of the team to analyze our principles of interaction with partners to study the communication style of colleagues and based on the findings develop standards for interaction with grantees and partners.

The Foundation has always paid special attention to establishing sustainable partnerships with NGOs. Constant increase in the scale of activities, expansion of programs, attraction of new target audiences, including the adoption of the “New Strategic Vision” in 2016, required a systematic analysis and improvement of approaches to interaction in order to maintain the traditions, culture and ethics of communication that have been developed in the Foundation during significant expansion of partners and beneficiaries due to both the emergence of the anti-crisis competitions of 2020 and the extension of grants.

One of the first steps towards such an approach was a study of the interaction quality with partners conducted by the Strategic Communications Agency at the request of the Foundation at the end of 2020. 

The combination of in-depth interviews and online surveys of a wider audience made it possible to develop an understanding of how the participants of the competitions, grantees, partners evaluate interaction with the Foundation; understanding of partners’ expectations and needs from such interaction, their wishes for further cooperation and improvement of the interaction. 

The Foundation’s next move on this path was to explore the world's best practices for effective partnership between grant-giving organizations and their grantees. In 2021 Center for Philanthropy Development presented a review “Analysis of Grant-Giving Foundations’ Activities: Interaction with Partners and Grantees” on this particular issue. 

The study noticed a gradual transition from the traditional “donor-beneficiary” pattern of relations between the grant-givers and the grantees to a partnership model of equal parties. The demand for this interaction model only increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The review offered possible answers to the questions of how are the processes of interaction and communication between the leading grant-giving organizations and their grantees organized; how do they ensure openness, and where are its boundaries; what solutions and tools allow professionals to bridge the mission of a donor organization with its activities; and other relevant questions.

The Foundation’s work to study the best practices of communication between grant-giving organizations and grantees, as well as to study the nature of the Foundation’s interaction with grantees and partners, has become a new standard “Culture of Interaction”.