Competitive Grants: Joint Development Opportunity for Companies and Social Activists

We have managed to increase the number of people involved. Whereas last year we provided no more than 10,000 people with all forms of grant support, now we have 17,000 applications in the first season alone — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".

Rosmolodezh holds such wonderful competitions for organizations that hold competitions. This is very interesting — Raphail Mahmutshin, Leading Specialist, TATNEFT Grants.

A competition is held for grant platforms. Twice a year, we give everyone the opportunity to participate in the distribution of grant funds. Of course, distribution doesn’t just mean that we give money to someone and that person further distributes it at his/her own discretion. No, this is an opportunity to turn up as part of some planned event and propose that grants from Rosmolodezh be issued at this event — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".

If we’re talking about what’s important for us, it would be that coverage is not only for students, but also for young people under 35 years old — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".

It’s very difficult to identify good projects, because when the tools used in grant procedures aren’t properly arranged, there can be a lot of applications and you might miss some. They might not always be given due attention. Grant procedures allow for structuring a system of independent expertise and systematizing the approach to considering projects — Raphail Mahmutshin, Leading Specialist, TATNEFT Grants.

People come in with an idea that’s potentially interesting, but they can’t package it properly. As a result, it’s difficult for them to get grant support because experts don’t understand what kind of project it is and how it fits together — Dmitry Bazhenov, Deputy General Director for Commerce, State Specialized Design Institute; Author, Pulsation Social Project.

Each grant involves serious paperwork and, in fact, the first fear that comes over any grant recipient is: how will I report in the future? — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".

A big step for [grant competition] participants is to not be afraid to express their ideas because many of them initially set imaginary barriers for themselves: that their idea is somehow different, unworthy of a grant, and that they shouldn’t even mention it at all. You should! Someone will help you repackage it and structure it correctly. And, perhaps, it will generally turn into a huge project, including on a nationwide scale — .

Starting this year, we have been trying to pay a lot of attention to collaboration with big business, and with business as a whole, because we see cases when various participants in a grant competition developed within their own corporations after receiving a grant — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".

The first step that I think we could take now – it’s a big one – would be to hold a separate industry-specific nomination in our competition specifically for business – for small and medium-sized entrepreneurship [...] so that business representatives can come and have the opportunity to take a grant to develop their own team, its expertise, and project skills, including by launching various projects themselves — Ekaterina Bogomaz, Head of Regional Cooperation Department, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Coordinator of the Direction "Rosmolodezh.Grants".